The trick to buying new is to keep it so long that the depreciation is but a distant memory. Take great care of the car, don't put too many or too few miles on the car, and enjoy it for 20 years. This is my plan for my bought new unicorn spec BMW 328i wagon. I put about 8K a year on it, maintain it by the old school…

Toyotas require preventative maintenance too. They just suck so much to drive you can't tell the difference when it isn't done. My couch is a more interesting drive than an LS400.

The compressors only fail because people don't maintain the rest of the system. You need to replace all the O-rings in the system every 8-10 years. What happens is all the small leaks add up, and the compressor ends up running all the time. It only has a 15% design duty cycle, so if it is running more than 15% of the…

I have always found BMW parts prices to be very reasonable. Most dealers give a 10-15% discount to BMWCCA members, and there are numerous online sources that are very reasonable as well. But I have only owned five of them over the past 15 years, with #6 on the horizon next summer, so what do I know?

People get into trouble with BMWs because they spend all of their money to buy one used, then have nothing left for maintenance and repairs. I bought mine new, but there is no way on Earth that it will be more expensive to maintain one than it is to "pay" for the depreciation on a new one. I buy new (now) because I…

Land Rovers are in a class by themselves for this. I bought a reasonably well-kept '01 Range Rover HSE last year for $5500. Put about $2K in parts into it to get it properly sorted out and it has been a fantastic truck. Not bad for a truck that cost almost $80K new, and still looks and drives great with 140K on it now.

I've had "private flights" twice over the years. Once was Scranton to Boston on a Beech 1900D. I got to the airport and they were paging me. Went to the counter to find I was the only passenger, the crew was waiting for me and raring to go as it was their last flight of the day. Got on, and we took off almost an hour…

I'm not slightly right, I am completely right, because I have done it on my own car and other's cars. You might want to do a little research BEFORE spouting off and looking like a tool. It will take you far in life. But I do appreciate that you admit that you are wrong, shows a level of maturity that is rare around…

Mate, I suggest you use that fine tool Google to look up "BMW Coding". Will save you a pile of money in the long run. And you can turn on some neat features BMWs lawyers won't let us have in the US.

Saw an Emirates A380 in Houston Tuesday. I was surprised. There was a second one there too, but I can't recall the airline.

Oh, and BMW will sell their diagnostic kit to anyone who is willing to pay for it and meet their standards. My local top-notch indy shop, Autowerkes Maine, has all the same equipment and capabilities as the dealership. But you still don't need that to register a battery.

And yet you obviously don't actually own a BMW, or you would know that you certainly can. BMWs computers are not encrypted. All of this information is in simple text files that are fairly easily downloaded, edited, and uploaded to the various modules in the car. You can turn on all of the electronic options that are…

So you are saying that you could buy something like an '85 Caprice, order up the optional F41 suspension package or whatever, and it would ride and handle like an '85 BMW 535i?

Of course it can be done by you. You need a laptop, the appropriate USB to ODB cable ($75), and some free software. You do need to be careful to get a battery with matching specs if you don't want to have to do a bit more in-depth car programming, but I can assure you it is not rocket science. And any decent BMW…

Mondials are really pretty cool too though, in their own special way. I wouldn't kick one out of the garage, and they have room for your briefcase and carryon bag in the "back seat".

Crikey DeMuro - what kind of record do you have to be paying $3K+ a year for insurance on a Range Rover?!?!

You really can't total an $8-10M car. You can just about make one from scratch for less than the cost to buy one at that point.

There was a video of a couple of horses pullimg a stuck truck out of snow or some such floating around here.

AWD is a heavy unnecessary complexity for coastal Maine too! At least if you are staying on pavement. For off pavement, or when the snow gets too deep, I have an '01 Range Rover. :-) Bought it for only about 2X what the price difference between a 328i and a 328iX new.

I bought a (used) Range Rover for several reasons. #1 I tow a 6500lb boat regularly in the summer. And it has towed a racecar home from a track after a bad day (not my bad day, thankfully). #2 I live in Maine. It snows here. Rather a lot sometimes. I like being able to leave my driveway without running the snowblower…