High Mileage BMW

[entropyfl]

Hi Guy's,

I have a company car which is a 318d M Sport and I have had from new. I was thinking about buying this car from the lease company/BMW Finance.

the car was registered in November 2006 and I currently have nearly 60,000 miles on the clock.

The miles are mainly motorways and it has never missed a service.

My question is how many miles is to many? I do about 25,000 miles a yr so If I buy now and keep for 1 yr I will be close to 90,000 miles.

i'm worried about resale with 90,000 miles on the clock and also repairs/problems with this many miles.

is this something to worry about?

[2bms]

For a well-maintained BMW (which this obviously is) I wouldn't think the mileage would be a problem. Much depends on the buyout price from the leaseholder.
I assume this is an e90, being an 06?
I don't know anyone who yet has 90k on their e90, so don't know if they are likely to need the same kind of maintenance that the e46s did, and the e36s before them, i.e. cooling systems needing to replaced at around that kind of mileage for example.
Covering such a distance each year though, you are obviously going to take a hit on resale value, whatever car you drive, you just have to accept that.
As I say, all depends on what kind of price for the buyout. If they are offering you a good deal, I would take it. You've had the car since new, so you know its history, not only in terms of maintenance but you also know HOW it's been driven. And you obviously like the car, otherwise you wouldn't be contemplating keeping it.
It would be riskier, I would think, to buy the equivalent used car, not knowing how it has been treated.

[entropyfl]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes it's the E90. I'm in the UK so I'm hoping to buy from the lease holder for no more than £10,000. Dealerships are selling them for about £12,000-£15,000(with upto 40k miles)

But if I don't buy it will only end up at an auction and would fetch less money than they would get off me.

The only thing that is tempting is that for an extra £5,000 (£18,000 - £19,000) i could buy a 2nd hand 330 with about 30,000 miles.

I find out in the next month or so what they will sell it to me for so fingers crossed1

[2bms]

I see your dilemna! By the way, I'm a Brit too, living in the States. We don't get the 318 diesels here, so I don't know how it performs compared to a 330i.

[entropyfl]

ha i'm a Brit and moved to the states when I was 8 but now I live back in the NW.

yes the 0-62 in mine in 10.3 seconds and the 330 does it in 6.1 so it's very tempting.

But i guess whilst we are in the credit crunch I will probably stick to the 318d(it could be worse)

[2bms]

Yeah, probably wise. I'm sure the 318d is a great car anyway.
I love the States, but I miss a good curry, a game of cricket, and the footie. But on the other hand it is almost affordable to buy a BMW and put petrol in it here!

[entropyfl]

well I was in Florida and I miss outback steakhouse and the weather!

its funny what you miss! although at least you don't have to hear about MP's claiming £2,000 for fish tanks on their expenses!

[2bms]

All true. I'm in Mississippi, so similar weather to Florida. And yes, I've heard that the British parliament is imploding in spectacular fashion, induced by members claiming for adult movies, non-existent houses and the cost of cleaning out dragons from moats. Amazing.