New_Breadfruit8692

Maybe to the driveway of the station...

Regular maintenance and babying it when cold.

Possible. My car takes full European Synthetic (BMW) and not really a problem because you can use any synthetic if you go to change oil and your preferred brand is not available. There are American synthetics which are compatible.

It kind of depends on where it was stored while not running those years. If it was garage kept in a temperate area and you replace the oil and other fluids, probably the belts, wiper blades, tires, I would have gone the extra mile and had the oil changed again after one brief drive to get it up to temperature. Metal for the most part doesn't care if it is moving or stationary, in a closed environment like a motor where there is very little moisture and everything is coated with oil or a varnish from years of driving, but point where metal move means metal on metal contact, not running it that long means the oil is gone from those contact points so you need to baby it, and the oil that has sat for 3 years is not particularly a good lubricant so as soon as possible you want to change it. I would if possible have changed it cold where it was stored, put in adequate oil of the cheapest the auto parts store stocks, with new filter, then drive it just till I can get it to the dealership so it is just up to running temperature, and have it changed for a better oil and filter, then have them grease the points of lubrication in the rest of the car. Check the belt, anything that can rot or stretch. Frankly after three years I am surprised it started for you because gas starts degrading in about 6 months, if stored in a mild place without weather extremes if can last longer but three years is a while. I would probably have the gas filter changed, and injectors cleaned as well. The one thing I would still worry about is gaskets though not nearly as worried as with the fluids, and there is no economical way to change those so no point fretting over them. I have seen cars that sat well over a decade and ran well. My foster parents had a lawyer relative who was granted part of an estate that in the garage of this house in Oakland was a 1958 Chrysler Windsor we were handed that was to be my first car when I turned 16. That was 1973. It only had about 17,000 miles on it, the old lady who had owned it had a stroke or something so it sat in the garage more than 10 years. It too started right up as if it had parked in there the night before. We drove it home over 350 miles and to this day I am pretty shocked those 1958 whitewall tires did not blow on the interstate. But I doubt it ever got to freezing in that garage, nor over about 75℉. By the way I declined the car, I could not afford the gas for such a monster in 1973 when fuel tripled and quadrupled within the same year.

Mine does because I get it changed at the BMW dealership which does report to them, but most places do not. Carfax reporting requires a subscription. Why pay so you can give other people data?

DIY oil changes, and many if not most lube shops do not report to Carfax. It could have been getting monthly oil changes and the only ones that show up are the ones reported, usually by your dealership. If you go elsewhere or do it on your own that won't get reported. If you buy a used car and the oil looks dark and dirty then that is a bad sign, but most places will change the oil before selling it to you anyway so you can't really know. The fact that only one shows up on Carfax is utterly meaningless.

Ever heard the term "beat you like a rented mule?" I would avoid it even though I have treated rentals like other people's property that you have to respect, because not everyone has great ethics.

I know that the BMW 740i in Germany comes in a long or shorter wheelbase but the shorter is not available in the US. Mine is considered a limousine in Germany the shorter wheelbase is not. My 2019 is a G12 with 126.4 inch wheelbase, but in other markets outside the us there is a G11 as well with 120.9 inches. It has adaptive air suspension at all four corners. What a joy that will be when they break. I already replaced the front thrust arm bushings, that was bad enough.

I feel that way too with my BMW, I stop short of having a shrine to it with candles and framed photos of each I have owned. Commissioned painting and such.

I was sort of down on BMW but then my next door neighbor used to just go on an d on about how great they were... then one day he pissed me off so my revenge was to go down to BMW and buy a new 2009 328i HT convertible. It worked too, he was green with envy. But then I also discovered they are not overpriced or overrated, it was a dream car. I now have a 2019 740i, my fourth BMW and what another redditor called a German Luxobarge. I don't care, it is the best car I ever owned, and I bought it as a one owner used for $32k with only 30,100 miles on it, clean Carfax, and clean everything else too, I never saw a cleaner car even on the showroom floor. For sure it was a Florida garaged car that he must have spent all his time detailing down to screws under the hood, and the accordion rubber gasket hoses that connect the door equipment to the power and air. Everything looked like it just came off the assembly line.

