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They are not money pits if you do your own repairs. If you go to the dealer, however, you can spend a lot of money fast on a BMW with 100k+ miles on it.
I own three 3-Series BMWs with a total of around a half-million miles on them, and my cost per mile to date has been very reasonable.
The good news is that most of the things likely to fail on these cars are things that the average person with a modest tool set can repair.
My boss has a 2003 325 that he bought when it came off lease. He loves it, but it has been to the dealer several times getting its sunroof and window regulators repaired, as well as several other superficial problems. He can afford it.
When the driver door window regulator failed in my wife's 2004 330, I fixed it myself with two zip ties. Total investment was about $1 and an afternoon, and it is now stronger than a new one.
Both climate control computers have failed in my '97 e36s, and I fixed each of them by replacing one capacitor on the circuit board, about $1 each. The dealer would have put in new computers at about $450 ea.
Both e36s have broken nylon gears in the seat recliner gearbox. Dealer would replace the motor/gearbox for around $300. I bought a new nylon gear for $30 and put it in.
For the few things that you cannot do because they require special tools or a hoist, find a good, trusted independent mechanic. Here in Sacramento, we are fortunate to have a number of excellent independent shops that specialize in German cars.
More examples of how expensive things can get if you pay dealers to work on the car - my daughter took her '97 328 to the BMW dealer with a no-start problem. They charged her $700 for a new starter that it turned out she did not need, and then they told her that the car was unsafe to drive and needed $1000 worth of work on the steering system, which was a bold-faced lie. Then the flunkie who washed her car at the dealer jambed her seat belt buckle and set the SRS light, and they wanted to charge her to reset it.
A few months later when I fixed my wife's window regulator in her '04 330, I carelessly turned on the key to test it while the door air bag was unplugged (stupid). That set the SRS light. My younger daughter took the car to the dealer to get the SRS light reset. They wanted $180 to spend 30 seconds plugging in the SRS tool and pushing the button to clear the code. That was not going to happen. My trusted local independent mechanic reset it for free. I took him a box of doughnuts.
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