I’ve owned an old out of warranty e39 M5, it was expensive to maintain. I had an R56 Mini, the day the warranty ran out I stopped driving it and listed it for sale as I knew it would get expensive. I now drive an e36 M3 and it’s been a delightful old car, easy to get parts and not unreliable or difficult to maintain.

I have personally done this. I sold my 2002 e39 M5 which was a stunning combo of LeMans Blue over Caramel extended leather. I did it not more than 10 k after replacing the clutch and most of the rest of the drive line. Why did I sell it? Because I wanted a smaller more nimble car, I ended up buying an equally…

GM H body cars. Pontiac Bonneville, Buick LeSabre, Oldsmobile Eighty Eight. All very comfortable bullet proof cars with sufficient power to not be anemic to drive. The GM 3800 series 2 is a legendary engine for just being good. The 4L60 transmission just worked. The visibility out of those cars is incredible.  One was…

I’ve honestly only ever had great car buying experiences at dealers. Granted I’ve only ever purchased super specialty cars. I bought an 11 year old e39 M5 at my local Cadillac dealer and had the most no hassle experience one could wish for. No pushieness, and they treated me like I was buying an expensive new car. I…

Simple. My grandparents gave my twin and I their 99 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight. A perfect first car. Reliable, adequately powerful but not fast, phenomenonal visibility, and minimal features to be distractions. Also it’s extremely good in the snow, an important feature for where we live. 15 years later we still own the…

My mom had a Cutlass Brougham, it was her favorite car she has ever owned. All because it was super comfortable. She has since owned a Benz w126 420sel and two BMW e38 740iLs.  Yet she has the fondest memories of the Cutlass. 

The seat heater is quite the opposite.   The parts rent too expensive. The heating elements break down.  But replacement in the seat is very difficult and takes a person that knows leather seat repair to get the complex vaders looking good once put back together. 

Heaten seat pads are not a simple replacement I these cars. The parts aren’t too expensive, $200 or so total for the bottom and back pads. However the hard part is finding someone that can refit the Vader seat leather and make it look good. I’ve spent a total of $800 replacing heated seat pads in both front seats of…

I assume because they are cheap.  The local dealer sells them like hot cakes and has many times won the award for highest volume Mitsubishi dealer in the US.  They certainly don't sell anything exciting, but cheap is a shrinking market option and there are many people that base their decision on price.

I just put a brand new exhaust system on my 99 Oldsmobile. The old one basically rusted out so bad that pressure blew out the post cat O2 sensor. Am I considering replacing it, sure, but it’s still cheaper to fix it compare to replacing it. I suspect I could get about $3k for the car, as it’s clean looking and very…

I have a friend with an 88 Samurai.  It's just a solid blast.  We hook a utility trailer up to it and take four bikes and four people to the beach.  We've taken it off road, just cruised around town, and even drag raced my Austin Healed Sprite.  BTW the Suzuki won the race.  It's seriously one of my favorite vehicles…

Agreed. I have a 3800 Series II in my 99 Oldsmobile Eighty Eight.  It's a great engine, and does such a perfect job being adequate that you don't ever notice it.  It's not powerful but it isn't short on power either. The 88 is a reasonably light car so it scoots when asked upon.

My local Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealer looks the same. They had a pile of used cars for the 4th of July weekend, including some old 70s and 80s land barges.  It was weird.  Anything with wheels practically.

The 5.9 Cummins actually had about 160hp.  Having driven a stock one, it's is a very capable and completely adequate truck.  

This is almost exactly my story. After graduating college in 2013 with a shiny new engineering degree, I spent my first hard earned money on a 2002 e39 M5. It was a very fast car with accessible power in every gear. Push your foot down at 65 mph on the hiway, and quickly find yourself doing 90 even in over drive. I…

I spected a Bronco on the configurator once.  When I was done, I realized that I wanted a basic no options Bronco.   There are a few options I did want but none of them could be chosen without the automatic transmission.  

It is a four bar linkage on both the e38 and e39, and probably other BMWs of the time.  Works well.

I had a Lancia Yupsilon when I was last in Italy for work. 65ish horsepower a bit bigger than this old Twingo. It was a hoot, I buzzed around town and pushed it up onto the highways. Always stirring the 5 speed stick. It was a familiar experience for me as I frequently drive an Austin Healey Sprite with 56hp in the…

I was thinking the same thing, scratching my head as to what other possible names there were for door cards.

This is surprisingly good advice. My parents old Jeep Zj had a bigger tailgate opening than their new Cherokee with respect to height. However the Zj had the spare tire on the side in the back, significantly eating up storage room side to side.