Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Replacing the BMW - result... (1 of 2)

[LtWacko (ltwacko]

Great purchase! One of my friends who is a local BMW CCA member too was a 
service writer for Infiniti.  He was incredibly surprised how well the M45 
performs daily.  As good if not better sometimes than a BMW 545i.  Best part of 
it is that it is WAY cheaper to maintain than the BMW.  Considering it performs 
at 95%-98% of the BMW at the limits, it's a bargain!.  He asked the service 
techs, so what's the deal on upkeep.  They said nothing really out of the 
ordinary and way more gentle on the wallet.  The dealer group also services 
BMW's.  My friend now writes for the BMW side...  more commission due to the 
higher service bills!

Note on the latest BMW V-8's.  As you know Dennis, I also have a later 740.  
You know of the dreaded valley pan gasket.  It really ticks you off when it 
goes.  Average repair costs at an independent is $450 and just a little higher 
at the dealer.  The 2002-current E65 also has the same problem at approx. 100k. 
 Dealer cost to repair?  $7,000!!!  My friend who is a very well known 
independent (see him this month's Roundel) might be able to save one customer 
$2,000.  That's right.  $5,000 at a "budget" independent shop!

My current 7 may be the last modern V-8 BMW I own too.  At those service costs, 
I might as well pick up a used Bentley...

Rodney
Still hunting for the right (affordable) 3X8 F-car.



In a message dated 04/13/09 17:36:42 Central Daylight Time, ferrari-request 
[at] ferrarilist.com writes:
Message: 14 
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:36:15 -0400 
From: Dennis Liu <bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com> 
Subject: [Ferrari] Replacing the BMW - result... (1 of 2) 
To: "Ferrari List" <Ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com> 
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com> 
Message-ID: <345DA24C1E21459D83D6C9DE10A110D7 [at] DennisThinkpad> 
Content-Type: text/plain;   charset="US-ASCII" 

[Howdy, all!  Please include me directly on any replies, as I'm not 
receiving any list-only postings... Thanks!] 



As some of you may recall, back in January, I sought opinions and feedback 
from all y'all on what should I replace my much beloved 1995 BMW 740iL with 
198.6k miles on it. 

The uber-sedan appeared to be headed for the scrap heap (due to a projected 
$2k estimate to fix a leaking hydraulic line in the self-leveling rear end 
system, which is much more than what I expected to get for the car).  I 
loved that car, and even at its advanced age, it carried 4-5 folks with 
plenty of luggage at 80mph+ and 21 mpg.   

Thus, it came to be time.  My specs:  RWD, seats 4-5 adults comfortably, 
with a V8.  Not at all interested in a Lexus, nor Mercedes-Benz.  One 
exception might be a CLS500/CLS550 (still the most beautiful sedan even 
made), but the four-seats only ruled it out, and I have little faith in MB 
quality/reliability. 

So I considered the following candidates: 

1.  Start driving my wife's 996 on a daily basis.  Ended up deciding against 
it, as just couldn't bear to see the abuse my daughters would have 
eventually heaped on it, and it's just not that comfortable for all four of 
us long trips (and trunk space, while acceptable for two, is insufficient 
for four. 

2.  Buy a replacement E38 740.  Oooh, the emotional choice.  Found a guy in 
CA who bought a new 740i Sport in 2001, then stored it all this time. 
Effectively a NEW car.  But he was asking all the money for it, and, sadly, 
it's now 8+ years old, even if it only has a couple of hundred miles on it. 
And it's still susceptible to the usual E38 maladies (e.g., suspension 
pieces, cooling system, etc.) 

3.  Buy an E65/E66 7-series.  Ugh.  I've hated the looks of this thing since 
day 1, and have not wanted iDrive either.  The look improved tremendously 
with the 2006 update to the 4.8 liter V8 (750), but still not what I'd call 
attractive.  Actually went to the dealership to check out a very nice black 
one they had in stock, but when I got close to it in person, the looks just 
left me cold.  I've driven them a bit before, but when contemplating the 
possible purchase of this one, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Ugh. 
Didn't even bother taking it for a test-drive; yes, it is that ugly to me. 
Also considered the E60/E61 5-series, but it's too cramped by comparison, 
and if the E65 hit every branch falling out of the ugly tree, the E60 
managed to dodge only 3-4 limbs.   

4.  2005+ Audi A8 or A8L 4.2.  Now this has a lot of what BMW should have 
done with the E65 - light aluminum body, easy-to-use driver interface, and 
no Bangle butt!  Not a big fan of AWD, but it couldn't hurt up here in the 
snow belt.  This was probably going to be it... But then a friend of mine 
who used to be an Audi parts manager warned me off - "it's a **GREAT** car, 
and reliable, but once you hit 100k miles on it, everything, and I mean 
everything, will cost you $2k to fix."  Confirmed by several of you who had 
owned Audis.  Doh. 

5.  2007+  Pontiac G8 GT.  361hp, RWD.  Admittedly, it didn't even make my 
initial list, but I received a bunch of enthusiastic votes of support, so I 
went to check it out.  And it was... nice!  The interior is Spartan, 
compared to the competition, but it wasn't typical-GM-ugly.  Lots of room. 
Could I get over that ugly Pontiac nose, and see the beauty of the Holden 
inside?  I had managed to convince myself that I could, and the $7500+ total 
in rebates and discounts from GM certainly helped, BUT my wife spotted the 
G8 brochure on my pile, raised her eyebrow, and asked me if this was what I 
really wanted.  She doesn't care about the badge, but she knows me well 
enough that I have a hard time turning down good deals, only to have regrets 
later.  And as good a deal as this is, I... couldn't bring myself to pull 
the trigger. 

So what did I buy? 

Well, before I get to that, I must admit, I ended up buying it (used) from a 
dealer.  I stopped for a test drive, and was astounded that they made an 
offer on the old Bimmer.  And, no, I know how much they paid for what I 
bought and they didn't make much margin on it, so it's not like they bumped 
up the trade-in value just to make it up on the other end.  The sales 
manager said that he had a wholesaler that loves these beasts, and ships 
them to Mexico where he could double the money.  Hmmm... Even with the 
(fully-disclosed) power-steering-fluid-leak?  Yup.  That pushed me over the 
edge, and I closed the deal. 

And I ended up with an Infiniti M45. 

More in the next post! 

vty, 

--Dennis 
Without a BMW for the first time in nearly 2 decades 
Metro Boston