I know about the risks with German cars but I really like the new BMW M340i. I'm determined to do my own maintenance regularly if I were to buy one. With that said, would it ok if I were to get one because I know I'd really enjoyed having it as a daily
The B58 in those 40i BMWs are excellent engines if u maintain them properly and the ZF 8 speed transmissions are solid and can last a long time as long as you take care of them. Just be prepared to pay a fortune when it needs repairs and preventative maintenance done and if the plastic parts break they cost a fortune to replace. Also, resale value is nowhere near as good as an M3 which hold their value way better being a full-on M car. I would personally lease one since it's an M340i, but if you don't mind spending that kind of money and you have the skills to do it urself, go ahead. I would pick it over any Mercedes or Audi if I had to get one.
I would probably look at an M3 over the M40i because they are better built (M3's are built in Germany and the M340i for North America are mostly made in Mexico), use less of that plastic crap, have way higher resale value, and u can get one with a standard transmission and BMW makes bulletproof manual transmissions. The only thing u may have to look past are those massive kidney grilles, lol.
It’s your money, buy what you want..
It will probably take quite a bit of learning to adjust to BMW layouts.
As an example, I had a 1994 BMW 540i as my first car when it was 19 years old, and had a CCV valve go bad. Pricing around, it was a $2,000 job due to shop procedures requiring things to be changed that were fine -intake manifold gaskets on a V8. I experimented with the car, and ended up changing the CCV valve assembly myself, bypassing all of the extra shop work and only paid $40 for OEM parts from my local BMW dealer -old cars get heavy parts discounts from BMW.
If I ever bought another BMW, it would be another old one as a toy, they're easier to figure out, plus BMW discounts their parts. I loved that E34, I wouldn't touch these new ones if I wanted to work on it myself. Too much technology and plastic. That old E34 was still mostly metal under the hood.
As Scotty says: Lease one and get it out of your system.
They become endless moneypits.
We don’t recommend buying German vehicles, only lease them. The thing about German vehicles people keep forgetting about is it’s not just the powertrain you need to focus on but all the electronics on board. Did you know some German vehicles have over 100 computer modules on board?! It’s a matter of time before they act up or go haywire on you, and then good luck getting it fixed - for complex problems you will have to take to a special shop that works on those vehicles or the dealer and they will charge an arm and a leg. The smart way to own those modern complex German vehicles is to lease them under warranty. That way if anything breaks, it’s on BMW’s dime.
