The CAR WIZARD shares the top BMW's TO Buy & NOT to Buy!

welcome back to the wizard shop this is another episode by this not that and we'll continue to do these off and on and some of you guys make comments in the section I'd like to see this brand or that brand what to buy or not to buy and recently I've had a lot of requests for BMW so today's episode or buy this not that it's going to be BMWs so we're going to go over the different models of what to buy and what not to buy and again I'm going to inform you guys up front everybody has their opinions and my opinions are based on experience and years in the shop and working on various different models of BMW so seeing the pluses the minuses the pitfalls and the glorious moments and I'm going to tell you guys up front right now I don't like BMWs I really don't like any of them assets of the older ones they're there I can go for the older ones but you get up to 1995 98 99 and getting on to newer you pretty much lose me at that point I'm not interested in any BMWs car wizard why I've seen people lose tons of cash on these cars more so than a Mercedes more so than a Volvo or something like that I mean all these cars are expensive to maintain but some of the things on the newer BMWs are just so complex and so expensive it's just they're harder to work on than the Maserati they're stupidly hard to work on well behind me I have a nice backdrop of an older BMW and what we get towards the end of this episode we'll go over this car and some of the things we've done to it and reveal what kind it is maybe some of you already know what it is but there's a nice little backdrop here so without further ado let's get started we're going to start in the compact car segment the BMW 2 by in the compact segment again since I said I like the older ones 75 to 1983 e 21 320i these cars are very easy to work on there were actually fairly reliable because they're not so complex they're actually very fun to drive he talks them around they handle good I mean they're not a speed ship or anything but they're actually very fun to drive I found that out on working some on some of them that it's getting harder and harder to find some of the parts I go to whirl pack I go to FCP euro or different places like that and they're like yeah you know we actually are out of stock of those this or that and good luck so it's kind of a kind of troublesome with that but otherwise a good car I would definitely have if I was going to get a BMW I'd have one of those the one not to buy the 97 to 2006 e 46 there should be the 318 - 325 - 330 I every time one of these pulls into the shop it is rag out yeah they're cheap nobody wants to maintain them the cost easily exceeds the value of the car they usually get abandoned as far as maintenance goes people are like I'm not spending that on this car and even worth that every time again every time one of these comes into the shop there's at least 15 things broken on them and it isn't because they're a piece of junk it's because nobody ever fixes the stuff on them they're like what 600 bucks a grand yeah forget that no not on this car so those those things get skipped over maintenance gets skipped very heavily in these series of cars they do are cheap they are built cheap - they're not very reliable they have lots of gadgets and things go wrong this is one of the ones I would recommend not to buy you're going to get in trouble with repairs on those now we're going to move to the mid-size segment of what to buy and what not to buy and in this segment the one to buy me the 1987 to 96 a 34 5 Series these would be your 530i 540 I especially in the 92 to 96 range I think that's really where those are really in that range those would be the ones I would highly recommend in the sighs segment is the the v8 model so 532 548 are actually fairly reliable they look really great they're fun to drive the parts are there they're going to be expensive but they're not so bad and they are fast they're pretty fast car especially we get the 540i with the manual transmission they're a blast to drive really good cars I actually used to have a a wagon 530 wagon I loved that car they do have some issues like in the - they have the climate control and the little LCD screens and things go bad and you have to send them in and get them rebuilt or there's something with a ribbon or something on the cluster that go bad and you can't read the dash but other than that in the midsize that would be the one to buy and the in this segment the the one not to buy would be the 2003 to 2010 East 65 series the five series in this year range 203 210 are just pretty much crap they're really really bad on the quality they're extra extremely expensive to repair they're very difficult to repair this the kind of repairs that makes you want to pull your hair out with Valvetronic and you got vanos and different things going on and it just can really be stressful very very stressful it's not a matter of whether I can or can't fix it it's just that so many cars come and go during the day I fix it I have experience I get the job done the customers happy they pay and then one of these 525 535 come in and it should take me a couple hours and it takes six it takes eight hours because it's just so complex it's just it's like I don't even want these cars in here this is crazy the interior quality in these cars is very cheap and there's a reason for that these cars are actually assembled in China a BMW made in China you know I definitely would not recommend one of these I actually have when my customers rinse out Toros he has a 535 Wagon xDrive twin turbos and everything Seco this is an awesome car he personally asked me one day he says David do you like that car and I said yeah it's it's pretty neat little car I guess I was trying to be nice you know he looked me right in the eye says that's a bag that's just a total bag of crap he says I won't have another one it's garbage he said if it was a piece of paper I would crumple it up and throw it in the dumpster and never look back he said I'll never have another one so take that advice from him and from me they're junk now we're going to move to the large car segment the the bigger heavier cars and in this segment the one to buy 1994 to 2001 a 38-7 series these are the years where the 7 Series was built like a tank the the quality is way up there they're very reliable again they have those v8s that were in the 5 Series I talked about the the 4 liter and the 3 liter v8 they're they're reliable they're powerful they're fun to drive these 7 series ride very good they're starting to get the gadgets and a lot of computers and complex stuff in them but they're still manageable it's still it's still worth putting up with some of the negatives of those would be the fuel economy is not so great obviously in a big car and like I said before they're getting starting to get some of the gadgets even some of this some of the 7 Series had a TV a little CRT TV in there and that thing goes bad or even if it's working it doesn't pick up any channels but not today but now we'll move on to the one not to buy the one not to buy it be 2001 to 2008 East 65 7 Series BMW these are your 745 your 760 s i--'s and IL I guess the the rear end of these cars this is the area that called the Bengal but because it was I think the designers lasting with Bengal these cars are extremely extremely complex with the iDrive and all the different gadgets and heated and cooled seats and sun shades and drink coolers and almost like a little refrigerator in the back on the seven sixties and they are crammed packed full of computers and computers and computers tons of computers there's always something broken if you get one of these cars I can guarantee you one thing there will always be something broken on that car you will never have a moment that you own the car and say wow everything's working that will never happen if some of you have that happening it's a it's an act of God or something because I've never seen one where everything works they're very they're very complex and the quality is not very good it's not a car to buy with 10-15 years and a hundred thousand or more miles on it it'll break the bank it'll always be broke it'll always be in the shop you can plan on it on one of those so now we're going to jump into the SUV segment and I actually have to move up in the year range because they really didn't have a whole lot of SUVs back in the 80s and early 90s the one to buy in the SUV segment 2003 to 2010 EA T 3 X 3 out of the BMW SUV this is going to be your most reliable it's actually going to be somewhat economical it may be a little small on the small size but as far as the SUVs go do they make it's the only one that I can recommend to you that you could actually enjoy it it would be fairly reliable buy it and drive it around without a whole bunch of trouble without a whole bunch of they're still