They are useful in places where you have hills, snow, curves, low traction type environments and if it does save your life that one time great, but a good deal of the nation is not in such an environment, particularly in Florida where there is at least 9 actual curves, it snowed once in Tallahassee 40 years ago, and the closest thing to a hill is the speed bumps in a school zone. It just is not worth the extra expense and headaches of AWD to have that here. If people who situationally think AWD is only rarely needed or needed just in winters they can buy something that has a transaxle where they can shit on the fly from rear to 4 wheel drive when it is needed. I think though this will eventually be a moot point as EVs with 4 motors take over the market.

In 2000 in Florida I bought a new SS Camaro convertible but shortly after accepted a job in New York City. A friend on a large estate about 50 miles north of Manhattan said I had to accept this offer and said I could live at his estate as long as I wanted to. My stepfather had lived there on and off from his teen years till he died of brain cancer in his early fifties. So I said yes, and moved north. Well the house had a near half mile of driveway that was on a mountain side, and I swear to god it was uphill in both directions! Then it started snowing in October and did not stop till April. I commuted into the city on the Metro North but still had to drive to and from the station at Brewster North. The slope up to the house was gentle enough till you got to the property line, but at the start of the driveway I just had to abandon the car because the driveway was too steep for a 5.7 liter LS1 V8 with RWD, it was absolutely not possible to get up that hill with those wide street tires and that much HP without incident, I never got further than about 50 frustrating feet. And, as I found out getting down after it snowed because the ground was clear when I parked in the evening but was like an ice arena in the morning was even less safe. So most of the winter it had to be parked on a turn out at the base of the driveway and snow plows LOVED abusing it. They saw the Florida plates and went to snow plow driver Nirvana.

It is because AWD adds to initial expense of the vehicle up to as high as $3k, costs you gas mileage of 1-3 MPG, is more complex for maintenance, and requires replacement of all 4 tires at the same time even if a couple/few have several more months left in them. It is overkill in places where it does not snow regularly.

Yesterday I saw a local ad by owner for a 1999 Mercedes C class (before Merc went to shit) with 77k garage kept miles on it for $5k OBO. That would be worth such a repair, but the ad says one owner, no accidents, impeccable maintenance records, and that would be one I would jump on if I did not already have a great BMW.

No. That sucker is totaled. Because it is at that point where the repairs and maintenance is more than the car is worth on an annual or semi annual basis.

Wow scheduling with the shop, such a burden. Dial phone number, make appointment. I cannot change my oil because I can't get under my car, not even close, and I am slender. I am not risking a car that cost $100,000 on the possibility I will make a mistake, getting dirty, and then what do you do with the used oil? Take that slop to a shop for proper (legal) disposal. And that is great till you get there and see the cap has come off the jug and it all over the inside of your vehicle. And spills on the garage floor when you undo the drain plug and it shoots out like it is under 100 pounds of pressure for the first quart. And burn your fingers because you did not wait long enough before loosening the nut. How do you get under the vehicle? Us jacks? That sounds safe. There is no exact data saying how many people are killed each year changing their own oil, but there is data about how many people end up in the hospital from jack failure while doing DIY car service at home, nearly 5,000 per year. "Research shows that ***annually***, approximately 4,822 ***people*** in the U.S. are rushed to emergency rooms with injuries from ***car*** jack malfunctions..." I could not even buy the oil change kit with filter and 7 liters of fully euro synthetic oil for under $1000 that is what I usually pay one time per year for an oil change at BMW. They are doing it at a discount because they want a crack at selling you a new vehicle, but I also like that when the car goes up on the rack the tech goes over it with a fine tooth comb inspecting it for potential problems and it is videoed and texted to me. He can see future trouble long before I can and I would not even know what to look for anyway other than obvious leakage. Also my car has a full skidplate from bumper to bumper. There are all of about 6 or 7 inches of clearance. People who boastfully claim how independent they are by changing their own oil are really dicks and nobody likes that judgmental attitude.

