Bimmer-Beamer-Beater?

Beater or not? $4700 plus about $1000 for new tires, fluids, belts, fuel pump, and an alignment, as well as a few miscellaneous items. It's getting 23 mpg all around with the automatic...though I would rather have the 5-speed, but that will be my next BMW. This 1998 is the last year of the E36 body style and I would like to upgrade to an E46 or an E92 for the next go-round. Not sure I'm ready for an M3 yet, plus it would be tough to find one that hasn't been redlined too many times.

Five Cars Later

2010 will go down in history as one of the most tumultous of my lifetime. The year began with me in a 2005 Honda Accord EX, completely paid off and with 71,000 miles. That car was sold for $12,000. Then came the 1993 Lexus SC300, which was $3900. Another $600 in repairs later, I sold it for $3700 for a loss of about $800.

Now for the doozy, the big bomb. I decided to surprise my wife and break my vow to NEVER have a car loan again (which I hadn't had since 2007) and pulled into the Lexus dealership one fateful noon in late July. There was a breakwater blue 2009 IS250 AWD with less than 10k miles that whispered to me and ended up in my garage later that day with a big red bow on the top of it. Though it was "affordable," my wife insisted I return the car 9 days later and get a less expensive model. It is not that easy to just take a car back to a car dealer; definitely not like returning clothing or an appliance. With no thought at all, I pointed at a white '09 Camry in the used lot and said I'll take it. So now that thing was in my garage; a refrigerator on wheels, reliable and dull as the day is long. It is now parked with a For Sale sign in the window.

What graces my garage now, and will for the next several millennia, is a silver 1998 BMW 328i sedan with 134,000 miles on it. The approximate result is that I paid about $4,000 for this "new" ride. Maybe not my smartest financial decision, but I have more fun on the apexes in the Bimmer than I did in the Honda. Pictures to come soon.

A Beater is a Beater

Rethinking my "real cost" outlay for the BB: $3900 was the purchase price in May. 7.725% Sales tax is not collected on private party car sales in Washoe County Nevada, so that saved me $301.27, and the $300 I spent on window tint was not totally necessary to make the car road ready. I will count the fluid changes, window regulator, and DMV fees for an adjusted "basis" of $4600.00 ($3,900+$1,000 maintenance/DMV-$301 sales tax).

The rationale behind the adjustment is not to simply make me feel better about the purchase, though I did negotiate the price down from $4800, I did not thoroughly road test the car, nor did I run a Carfax before buying. All of this led to not discovering the non-working A/C, the low oil level at purchase, the condition of the front suspension, and the fact that the car had failed emission testing twice before being repaired and had been in an accident in Florida on Christmas eve in 1994...though the title to the car was clean in California and remains clean in Nevada.

OK, the adjusted basis DOES make me feel somewhat better about the car, and I hope to learn from it so that if next spring comes round and I cannot upgrade to a better-than-beater car, I will at least have a stronger inspection and purchase method in place.

At 35 miles per workday and somewhat less each weekend day, I'm looking at about 1,000 miles per month and another 10,000 miles on top of the 121k on the car now. Two more oil changes between now and the end of May, 2011 at $35 per change at Preferred Auto, barring any unforeseen breakdowns, will bring my final basis to $4670 at that point. Making the wild assumption that I can sell the thing for $2500 then, my total cost of ownership, not including gasoline, will be about $2170 over the course of twelve months, or $180.83 per month, $5.95 per day, or $0.17 per mile assuming a total of 13,000 miles driven.

Admittedly, this is being selective in what I count as driving expenses, so they should be qualified as "beater driving expenses" that likely will not apply to normal cars. AAA says that a medium sized sedan costs $0.173 cents per mile to operate, not including insurance or DMV fees, though this figure DOES include gasoline, which they reckon to be about $0.12 per mile. SO, I am an idiot, obviously, because I'm REALLY paying close to $0.30 per mile to run this beater!

In the next installment of Beater Blog, I will refine these calculations so as to provide a more accurate and thorough analysis of actual operating expenses of the Beautiful Beater.

The Summer of Discomfort-No A/C in the Beautiful Beater

The National Weather Service repots a Red flag warning in effect from 3 PM this afternoon to 8 PM PDT this evening for gusty winds and low humidity for the western Nevada Sierra front...

