[Nickshu]

Originally Posted by jhynesrockmtn

I worked at a non profit in Seattle in the 2010 time frame. We occasionally had vehicles donated. The Donation manager called me one day and said hey, come down and check out this Beemer we just got. It seemed like it was in really nice overall shape. A 7 series of this vintage. We drove it briefly. Several warning lights on including airbag, abs and check engine. The manager said the donor was just done with it after chasing things and staring at estimates to get it to pass smog and deal with the bigger issues. Repairs were going to be way more than it was worth. We wholesaled it for a couple grand at most. I thought briefly about taking it on at that price but ultimately passed. I had ridden in a few and always was impressed by them.

Yeah my impression is that if you get behind on taking care of little things on these cars they snowball very quickly, and if you can't DIY it's cost prohibitive.