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Re: Buying an abandoned car from a garage?

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Buying an abandoned car from a garage?
From: "Jack W. Drews" <vinttr4@geneseo.net>
Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2005 07:55:03 -0600
Your comments about BMW's are hitting close to home with me. I 
thought I was the only one who had this experience.

I purchased a BMW 525 from a friend, one owner, 60,000 miles, not one 
mar on the body, never a minute's trouble.

I loved the driving experience, and don't expect to ever have another 
car that I loved driving as much as this one, but that thing ate me 
alive with repair costs. I had to take it to the garage two or three 
times a year, each time for repairs that cost $400 to $600. Drive 
shaft rubber coupling, brakes (that cost me $400 with me supplying 
the labor), cruise control that failed and was going to cost $500 to 
fix, shifter seal on transmission leaking for $700, water pump failed 
and wrapped the belt around lots of parts, Sunday afternoon, miles 
from nowhere - came home on a flat bed.

The worst part was that the car would not start in temps below 20 deg 
F. It stranded me three times. On one long mid-winter trip, my wife 
and I decided that stopping at a motel when it was 10 deg below zero 
would end up stranding us, so we drove on through the night. When I 
asked the dealer for help, he said "You can bring it over to the 
shop, but we have three others sitting in the shop just warming up -- 
we don't know how to fix that."

My conclusion was that this was the perfect car to purchase new and 
to trade the minute the factory warranty ran out. But of course, with 
my British obsession to support, I'll never be able to afford that.

At 09:26 PM 12/11/2005, BearTranserv@aol.com wrote:
>In a message dated 12/11/2005 6:22:01 P.M. Mountain Standard Time,
>jar@aldermanroad.net writes:
>
>I own a  couple of BMWs that have been superb cars, very low  maintenance
>
>
>I often comment that one of the best things about my 1985 divorce was  that
>she got the BMW.  We leased an 84 318, and I was less than thrilled  with the
>performance, and horrified by the maintenance costs. ..................snip


uncle jack


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