It is 94 degrees and 10% relative humidity right now in Reno, NV. I just stepped into the air conditioned comfort of my office after the 12.4-mile round trip to the gym for my regular lunchtime workout and I feel nauseated. The five tacos and one large chocolate shake from Jack in the Box may be contributing to my queasiness, but I would rather blame the heat.

The Beautiful Beater (BB for short), my '93 Lexus SC300, has no working air conditioning. The last time I had a car with no A/C, it was a 1987 Dodge Ram-50, essentially a Mitsubishi Mighty Max pickup. Somehow, putting both windows down and venting in reasonably fresh air made it bearable, plus I was 25-years-old at the time. But twenty years later, and something may be wrong with me or age has made me more sensitive to extreme heat and cold, it's like being in a steam box during these midday jaunts. Both windows and the sunroof open, and driving at top speed makes no difference. Plus, the leather on the driver's seat is trashed to the point that the underlying foam layers have begun to emit odors of decay and rot, which is made more aromatic in near 100-degree heat.

But I don't care. Seriously. I can do 10 months of no A/C standing on my head. It will be in the 70's in a few months and then I will be a happy Bozo. Winter problems will consist of traction issues with a rear-drive car on Goodyear Eagle GT's with 35% treadlife by that time. I will cross that bridge, or slide across it sideways, when I get to it.

Golden Control Arms

Just learned that the car needs new struts at $125 each and new control arms at $875 each! Plus labor! What a learning experience this is becoming. In addition, the car would still need the A/C pressure regulator replaced ($475 from lexusoemparts.com) and a R12 freon recharge to make it a relatively comfortable car. Oh, and then there are the ripped leather seats that could be recovered by Trimline for $1200. In summary so far:



Car purchase plus maintenance & items listed in first post: $5300
Add suspension repair: $2500
Add A/C repair: $600
Add new leather: $1200

Total: $9600
KBB in "good" condition (private party value): $4965
KBB in "fair" condition (private party value): $4290

Arguably, the car is in fair condition, so I am already down $1,000. The best likely conclusion is to drive it for a year and do just basic maintenance, by which I mean oil changes and any other minimal services needed, then sell it for the fair condition value next summer. The plan then would be to do MUCH better research on the next beater, e.g. have it looked at by at trusted mechanic. I vow to do a better job on the next beater adventure!

Beater #1

1993 Lexus SC300-Purchased 5/7/10 for $3900. Since then the car has had all fluids and filters changed, a new window regulator on the passenger side installed, and the windows tinted by Trimline. Including this service, smog check and DMV fees, I'm in to the car $5,300.

It still needs an alignment and a pressure regulator for the A/C system, probably another $700, which is going to put me even further over the Kelley Blue Book "good condition" value of $4965. "Fair condition" for the car is $4290, which is likely more accurate as the interior leather is pretty trashed. On the plus side, the paint is newer, though not the best quality, and the Goodyear Eagle GT tires all match with 50% treadlife left.

The 3.0 liter 2JZ-GE inline six is very strong and smooth, with an outstanding exhaust note. This is the same engine Toyota used in the Supra and the Japanese market Soarer. The SC300 has been called a "Supra in a tux," which is a good description of this car.

I have it on Craigslist for $4,800, which would have me eating $500 on the deal. Even at $4200, I would have had use of a car for about two months for $1100, or just under $20 a day not including gas, about the cost of a sub-compact rental from Hertz.

The idea, however, is to profit from these things, though in Nevada one can only sell 3 personally owned cars per year and this would be my second sale in 2010 (the first was a 2005 Honda Accord EX-L that I had owned since new-KBB good condition was about $11,500 and it sold for $12,000 with 71,000 miles on the clock in early May 2010). The Honda was $23,500 new in 2005. Including maintenance and registration of roughly $800 a year (all regular services plus DMV fees and one new set of tires), the car cost me around $16,000 to own and operate for a little over five years. That equates to $8.77 per day, not including gas.

In order to get the Lexus in that cost-per-day range, I will have to use it for another 70 days and not do any additional work on it. With an inoperable A/C and temperatures in Reno going to near 100 this weekend, I may be willing to take the bus to work for the next two months.

If I sell the Lexus this weekend, I have my eye on a 1990 Honda Civic Si with about 250,000 miles on it. The owner is asking $1300-KBB Fair value is $735 and Good is $1,235. I'll put on my Priceline Negotiator face and offer the guy $500...assuming the car is not a total mess with a salvage title! More to come.