Should have bought a BMW, the waiting area has catered muffins and gourmet coffees, it is clean and and they look after you. They also stand behind their work and in all the years I have owned BMWs I never once had a repair or service failure. I did have a Dodge Duranged-Go once though that I took to Dodge for an oil change. It was dirt cheap because they had a special to get people to come look at the new inventory and try to get you to buy. They left the oil filler cap off the engine. CHRIST what a mess, everything under the hood was soaked in oil. I got home and saw oil on the ground and smelled burning oil. That was the oil getting on the exhaust. I opened it and there was the oil filler cap on the battery shelf. I replaced the cap and went back to Dodge and asked them to steam clean it all back the way it was when I went in. They refused.

Yeah well my other schmuck is a trained and competent employee of BMW, he knows more about oil changes than I ever will. So you know how to change your own oil without making a mistake, good for you, if I make one I ruin a car that was $100,000 and if the dealership does they replace the engine.

My dishwasher broke in January. Cheap American junk with vital parts in the hot water and drying heat made of plastic. The replacements were sold as a kit for $150 and I could have fixed the one roller that broke off and dropped the upper rack onto the lower rack, but then all the rest of the hubs made of plastic for the rollers are just as old and tortured by harsh internal conditions in the machine and also about to break. And the garbage dispenser for the Jet Dry did not last one year and that whole assembly costs $150 and requires hours of work disassembling the door. My answer? Fuck it, going to Home Depot and getting a new one. And a German one at that because I looked and all the American brands had plastic wheel hubs designed to break while the Bosch had stainless steel. Hell with it, pay the tariff and let someone else break their backs trying to install it because the flippers who sold you the house had to cut away some of the floor tiles to wedge it in.

At BMW they offer rides to the mall or a restaurant for lunch, but they have so many nice catered snacks who needs to go spend money on lunch? It is fun to play with the sales people also, go give that new 7 series and eyeful and watch them jumping up and down trying to tell you why you can afford a $100,000 car.

My oil changes are between $100 and $150 depending on if BMW sent a coupon for a discount lately, but then it is only annually, and 7 liters of full euro synthetic oil. Also has a funky (good, but strange) filter system that is not a screw on all in one canister. The hard part is there is no dipstick, and no clearance to get at the drain plug, and even if there were I am too old and disabled to get under the car. Better to just drive to the dealership and get it done right, while I sit in the comfortable and clean dealership enjoying the catered muffins and gourmet coffees. $100 per year is not going to kill me, and it costs almost that much to buy the oil change kit my car requires. And really, when you consider how important oil is to the longevity of your engine it gives me peace of mind that is worth way more than $100 or $150.

They are fugly.

I bought a 2019 740i that was $32k with only 30,100 miles on it and now has 43,300 in 2024. They are out there and I have found it to be one of the most reliable cars I have owned in my 54 years of driving.

Came to say this, my first heated seats and wheel were in a 2009 new BMW, I now consider cars without them to be barbaric.

Stellantis. Could be a great car maker but fail after fail after fail. They do not make decisions based on what we want but what Wall Street expects which is a bad motor vehicle. They will not be around in 3 or 4 years.

Sounds like rentals that are overstock at rental companies, trying to get rid of too much inventory.

Mine will go full speed in what you think is a light drizzle for you but I am following a vehicle throwing up spray that is nearly invisible to us but the optical sensor that controls the wipers sees millions of tiny reflecting points of light you do not, and they switch up to high speed on their own. I could shut off the auto system but then I have to control it myself. And since I do not care what other drivers think about it... But I also lived in Oregon where it rains a lot, and they really want you to use your headlights when the wipers are going. I just learned that is a really good thing to do and so I sort of hate it when others drive on rainy days without their lights. It makes you go from near invisible to unable to miss seeing you.

I had a junk call from them even and I have not filed a tax return since 2008, my income is tax exempt, and I live in a state without an income tax. These vultures are pushing so hard it is easy to think they are starving and about to go out of business.