going to have the issues it's a BMW but that's pretty there's really not a whole lot to choose from and that's the one I choose for the one to buy the one not to buy is 99206 C 53 X 5 these ones have the worst quality of every BMW that there is they're just absolutely horrible if you don't believe me watch some of who V's garage videos where he talks about these these are being built on the same frame actually the Land Rover L 322 and the X 5 they share air suspension they share engines they share a whole bunch of slew of parts and oh four or oh five Range Rover what does Tyler at who V's Garage say for the love of God don't buy one of these so we put those two brands together where we're working on BMWs but Land Rover at the time was owned by BMW either one of those don't buy one of them they have a nose problems timing chain problems where the guides just fall down in the oil pan air suspension you'll be in Starbucks getting you a drink and all of a sudden the thing just sinks an error some sort of error pops up it dumps the air and you're sitting there on your bump stops and you look like a total idiot these cars can make you look really good they can make you look like an absolute to sitting in the middle of drive-through I've had it happen do not buy the x5 s and the 99206 range you won't be happy the final in fifth category we're going to talk about today is the sport category if you're looking for a sporty car in the BMW world there is some specialty cars but the ones I'm going to recommend the sport range really are just souped up versions of pre-existing models already have the M series the ones to buy in this category have been 92 to 99 e36 m3 these are fun cars Tyler actually had one just recently and got rid of it and the guys he sold it to drove it quite a long distance with no trouble they can be fairly reliable if taking care of their sporty bear they handle great they're really a fun car the only sad thing about them is usually when you buy one by the time it gets to you every other teenager or whoever has driven the snot out of it it's just rag out there are some out there that are their garage Queens in there they're in very good shape but most of them kind of like c4 Corvettes trying to find a really nice one it's really hard they're usually trashed I mean just worn flat out so if this is the one I recommend in the sport category if you are looking at one of these be careful make sure you get a good one a nice one and as long as you maintain it it'll be a good car in this category what definitely not to buy would be the O 5 to 10 East 60 m5 these cars will easily put you into bankruptcy very very quickly you'll be going to the bank asking for ten and fifteen and twenty thousand dollar loans just to get your car repaired just to keep the thing on the road and it will happen over and over in a we had to m5 in here Tyler and one of the stupidest things that I've ever heard of on a car is what they have is a certain determined service life of the rod bearings and it's an engine out job you have to pull the motor to do this job and it's extremely expensive just think about that for a minute you have a Corvette a Lamborghini or Ferrari a Porsche how many times do you have to go through rod bearings never almost never but on those I think it's a sixty or eighty or a hundred thousand miles I don't remember but you're supposed to pull the motor and replace them or those shell out and just trash the motor and they have very poor reliability and really the transmission the SMG transmission we the one Tyler had in here we got it running and driving fine it but it was just clunky it shifted horrible I didn't like it and and that's again that's my opinion I think it's something I wouldn't want to drive every day and everything on this car from front to back is way way overpriced expensive just like I told you a minute ago you're not going to go to the bank for five grand it's gonna be ten fifteen twenty don't buy one of these just don't do it get something else there's a lot of people that are pondering so I'd like to get into the European car market I'd like to get me a BMW this always comes to mind I want to get a European car that means I need to get a BMW that's that just comes to mind they don't know the story they don't know that the truth behind all these cars they just I need to get a BMW so they go to Craigslist and they go through and I say wow I can get a a 525 for 4500 bucks there's a reason why they're cheap because the owners are like I'm not putting any more money into this thing I'm done I'm gonna take the loss sell it to somebody else and you just bought that car now it's your problem so one thing to remember if you're searching for a BMW it's easy to get confused with all the nomenclatures the the 525 325 747 45 and it gets can fusing it's not like in your mind Ford Pinto oh yeah that's a piece of junk or Chevy Cavalier or you know that's okay car you can go by the names and it automatically registers is this is good or that's junk it's kind of kind of gets kind of foggy and hazy when you get into five twenty five five thirty five thirty five seven forty three twenty it sound like an auctioneer it it can get very confusing do your research before you buy a BMW and again the older ones if you really want a BMW I recommend an older model 78 79 80 somewhere around in there for brakes it's not gonna make you go bankrupt you can maybe even fix it yourself they're not hard to work on so now we got through all the to buy not to buy let's take a look at this car and it's almost done we're almost finished with it we've got to replace the injectors on it and we're done with it and the customer can have it back it's been in here for a while I had quite a laundry list and we've worked piece by piece through the list and we're almost done so let's take a look at it so this is a 1978 320i this is one of the compacts I recommended just recent just here a little bit ago and this one here has had a slew of things done to it we did a blower motor we got a new tachometer we fixed some issues with the fuel tank we got points put in we did a I did a valve adjustment we got the AC or charged and working again we did the belts I mean we've really gone through quite a bit on this car and it was all very easy I didn't get mad it wasn't complicated it's totally a Sunday afternoon type of a car you can work on it we're going to replace these injectors a couple of them are leaking he's only shut off the car and you go to start at an hour to later and just smoke fuel it's not holding pressure so we're gonna get those replaced and get it back together and he's going to be a happy customer that's the last thing we have on this car and we will have finished the list that he gave us again these are fun cars they're fun to work on they're fun to drive it's an enjoyable experience to have one if you get newer into 2000 and newer BMW that goes away really fast really fast let me give you another little incident I had a oh wait I think it was there oh nine maybe it was a ten five twenty or 535i and it had there's a little three dollar seal that's an alternator bracket seal they run oil from the engine through the alternator bracket and they just put a little three dollar seal I had to replace that because it was a Niagara Falls of oil coming down his engine all over the place all over his driveway nine hundred dollars in labor because I had to pull the whole basically the whole front and motor of accessories and the alternator and the bracket and the AC compressor all that stuff out of the way tons of labor for a three dollar seal so we actually did a video on this car when it first came in and we looked it over and checked it over and now we're getting to the point where we're about done with it it's been in here for a while it was an agreement with the customer that as I got time I would work on it and just kind of take my time with it and that's what I've done and we're almost done I'm excited to to give it back to it and so if you haven't already check the links below if you're interested in the merchandise or checking out tools that I use or you want to buy some tools we have the Amazon affiliates down there and my subscriber count keeps climbing I'm real appreciative to you guys for that if you haven't already click the subscribe button and share the video with your friends say hey check this guy out check out the car wizard that'll really help me out and I'd be appreciative of that too and don't forget car issues on fYI that is a I hear from the grapevine that the ratings on that are just through the roof they're really doing great you won't be disappointed if you able to go to a friend's house or a family members house and catch a episode of two of car issues so again thanks for watching and look forward to more cool videos [Music] I'll just say it real quick we're just doing a little filming here all right

