Quote:
Originally Posted by Turbowned
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OP: I vote one of the German big 3; you already have a small, light Miata. Might as well get a proper German sports coupe/sedan for a daily. I'm looking for something similar but I've decided I can stand it to be automatic so long as my other car is manual. That opens up things like Mercedes AMG cars, Audi S8, heaven forbid another RS6, BMW 740i, etc.
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I'd caution against this advice, just speaking from anecdotal personal experience. The BMW 7-series in particular, but any of the German cars in the higher end of their lines. There's a reason they can be purchased used for such reasonable prices compared to their original purchase prices; they have a lot of complex systems and expensive parts on them, and keeping them up takes money, time, and lots of both. Yes, they are great cars, but if you're trying to save money by buying a car for $5k-$10k and not having a car payment, you won't accomplish that with one of those cars; you'll have the equivalent of at least an average car payment in maintenance and repairs, and maybe much more if you're not at least averagely lucky.
German-wise, I've owned an '82 VW Rabbit, '88 Benz 560SL, a '92 Audi 80, '93 BMW 325i, '99 Benz ML430, and '06 Benz ML500. Of those, the 325i (E36) was, by FAR, the hands down winner in terms of reliability and driving enjoyment, and I would buy another one in a heart beat.. that would be an excellent choice for you. 235k trouble free enjoyable miles with only one stranding in that entire time, and repairs constrained to parts you'd expect to wear over that mileage and age at appropriate times. The ML500 was a nightmare for the first two years, but it seems to have stabilized.. knock on wood. The ML430 was suprisingly good, but a recurring power steering leak kept taking out the serpentine belt... left us stranded three times, but we still took that one to over 230K. The Rabbit was just a fun hobby/project. The Audi '80 was only in our fleet for a few months before the opportunity to grab the 325i came up, so down the road it went, but it was a good car.. sort of always regretted selling it. Sort of a German-feeling Corolla.
Find an E36, do the regular maintenance, and you'll love it. STAY AWAY from the 7 series, the AMG stuff, the M series, and the S series. All great cars... and all serious money pits.