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Comment by prometheus76 | Hacker News Reader

Happy owner of a 1973 chevy pickup checking in. My brother cannot figure out why I like driving an old truck, but if something goes wrong with it, after a search on youtube and a trip to the parts store, I can fix almost anything for under $500. He says if you drive a newer car, you don't have to fix things. However, his BMW X5 then needed a new transmission. Six months and $18,000 later, he doesn't ask me why I drive an old truck anymore.

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>However, his BMW X5 then needed a new transmission.

New-age German cars are very accurate and precise, as in only designed to last as long as the lease. Any day longer than that means lost revenue for services and dealerships. A far cray from the German cars of the 80's.

Buying a new German car today means you're either minted or masochistic with your finances.

There was a stat on this released by BMW recently - something stupid like 90%(!!!!) of all owners of new BMWs don't keep them longer than 3 years. So in a way, if you were running BMW engineering division.....yeah, why make them last any longer than that. Clearly the people who actually make you money by buying new cars don't give a crap about longevity - Plastic oil pans it is.

As anyone in automotive should know: you make them last longer because the people who buy a new car every 3 years can only afford to do this because there is a lot of trade in value left in the car. If the car was dead and worthless in 3 years they would be forced to buy much cheaper cars.

That’s because BMW (and their dealers) want to sell every car twice. Once new and then again in a few years as a certified pre-owned car that has retained quite a bit of value. Makes them more money than just selling new cars.

CR has a different opinion, in their recent rating Mini is #3 and BMW itself is #9 in the predicted reliability out of 30 brands (I don't give a link because it requires subscription).

It's not necessarily the reliability that's the issue to me. The issue is that if something does go wrong, it's very expensive and it takes forever because the parts have to come from Germany, and everything is backordered.

One of my buddies bought himself a BMW and it was the best favor he's done for me. Listening to his tales woes makes me not mind when my Honda needs an expensive repair because it's still way cheaper and less hassle than anything he needs done. And worse, the parts can only be gotten by a dealership, which he isn't, so he can't wrench on the thing himself, even after finding a copy of the manuals online. I guess there's ebay but all of that is just so much extra work that none of us have time for. I wanna cool car, but the upkeep is too painful.

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