I got my permit in 1973 just as the oil embargo was starting so the first time I put gas in it was 33.9 cents per gallon. Within a few months it was $1.359. I do remember though there was a car wash in Lincoln Nebraska when I was about 10 or 11 Mom would stop at during the gas wars there, they had a gas dispenser that was like the early days of self service and you could pit a dime in and get a gallon of gas out. There was a full serve station across the street where it was 12.9 cents.

You can enjoy driving without being dangerous. The roads in the mountains of southern Oregon and northern California are a driver's dream come true. I started driving there in 1973 and never had an accident in my life, nor caused any. But a good deal of that was the excellent car, a 328i with M Sport suspension. And it helped that those were the highways I learned to drive on so knew every rise and curve and grade. And was extra safe and cautious in wet weather.

I know what you are saying OP, I went from a BMW with M sport suspension in northern California and southern Oregon to Florida, a 600 mile sand bar. It is so flat and straight the state is considering raising the speed limit to 80. But, at a speed limit of 70 we already set cruise control to 80 because everyone knows here that it is what the signs say +10. If they raise it to 80 we will just go 90 putting us close to the superspeeder law that is so harsh, if you get caught going 100 or more. And the funny thing about going fast is that on flat straight roads after you went 80 for 20 or 30 miles going 70 feels like crawling. The way the 55 mph speed limit did for decades after the fuel crisis was over, it was too large a revenue generator to get rid of.

Domestic auto production is all about volume, markets of scale. Classic car design is a huge gamble and rarely profitable.

I am from northern California and in San Francisco it really is a must for the reason you mention. You really have to put the brake on before engaging Park because if you do not then the entire weight of the vehicle is resting om that transmission pin. It may hold, but good luck getting it out of park without damaging something. On the other hand, I now live in Florida which is as flat as a table top, and my 740i has an electronic push button parking brake. There are more chances that I will for some reason find I cannot disengage the parking brake than it will ever benefit me to engage it because cars on flat ground usually do not roll when you have parked them.

I do not. For one thing these days the brake is as likely to be electrical not mechanically connected, so a breakdown/dead battery may mean you cannot release the brake. The brake should be set on unlevel ground but otherwise I will not. I will say though that I flunked my first driving test in 1974 because one of the things they had us do was was go to a street with a fairly steep grade and parallel park. Parallel parking was stressful enough for a new driver but California was really strict about also setting the brake and curbing the wheels because runaway cars in San Francisco alone cause millions of dollars damage every year. They have had some roll away cars that damaged more than 30 parked vehicles on the way down Gough Street. That street is so steep that nothing is stopping that car till it gets to the bottom. Hitting everything on the way down. So, I had to wait to retake the test because I forgot to set the brake and curb the wheels. The parallel parking went fine though,but part of the stress of it is the block they have you do this on is right in front of the Sheriff's office.

They also have more DUIs than any other make or model, maybe except for the Rover that Tiger Woods drives. One in 22 Ram (2500) drivers have a DUI on their record.

Even an uber would have a hard time putting 75k miles on in a year. That is about 200 miles per day 360 days out of the year, odds are they were not driving it every day but put more miles on it per day when they did use it. I think that if the driving were stop and go, urban ride sharing I would say no, I would not buy it. But if it was someone that drove it 300 miles per day on highways (very long commute?) then not so bad. That is over 1,400 miles a week.

I agree, to handle the load of demand for charging the charging stations would have to be acres of land and you will need something to do for hours while you wait, which is okay f it is charging while you are at work, but in the places where most EV transportation will be needed, that is the urban cores, is also where land is already at a premium. As I say earlier, I grew up about 350 miles to the nearest large urban area. EVs do not make sense at all for people in these empty long range regions. I currently have a BMW 740i and when the tank is completely full it has a range of 535 miles. When that gets low I can stop at a fuel station and "recharge" it and be back on the road in 15 minutes or less and that is going inside to buy a bottle of Pepsi while I am at it. EVs already make sense from that perspective for urban cores. They do not make sense for the dwellers of urban sprawl or rural residents. I do think that well before 2035 there will be much longer ranges comparable to my BMW or better, and charging times that equal gas stations today. Also with more powerful, more reliable propulsion. Much cheaper to build. Look at the Huawei Maextro S800 and the Yasa Mercedes Axial Flux motors. I am not vouching for Chinese manufacturing, quality of interior detail, or the builds and backing of their cars, but if you believe the hype they are putting Rolls Royce or Maybach quality or better into cars that cost less than a new BMW 7 series. And it is not the quality issues I am interested in, it is the technology, because even if these individual cars are not as good as claimed the tech is. These cars are being sold now. They even have great styling. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84v77F5enIo&t=11s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84v77F5enIo&t=11s)

