Looks like Jenny's going to have to sell the iX :(

[Joey Link]

As much as we don't like it, it looks like Jenny's going to have to sell her '88 325iX 2-door 5-speed. She just found out that although her new job pays well, she's going to have to commute 100+ miles per day. That means in 10 days she's going to be driving over a thousand miles and at 25mpg she'll be using two to three tanks of gas. As avid BMW enthusiasts, neither of us can see racking up the miles on a rare, clean, 2 owner car with only 111,000 miles on it.

I think what I'm going to try to do is talk her into a little econobox and have her save for an early model MKIV Jetta or Golf TDI. I say early model because she doesn't have much money to spend. I've heard pretty good things about them, and they get almost 50mpg, or 735 miles per tank! Any of you guys have any experience with them that you'd like to share?

[FredK]

If she drives 100+ miles a day, and you figure there are around 225 working days in a year, that's 22,500+ miles a year.

That's not outrageous IMHO. You figure she might be at the job for around 3 years. That's a total of 67500 miles.

It's an iX. It's fairly rare, but it's meant to be a workhorse vehicle that you can pretty much pile on the miles to 225K+. I don't see anything wrong with using a car for its intended purpose. I might shed a tear if a E30 M3 were used in such a fashion, but an iX is a fine DD.

[Ben Carufel]

I say buy a new Hyundai and make payments on it ($150/month?) and use that as a daily, keep the iX.

[Jean]

Just use it as a DD, it's not like it's got super low miles on it. I put 22k miles in one year on my last car that was probably just as rare ? (only 5000 r32s came to us for 2004). Buying another car or making payments doesn't make sense as it would cost more than just paying for gas, no ?

[Mastrcruse]

Get a honda insight and mod it too look like an e30.

[RobertK]

I say buy a new Hyundai and make payments on it ($150/month?) and use that as a daily, keep the iX.

Never buy new when you plan to demolish its value with high mileage. (Actually, never buy new period for that matter.)

New cars lose 60% of their value in the first 4 years of ownership. A new car with higher mileage will probably end up being more like 75% loss in the first 4 years.

Buy a 92-97 Honda and beat the crap out of that at least most of the depreciation is already zapped out of it. My mom works home health and she's driven her 92 Civic past 300K with reg. maintenance.

[tobybmw]

My daily driver is a 03 Golf TDI and love it. It has a ton of torque and gets low 40 mpg. I get 400-450 per tank and am about to be making my own bio-diesel for around $0.90 a gallon.

It also makes driving the Henna M3 so much more fun!

[Bimmerista]

Anything Honda will definitely be more reliable than a VW or BMW. If its possible, you guys should consider buying a Honda Fit. They're cool little cars that get great gas mileage & are reliable too.

[Charlie]

If its possible, you guys should consider buying a Honda Fit. They're cool little cars that get great gas mileage & are reliable too.

If you can find one. They can't keep them on the lots out here.

-Charlie

[JAM]

if youre mechanically inclined, i suggest you pick up an older honda accord. i got mine for $300 over a year ago, and have fixed the exhaust and a gas line and thats it. ive driven it for almost 25k miles without any major issues. that is an $.80/day car payment. you really cant beat that!

and keep the ix!!

[backtrail69]

She was also saying she didn't have much money, that rules a new car out..

[Joey Link]

Even if you don't consider the 2-door 5-speed iX to be a rare car (which I do), there are two larger factors that Jenny and I are taking into account.

First, is gas mileage & maintenance. 100 miles @ 25 mpg means four gallons of gas per day. At $3.05 per gallon, that's $12.20 per day, $61 per week, and around $256 per month. We change our oil every 3k-5k as well, so that would be required every three to five weeks. If she bought a TDI she would get around 50mpg, which would cut the monthly gas bill in half. If payments for a $10k-12k TDI are around $185/mo. (60mo. term, $3k down payment, higher interest rate for poor credit) then that means she'd be paying only $57 per month ($185 + $128 = $313 - $256 = $57) to own and drive a much newer, safer, more valuable car.

Second, is the resale value of the iX. Right now I wouldn't be surprised if she could get $5k-$6k, considering the condition, history, low mileage, scarcity, etc. I guarantee the more miles we pile on it, the more the value will drop. Who wants to buy a high mile iX?

We've looked at Honda's, Hyundais, and the rest of the cheap cars. As RobertK mentioned, the fact is the mileage would kill the resale value when that time came. Some may say I have too big of a focus on resale value, but we're not the type of people who are going to own our cars for long enough to not care how much we get for it. Besides, wouldn't you rather be driving a car built in Germany with the potential for mods? :P

[smonkbmw]

my dads tdi jetta only goes about 450miles per tank and its a ten gallon tank (i think). youre not going to save much over a gas car there. insurance on a newer car especially a easy to break into VW is gonna suck. add to that youll be making a car payment over a car that im assuming is paid for. winter driving isnt gonna be the same in a fwd. its not a bmw. plus the other day at the track she said she would NEVER sell the car. id relax, let it go, let it get high miles, if she likes the car that much another low mile m20 isnt that hard to come by. either that or go get her E 4dr back.

cliff notes: screw it, just drive the ix till the wheels fall off.

[nando]

that is a clean ix. you should easily get $6k for it. 2 door, 5 speed, low miles? yeah...

[Joey Link]

my dads tdi jetta only goes about 450miles per tank and its a ten gallon tank (i think). youre not going to save much over a gas car there. insurance on a newer car especially a easy to break into VW is gonna suck. add to that youll be making a car payment over a car that im assuming is paid for. winter driving isnt gonna be the same in a fwd. its not a bmw. plus the other day at the track she said she would NEVER sell the car. id relax, let it go, let it get high miles, if she likes the car that much another low mile m20 isnt that hard to come by. either that or go get her E 4dr back.

cliff notes: screw it, just drive the ix till the wheels fall off.

If he's really getting 450 miles per tank there's a big problem somewhere. Maybe the dirty intake manifold/egr issue? The tanks are 14.5 gallons. Even @ 40mpg that's 580 miles to a tank. At 45mpg it's 652 miles, well over twice what the iX gets.