[jzcrna]

I am keeping mine until is costs too much to hold on to it. I purposely bought a BMW to last a long time and provide me with years of luxury. I had a Honda Pilot which would have lasted me a long time, but talk about BORING, and uncomfortable as well as dull to drive....I am confident this one will last a while (Hopefully).

[IRL-MN]

I'm planning on an E92 next spring. Would prefer to trade my '06 while it still has some warranty left. Every little helps when it comes to getting screwed on a trade in value!

[Solonng]

lease first and buy at the end..i want to see how the turbo engine holds up after 3 years

[stevenqdz]

try to keep it more than 5+years well thats also wat i say to myself about my 06 eclipse and 06 evo.... lets see if this one could make it pass 3 year..

[silversurfer]

Til the warranty expires.

[tyler9595]

My lease is up in October...I was going to order an 09 335i e90. But, now reconsidering...29.2 is making my car drive like a neon

I think with any car (german, american, or japanese, etc.) I woudl expect to have some breakage and/or extensive maintenance during the 3-4 year period after warranty expires. I also think that as a general rule, it's a trade-off. My 335 is a company car and I lease a new car every 24 mo. So, there's always a nasty-big monthly payment, but I dont have any maintenance cost (and I dont have to put up with a car that has lots of squeaks and rattles). Of course, other folks that keep cars for much longer periods have no payments, but have some maintenance and repair costs.

FWIW, if the most important thing to me was that my car has to last 8 years with no big $ outlays after the warranty expires, I would get a Honda Accord or CR-V or something (i.e not a boosted bimmer). My 07 335i will probably be leaking fluids and rattling like a mother f'er 5 yrs from now.

[TambourineMan]

I usually have run my prior (non-BMW) cars to the ground. But for the most part they have been Japanese which last longer and are cheaper to maintain at high mileages (I used to drive 23,000 per year)

Since BMW's are reported to be expensive to maintain when the warranty expires, I am going to monitor the extent of problems with a first gen gas turbo engine and the fuel pump and probably extent the warranty to 100,000 and then decide whether to bail or not. I hope to be able to keep it for a long time.

[Majikthese42]

At the moment BMW is offering to lease a 328iT @ $509/month with $2500 down -- about $6941 per year.

I can't imagine anything short of a Ferrari requiring $6941 in maintenance and repairs annually.

[StarrDlux]

my tco on the 2002 audi was $580/month actualized. that included mods to make me happy and PM the way i would own a car. it was great until the 100K/7y warranty went out now i need a valve cover gasket, radiator, and timing belt/water pump, probably some new dogs (tires), and little things. about $2000. so i retired it for the lease and it stands as the 2ndary car. it may get 200-300 miles a year now but having a family does require 2 cars in some cases

for some reason i think that this car will have to be returned at end of lease because:
1. whose going to warranty it (not dinan) to 100K/7years. bi-turbo cars are exotic motors and based on my research on the B5 S4 2.7TT the extended warranties were extremely difficult to come by and expensive. That car had no immobilizer so you could swap chipped/stock ecu's all day long took 5 minutes tops.
2. service: bmw charges out the butt for service. so do independents. On the contrary the audi had the venerable 1.8T which every VAG shop on the planet could rebuild from scratch. Good old simple $2695 (reman) ZF tiptronic and plenty of crashed cars to pick parts from. bmw shops are nothing like VAG shops. i don't see $60/hr to fix on E9x anywhere.

Looking over my lease it seems like i'd be paying the same amount for a new bmw at the end of 36 months if i were to buy it. And i hate paying tax on a used car georgia buyers dont pay tax on person to person buys. 25-26K at 7% is alot of cash in the toilet

anyways. so to drive that 2002 audi at 104K and using simple math models on parts you know will need replacing plus incidentals etc; came out to 580/month. expensive but then again i know people paying $580/month to drive a nissan altima.

I think you can all agree on interior alone;; once you go german you can't go back

let's take a scenario: out of warranty, turbo chews itself, throws metal into the engine taking it out. Can you swallow the cost to replace plus downtime? plus possible unreliability of rebuild? (lest not forget modding in this question)

Transmission blows hole in casing for whatever reason? Can you swallow the cost?

Someone post up the cost to get a 7 year/100K warranty on a typical 48K optioned 3 series and factor the maintenance required to ensure the warranty is upheld (bmw warranty would be best). plus of course add in oil changes between their 15K interval just because no owner in their right mind would do 15K for longevity, and throw in new dogs (tires),brakes,other wear items not covered.

i'd like to know for real.

[3urger328i]

until my dad decides to buy me an M3.

[TurboFan]

I will not own a BMW out of warranty. To damn expensive.