Nobody paid retail for an X1 ever, unless they were a complete idiot. A friend of mine just bought the same car brand new for $32K. $7K discount off MSRP. Someone else’s sloppy seconds to save $10K is no bargain to me when it comes with two years of wear and tear. I’m paying $6K below retail for an M235i, a car that…

Any car can break at 80K miles. Buddy of mine spent $1500 to replace rotted brake lines on a 80K mile 7yo Accord. Got it's third transmission not long after. German cars are on average a little worse than Japanese cars, but not nearly what the basement dwellers around here would have you believe. Honda sold a lot more…

If you believe that, I sure hope you never have to file one.

Like a US Passat that doesn't suck. Though of the boring mid-sizers, the Passat would be my choice in 6spd TDI form.

They sell them in Mexico, not uncommon to see all sorts of interesting things in TX.

It's so sad that we can't have nice things in the USA.

Funny, my boss is quite jealous of my little fleet of interesting cars. And I even have a real grownup job. My boss's boss has already asked for a ride in my M235i when I get it home.

As someone who has spent months if not years of his life driving every variation of rented Camry over the past 20 years, I would slit my wrists before I spent a dime of my own money on the sleep inducing pieces of crap.

Boring mid-size car can be great fun. If they are rented and you bought the damage waiver...

A very large fraction, which is why they are not a great deal. Any car that sells for “1/2 price” after a couple years is such a piece of crap that nobody ever paid anywhere near MSRP for it in the first place. See rental-grade Chevy Impala for the best example of this.

As the owner of an ‘11 e91 (RWD and 6spd, so much rarer than yours) that I bought new because I wanted what I wanted, $750 is basically *one* car payment on one. You will have 59 more if you are comparing it to a new car, so saying $750 is several car payments is a bit disingenuous. Several payments on something dire…

At roughly $100K off MSRP you can afford to fix it, assuming you aren’t being stupid and spending all the money you have on it.

But ultimately you still have the hassle factor of buying a car in a foreign country and getting it here. This one is here. In the grand scheme of things, even $13K is pocket change. Plus, it’s just an asking price. You can always ask anything, doesn’t mean you will get it. On the other hand, if you don’t ask, you…

You have to be careful though - a lot of credit card rental coverage is only secondary to your own insurance. So in other words, they pay your deductible, and anything your insurance won't pay for (loss of rental days, for instance). You absolutely must read the fine print.

But then if something happens, you are making a claim to your insurance company. And then your rates go up. I had a very nice new Mercedes rental backed into by a large truck in a hotel parking lot while parked overnight. Hit and run. I don’t even want to KNOW how much the damage was - it was not drivable after. I had…

In my state this thing is roughly 30 years too old to need a title at all.

I would certainly call the ML320 more of an SUV than a CUV, given it has a low-range gearbox and actual off-road capability. And it is not related to ANY MB car. The Lexus RX is the ancestor of CUVs for sure - it’s a Camry on stilts with not even a pretense of being able to go down anything tougher than a gravel road.…

Of course. The Shuttle was pretty miraculous considering state of technology back then. We could certainly do MUCH better now, if we had the will to spend the money.

Not talking about the SRBs, rather the Shuttle Main Engines. The SRBs were a pretty cheap solution, though as the post says, they very much have their disadvantages.

Mostly they went away with the repeal of the 5mph impact requirement. Once that went to 2.5mph, there was no need for giant battering rams on shock absorbers anymore. But as the former owner of a few old Volvos, I really miss them!