I was reading a consumers report a few months back and they had an article advocating that people purchase used vehicles over new ones to avoid the huge loss of depreciation of a new vehicle purchase.

I was rather surprised that CR recommended a used M3 or S4 for around 30K (I forget the years they recommended--2004 maybe?).

Anyways, this fact peaked my interest and I've just done some looking around for fun and I wanted to see if anyone can fill me in on the maintenance costs of owning either car (tires, oil change, brake costs). I'm curious because some of the owner reviews, some people post that new brakes cost over $1000 and you have to replace them all the time.

I'm not looking to buy anytime soon, but the idea of trading both my Si and S for one of these is tempting...

 

M3 just cause I like it

 

M3 just cuz we all like it.

 

i would say m3 although i have heard the maintenance costs can get pretty high

 

German cars are very expensive to maintain..Brakes will be over $1,000 and they like to replace all the rotor's. My dad traded in his Forrester XT and his S2000 on a CPO RS6 and couldn't be happier. An RS6 is INSANELY expensive to maintain...I'm talking $3,000 for brakes every 30,000 miles.

Keep researching..visit Audiworld and the BMW sites and ask around. Coming from Honda's you'll be in for a real shock when you look at maintenance and ownership costs.

 

i prefer the s4 for a daily driver, m3 as a pure toy

audi advantages
4 doors
subtle yet smooth exhaust note
v8 that loves to rev
quattro
aftermarket support - high quality parts in the suspension, diff areas (I wouldn't mess much with the power, to me its fine)
sweet shifter
suede seats - sharper interior with better audio

m3 advantages
feels more nimble and rotates better
prefer the looks in the competition package models

 

I am a big fan of the E46 M3

 

Their reputations are not unfounded. I posted my E46M3 horror stories here. I had it under warranty and you will never see me in one out of warranty that isn't a track car. I had 10K+ in issues at 35k miles when the car was less then 3 years old. Could be bad luck or a bad vehicle, but you have to draw the line between bad luck and "holy $hit" somewhere.

There is a reason they depreciate so quickly. My friend's 05 SL500 with almost no miles [like 10k] had $1200 in issues because the battery for the top [yes, two batteries, one for top, one for engine] kept failing for no reason. The batteries had no warranty and OEM units were $$$. This guy rolls deep and he had ME putting the batteries in at the end because he was so sick of throwing 100's at the dealer and driving all the way across down.

 

I went S2000 > E46 M3 > Porsche Cayman S > M5

I have not experienced this ridiculously high maintenance cost all these Honda owners keep talking about in German cars. Yeah, things are a little more expensive, but you're also driving a lot more car - $20,000 more car in most S2000 to M3 cases. Things are relative to the price of the vehicle you drive.

 

The reason expensive cars depreciate quickly is mainly because when you hit a certain price-point, people have the extra money to buy it new. A couple thousand dollars of savings isn't as appealing to a new car. The gap has to be massive to find a different market segment that is willing to buy that luxury vehicle used. There are exceptions of course, but this is the basic principle.

With lower price points (such as where Honda's are), $1,000 in savings is a big deal to some people. There are also issues of supply and demand that have particularly been in effect lately.