EV infrastructure could be ramped up in urban regions (at least if we stop electing republicans) but it is not going to get done on market forces alone. I have been looking at some of the new EV market advances, particularly in Chinese vehicles not sold in the US that are starting to get mind blowing. 1,000 horsepower, 12 minutes charging times up to 80% capacity, 800 mile range. The Maextro S800 is not going to be for everyone, but it is putting Maybach and Rolls amenities into BMW 7 series priced cars now. And it is the technology that is going to eat the lunch of the ICE vehicle. That could well become widespread 2035, that is still 9 years away. So, it could happen well before that because the hindrances to EV adoption are being solved already. You will not worry as much about charging infrastructure when you get a range of more than 800 miles.

That is true, but like classic cars they will eventually be hobby items not daily drivers. So there will be a niche market for gasoline and parts and customization for a long time. Even the youngest people will still see these things (as curiosities mostly) when they are elderly. But there are more than 275 million ICE vehicles on the road with a collective trillions and trillions of dollars paid for them, they are not going to just one day all get turned in for scrap. I do predict though that due to mass markets of scale gasoline in post EV takeover of the wider market will mean gas at very high prices per gallon. They will probably be trucked to antique car shows rather than driven to them. One thing that will be a hindrance though, many people just do not trust computer driven tech at this point. And that will have to get a lot better before it takes over the market. I mean a lot better, and it will depend heavily on no non connected vehicles on the roads. My last thoughts on it are that government and the insane system of tax credits will have to get ditched. As it is I have an income that tax exempt, so I pay significantly higher price for one than most will, and I am just not willing to buy a vehicle I have to pay $7,500 more for than you do. There are a lot of people in the category of either exempt or too low income to qualify making them playthings for the wealthy and middle class who have enough income to wrote off the incentives against income taxes. That has to go away or about half the people won't even consider getting an EV.

There will always be petrolheads who will not give up the fossil cars, but the mass market is switching to EVs. And I know I have resisted it for the simple reason that I was born and raised in a really remote rural part of the country where there was just never going to be the infrastructure for the EV under the technology that has been available up till now. What makes sense for urban commuters just does not work in empty places with vast distances to cover. But, that is changing and soon range anxiety and hours upon hours of charging times will be over with. Just look into the Mercedes axial flux motor and potential to revolutionize EV propulsion. Then there is the Chinese Meaxtro S800 with features that are more on the level of Rolls Royce at BMW prices, with 864 horsepower, up to 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) of range, with the range extended version at 1,005 HP and charging times that take you from 10% to 80% in just 10 to 12 minutes. It is true that Chinese build quality may not meet expectations as far as trims but it is the technology that has me thinking, those are the sales points that will be filtering into more higher production cars for suburban households, and into vehicles that finally make sense of even rural dwellers. At that point EV will take over markets and the end of the ICE era will come pretty fast. Because nobody will buy gasoline powered vehicles if they have no resale value 10 years down the road, or if they think finding an actual gas station becomes the hard part, or getting a ICE vehicle serviced becomes difficult. And nobody is going to want to be making monthly payments on a vehicle that will be obsolete sculpture by the time the last installment is made, so you will probably see sales drop off rather fast as soon as buyers are convinced that the technology is finally ripe. Price will factor as well. The actual motors for EVs are extremely simple to make and rarely ever need repair or service. There are almost no moving parts, they do not need micron level machining for all but the sealed bearings and rotor shaft. So the cost to build them will be a fraction of ICE cars, batteries are going to remain expensive for a while but eventually the price of those will come down as well meaning they could be as or more profitable at 20 to 30 thousand as ICE vehicles are at 40 to 50 thousand. I am thinking that this technology will be widely available on the showroom floors (unless the dealership business model ends in the interim) by 2033 or 34. And by 2036 sales of ICE will start to plummet like they have been predicting since the 1990's.