Channel: Car Wizard

Views: 668,918

Rating: 4.8147507 out of 5

Keywords: car wizard, david long, hoovies garage, tyler hoover, car issues with tyler hoover, chrisfix, omega auto clinic, scotty kilmer, car repair, car maintenance, tavarish, Doug DeMuro, vehicle virgins, watchjrgo, jalopnik, smoking tire, samcrac, vinwiki, Hoovie, mechanic, Car issues, BMW, used cars, buy this not that, buy this car

Id: VdVsbLQvlMM

Length: 20min 5sec (1205 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 10 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/matt98147]

How is an E46 hard to work on? Lmao

[u/TinuvaZA]

He is not entirely wrong though. I own 2x E46s and sold 1x E46. The maintenance backlog on these cars is impressive. Previous owners just don't care on fixing the issues, then get rid of the cars when the list is too long. Its definitely not hard to work on, just the amount of things to fix when you buy one that is annoying.

[u/ballislife74628]

I’ve done my own plugs, coils, and today gonna do my fuel pump. Also did ccv with some guidance from a friend who actually is a mechanic. Would’ve done the suspension work myself too but I don’t have a lift. These cars are ez

[u/makeeh]

As an ex E46 owner and current E60 owner some steam literally just came out of my ears.

[u/helmethead2002]

I know this guy. He’s from Kansas and owns a shop called the omega auto clinic. He’s also heavily featured in the channel Hoovies Garage. He definitely knows what he’s doing but I was kinda triggered by this vid.