Expert: Josh Fields - 2/5/2006

Question
This car has 176,000 miles, but I would like to keep it another year. I have replaced the timing belt and so far repairs have been ok; however, I understand that it is not the mileage but the parts that cause problems due to planned obsolesence.  

Answer
Carol... I'm not sure what you are asking?  
 Parts are no problem... it just takes some searching.  It's a common myth that you hear often "to buy parts for a BMW it's rediculously expensive, and no one knows how to work on them".  Well that is partially correct, as if you buy everything from a dealership... you will pay 200%-300% markup.  But there are reliable places to buy parts from.

 www.bavauto.com
 www.pelicanparts.com

 Those are a few of my favorites.

 I had an '84 325e (same car as yours) and it had 325K miles on it when the odometer stopped working.  I assume that it had close to 350k miles when it was totalled.  It never had a rebuild and the only thing I did was change the timing belt, waterpump,(every 100k miles) and one alternator.  I ran Mobil-1 synthetic 10w-30 in it, and changed the oil at 3k miles.

 So these cars are "bullet-proof" AS LONG AS YOU TAKE CARE OF THEM.  You can't drive them like they are a work truck, you have to check the oil often and make sure to change it when needed.  If you take care of them... they will take care of you.

 Hope this helps,
 Josh