kwhelan

good visibility out the back and side windows, easy to park,easy to judge front and rear extremities. good stereo and heater, good demister, good steering turn radius, good aircon, not likely to get stolen. plenty of cup and storage holders for the commute. something peppy over the first 100m from the lights and short enough to squeeze into tight parks for a city dweller with short doors that don't open too wide

850 seriously or is that an exaggeration, you'd have to drive home in 4th in your 8 speed to make it work and you'd be buggered in a cvt TBH i don't think it really matters with modern motors except the obvious really hard caning from cold, you don't see rentals or lease vehicles that appear to be any worse than private ones despite peoples lack of care so they must be pretty sorted

there's extremes to both arguments and bit of history to some that probably doesn't apply anymore. the first gen 1.5 laser/mazda had many stories of glazed bores due to people nursing them too much but that was possibly more a new engineering tolerances type bug, workshop would take them out and thrash the living daylights out of them to fix it. not saying that applies to newer models where all the tolerances have been changed significantly over early 70s/80s engines . oils have changed,onboard computers are self adjusting in realtime now alot of very fancy car makers bench test their engines before they're even installed into the chassis and they're hitting big revs on the testbeds

agreed I had 19s on a e39 and hated them, the low profile tyres were fine on Auckland motorways but I lived in HB. each pothole felt and sounded like you had hit the rim and rattled your teeth, if you saw one coming you ducked, crunched and waited for impact, it was horrible, even a manhole cover was something you swerved , car was lowered too so that added to the issue. talking to wheel shops the woman driving hubbys v8 commodores can smash a 20" just parking and hitting the kerb. looks great but just not practical.

its the little things, high kms means wear, seat springs, windows mechs, door handles, key barrels,hinges, rubber seals on doors boot etc the engine and drivetrain can be fine but when you start talking shocks, steering, braking everything has a life, they may still be working but they are never tight like a low kms car, of course some old cars are immaculate and some new ones are cheap weak crap but generally eventually you do tire of older vehicles when you step in a reasonable newer one

for that money your in the v36 skylines which are bullet proof, don't go 2.5 though as they were built for taxis only in japan to meet there stupid regulations. the 3.5 is better in every way and actually cheaper on gas. I have a 3.7 and its the best car Ive owned in years, cost nothing but an oil change every year and eats long trips at alarming rates 245kw and I get 700km from a tank. take one for a test , you will be impressed,great brakes, handling too, small boot is the only negative https://www.drifted.com/vq37vhr/

think the headlights are the giveaway

to be fair you could say that about just about any car in those ranges tho nowdays, Honda seem to be the only ones going their own way slightly by adding on sharp angles and its not surprising when you see the koreans have pinched the same designers who worked on the euros

weirder that its in english?

not sure in your area but decent locksmiths can often do them,

I'd own either of those Porsches, still dam good vehicles and despite having more seats get reasonably good reviews don't see your point at all agree about the m fun cars though, they won't suddenly become unlikeable, its just progress I guess

you could argue american muscle cars are getting better and going back oldskool may be the only option for diehard tyre spinners

so your saying they are using magic moondust rubber that last 2 whole years, wow seems to be well worth the cost then, you got ripped

theres no logic to it,you just have to suck it up if you want to run a bmw, along with water pumps and various other parts. It certainly hard to justify to any sane person like your wife when your car just keeps soaking up money compared to her bulletproof japper which in the 116 category is no worse in any way than the bmw bmw owners are masochists

a pulley and coolant tank on a car that's done 60k in 7yrs is pathetic unless your looking through BMW rose tinted glasses. We all know and expect those things to fail through unfortunate experience but its hardly fair to expect a new bmw owner to realize that and just call it maintenance because to nearly any other brand its not expected. Its a small town runabout and should be judged against its competition for expected maintenance. its hardly an M3

I share your distrust and treat a lot of dealers with caution ,sometimes you have no choice especially regarding warranty but I 've caught them out too many times for them to just be all believed as straight up honest. My nissan warrant for example was passed ok, but needed new rear pads supposedly, odd I thought so never did anything about it and 3 years later still sailing thru warrants at the same nissan dealer I used to work at a holden dealer in the parts dept myself so I know full well how often wiper blades and things were changed on customers cars.

or some true fan whos it was their pride and joy and who had it all done at dealerships and just burned money, rare but they do exist

Eeeyore

I just bought one off aliexpress, local locksmith programmed it for me for probably a quarter of that

what grade of steel wool