enginyr

Ad Type FOR SALE
Year 1997
Price $24000
Ad Text 1997 BMW M3 Blue/grey.Recent service.Manual trans.Clean cond.New tires.96000 miles.2 door.Spoiler.Chrome wheels.Must sell asap.Bought new Lexus GS400.


Found this add in the recycler...Guess the M3 isn't that impressive?

LexusRules

haha thats what i like to see

now LexusLady with her pefect GS, has to go out and buy a 5 series??

whitediamond

Must of been tired of staring into that cheap black plastic the Bimmers are famous for. Creak Creak Rickity, Creak, Rickity,CRACK, S&IT, it broke.

whitediamond

1998 BMW 540i Silver,leather.42,000 miles.AC,All options.No Accidents/dents.Bad Transmission.Will take cash or trade for 98 or newer Lexus GS4 + cash $25000.00 OBO Contact: Ron chuckr@aol.com 310 422-4550
42k miles and already a bad trans. No wonder he wants to trade. Must be the second owner which is why the dealer wont take care of it.

GS4Will

"no accident/dent" big wow....the car has a bad transmission. if it can't move, how can it get into accidents, or get dents from parking lots?

today:transmission failure, tomorrow:engine goes bad.

forget a $50k lex. my first honda accord(1980) had 150k miles, and both the engine and transmission were still factory ORIGINAL.

just like friend's 325-45k miles, and the car's coolant was leaking all over the place.

glad the guy woke up and decided to get into a lex.

will

Kajukenbo

Hey Will,

It is funny that you mentioned about the BMW 325 coolant leaking. Last year my buddy left his BMW325i with me for a week when he went to a 8 day fishing trip down here in San Diego. One day I was driving it around town and the coolant just started to gushing out from the radiator cap. It freaked me out and I was thinking "what a piece of sh@t". That same week as I was filling up the gas, the gas gauge just died on me. Can you imagine how I was trying to explain to my buddy that it was not me who broke the car...... A nice car like BMW should not have so many problems.....
This year my friend went to the same trip recently and he left the car with me again. Believe it or not, the car's break light bulb socket holder burned out on me during the middle of the week :eek: Man let me tell you, BMW maybe a nice car when it is brand new, but it sure not worth keeping after a few years!

I am glad I bought a Lexus (pad myself on the back)

GS4Will

Hey K,

B.M.W.-buy MORE warranty.......

are you sure that you do not have the MAJIC touch of making the beemers looked bad?

actually to a certain extent, i do like the bmws exteriors(no flames please). but when i emptied out my drawers for a $50k car, i expect to enjoy the ride, and the car takes care of me. i do not mind being friends with my tech guys, just not on weekly basis.

as i always said, i go into lex service for their bottled h2o-to fill up my thirst, not to fill up oil for my lex.

will

NVRENUFHP

I've owned BMWs in the past (3er, 5er, Z3) and I currently have a Z3. I also have a GS430. They are all great cars. Any Lexus owner who bashes BMW is a fool, as is any BMW owner who bashes Lexus.

Lexus reliability is legendary, but the reliability on my BMWs was also excellent. That said, antedotal evidence of reliability or unreliability (mine or anyone else's) is not worth the cyberspace it occupies.

A small, obscure outfit called something along the lines of J.D. Power and Associates cobbles together some statistics every now and again regarding reliability. I don't have that data at my fingertips, but it should pretty well settle all the talk of BMW's alleged unreliability.

Anyone have those stats handy so we can see if BMW has the poor reliabilty so often ascribed to it by posters on this board? My guess is that Toyota and Lexus are on top and that BMW is down a few places, but that BMW's numbers are still very impressive.

whitediamond

Actually, Truthfully, FACTUALLY, BMW rates around 7 to 10th place in reliablity ratings. Better then most. Nowhere near as good as Lexus, Honda, CADILLAC, Toyota,Acura. I have owned more BMW's then you judging by your list and all I can say is that I wish I had either your BMW's or your patience and forgivness because my BMW's were not that reliable.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

NVRENUFHP,

I tend to agree with what you're saying... However, from what I've read on the board - many of us have had personal bad experiences with BMW quality.

I haven't ever owned a BMW, so I don't have any long term experiences to compare against Toyota/Lexus.

However, I did test drive several 540s when I bought my GS4. Out of three, two had problems. On the first, the passenger side window rolled down and would not roll back up (and the lock wasn't pressed - all the other windows worked). The second - a black 540 6-speed - I never had a chance to drive because it was getting a tranny replacement. The third (another 6 speed) I drove felt solid and reliable. Windows and tranny worked like a champ.

No statistical studies done by me personally, just a bad test population, I guess.

nanotech

iTrader: (2)

Guys...

I love Lexus cars because of their SUPERB reliability and everything else....but they aren't perfect....my friend's 97 ES300 (this was last year) had 86,000 miles on it and its transmission messed up, he hardly ever even drove above the speed limit and was always smooth with the pedal and always took good care of the car....but he bought it used...so I guess the previous owner must have done something.

Lexus should step up to free maintenance for all of its 2002 models, 5yr/75,000 mile maintenance and warranty, and if anything ever goes wrong, speedy towing and an equivalent lexus replacement while the car is being fixed, that sure would be atleast ALMOST worry-free

lexguynj

I don't think any car manufacturer is perfect, but Lexus is close to it. You will always find a problem with any car brand, but the key is how that problem is fixed and how quickly. Even my 1 week old, 2001 GS430 had steering and uneven tail pipe problems, but Lexus service proves once again that they will fix it and fix it right the first time. All is good for now and the car feels soooo solid.

lexguynj

I don't think any car manufacturer is perfect, but Lexus is close to it. You will always find a problem with any car brand, but the key is how that problem is fixed and how quickly. Even my 1 week old, 2001 GS430 had steering and uneven tail pipe problems, but Lexus service proves once again that they will fix it and fix it right the first time. All is good for now and the car feels soooo solid.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Did I read it right that this loser expects someone to give them a GS400 *AND* $25K in exhange for a 540i with broken transmission? If that's right, this guy is a dreamer! If he gets it though, the customer is the bigger fool.

SCWells72

I have both a GS430 and a Z3 2.8 now, and I've no problems with the GS in 11.5K miles. My wife's Z3, however, has had both inner door panels replaced (leather was pulling up from the armrests) and, get this, the TRANSMISSION REPLACED after only 8K miles!!! What's even more interesting is that in Austin, BMW and Lexus are owned by the same proprietor on the same lot, but while my Lexus dealer experience is fantastic, the BMW dealer experience has been so bad that I've had to report them to BMW USA a couple of times!

My wife has pretty much said that if she wasn't so in love with her Z3 (looks and driving), she'd start looking elsewhere pretty quickly.

I'm a big fan of both Lexus' and BMW's cars, but given the track record so far in reliability and dealer experience, I would be loathe to buy another BMW while I'm in Austin...