I will repeat something often said here, NOBODY cares what you drive. I have owned 3 bugs and always felt a little self conscious in them, but they were actually fun to drive. But, I do not recommend them, especially for teens, because they have pretty low side impact safety ratings.

Over my life I would have said such things as a first aid kit, an umbrella, a jack and maybe reflectorized triangles, but now gotta go with my passports. My USA passport so that ICE will be less likely to fuck with me, and my Irish passport so when they do I can at least get a free trip to Ireland.

Nissan or Toyota. Had a shot and missed so now given up. Korean cars like Kia and Hyundai, they just never had a shot at all.

This is the reason why I either do not check my mail 4 blocks from my own address till the next day or when I am going out for other reasons, because while I am in Florida and the car is garage kept, weather is not usually an issue, but the wear that happens in that first minute before oil has had a chance to get on all surfaces with friction it collectively is probably as much wear as the rest of the time I am driving it. I may well go for a drive just to get it up to operating temp and baby it in residential streets till it is up to temp. Getting out of my HOA to the highway usually is enough to nearly get it there. Meanwhile no hard accelerating, staying under 40. Once out on the highway, well it is a BMW and they have performance, like to run. So I run it.

They just tack on the difference you are under water on your current car to the new car loan, so if it is a $25k car you will get a $28k loan. This is more common with new cars and not done as much for a used car.

It is the pumps, they are delivering less gas and calling it a gallon. So you are not going as far on what they call a gallon now. I know state weights and measures are supposed to be checking the accuracy of the pumps but then again what happens if they let that accuracy slide? More "gallons" get sold and they collect more gas tax.

Big difference if you’re in Meridian Mississippi or San Francisco... Understatement of the century on so many levels...

At the start of autos they were all hand built until Henry Ford pioneered mas production and assembly lines with cheap copies of all the same unit. And that took over the American car market. It made cars affordable to the average worker, but the trade off was the higher quality appointments and well engineered hand made motors. So, if it were not for that we would probably be the leader in building high quality rather than just producing hundreds of millions of lower quality cheaper vehicles. And there is a reason for it, when the auto age came along America was so enormous and empty that roads were mostly non existent and public transport was still local and horse drawn. That was why roadways were adopted rather than trains and other public transport. And even at the dawn of the auto age planes started to fly, some saw what that was going to mean for long distance travel, but Europe never had the room for all that pavement building, it always had a much higher population density and still does.

Rainman Ray in Bradenton is a big Yuotube star (651,000 subscribers) and if that man can't figure it out, or already have a video about this issue then your car is probably scrap. He must have thousands of videos with every imaginable problem ever encountered. There are dozens of parasitic draw videos.

I have owned nothing but BMW since 2009, on my fourth, one 328i was plowed into from behind at speed before it had license plates on it yet, in an Asian vehicle I might not even be here now, the BMW was damaged but not even totaled. Of course part of the function of a writing off is the value of the car, and that 3 series was $60k. I had 3 328i convertibles, one repair, a hall sensor went out in the hardtop roof. I am now in my 2019 740i and had one repair, thrust arm bushings. There was another repair for the radiator louvers with defective motors for the shutters that open and close to keep the car at proper temperature, but BMW charged nothing for that as a known problem so they extended the warranty to 150k miles. I also had a 2021 Chevy Silverado that was a pile of garbage, the active fuel management that deactivates 4 of the 8 cylinders is killing engines while the vehicles are still on warranty, bent push rods, collapsed lifters, excessive oil consumption. I dumped it at 19,000 miles. And Chevy shop rates now equal BMW, so anyone that says BMW is not as reliable is talking out their ass. The B58 BMW inline six is maybe the most reliable motor on the road.