My last car, 2014 BMW 335 xdrive, loved it and the manual was super fun, had it for 10 years and 150k miles. Its one real flaw (common with other AWD BMWs) is the transfer case which starts to shudder under acceleration. It can go for a long time before finally giving up, and I had it replaced at 80k miles for a cost of just under $4k.
5-ish years later and I'm nearing 150k miles, the signs of upcoming failure are back. I really didn't want to give up the car, but had to be realistic. I didn't get a quote for a second replacement but after 5 years of inflation it was probably at least $5k, the car was worth $8k. That fix would have gotten me another 70-80k miles, so another 4-5 years of driving, but at that mileage what else would potentially come up (even though the powertrain was super reliable) that could make that investment a complete waste? And if I was prolonging my ownership for that much longer I'd want to do some other refreshes of parts that were showing their age i.e. faded exterior plastics and gummy interior rubber.
It just wasn't worth it and I ended up trading it in, but I still question whether I should have traded my convertible instead and kept the BMW as a weekend car. I love my current car no doubt, but that BMW was so perfect.
Comments