Is it worth it...

[AlBel1214]

I average about 22K miles a year... so after 5 years I would have around 110K on my 135i...

Would it be smart if I can find a reliable "beater" for about 5-6 grand (that I would plan to cut into half of the 22K a year) to jump on that??....

In other words would the value of the 1'er with 55K miles be worth over around 8 grand (which is around the cost of the beater + insurance + basic service) than the 1'er with 110K in 5 years???

Just wondering if this is a good financial decision..

Thanks!

[1speedbike]

Not sure about your current payment plan / other options, but I hope this can help you out, at least a bit:

http://www.cars.com/go/alg/index.jsp

[AlBel1214]

^^^ Nice.. that helps with a general residual value but I wish you could plug in mileage to alter that residual even further based on how many miles are on the car...

[1speedbike]

Originally Posted by AlBel1214

^^^ Nice.. that helps with a general residual value but I wish you could plug in mileage to alter that residual even further based on how many miles are on the car...

I was trying to find a calculator that COULD calculate that, but that's all I could find, I'm sorry

I hope you find something that can help you more than my suggestion!

[AlBel1214]

No problem... I wish there was some sort of formula like 1 mile = x dollars of depreciations...

[ptack]

I doubt the 1 has a high enough price such that the change in value over time/miles would be great enough so, that if just mileage was reduced significantly, the value savings would equal or be greater to cost of having a 2nd car which must also be insured and maintained during that same time frame. It could make sense if you put huge numbers of miles (over 50k) on per year, but at that point it would be economicaly foolish to buy a 1 as a DD since the use requirements more or less make the car disposable.

[e82vette]

just ride the 135 as DD and keep it until she dies on the road.....

[Jaguar66]

.

[tbird]

I have definitely put my two cents in on this in multiple threads, so I apologize to those who have read this a million times from me.

I did exactly this. I got a commuter beater. For you, you are only looking at residual value. You also have to add in the real wear/tear, AND repair costs. You even blink at a BMW, and it runs up money. On my wife's last car, E46, two rear struts were Dealer=$1700 and indy shop=$800. I am redoing my entire suspension on my commuter car (Struts, Shocks, Springs) and also upgrading them to Eibach Sport and the cost will be $800.

PLUS, two things to consider, MPG and Insurance. MPG, obvious, the 1 does not do great MPG. Of course, you don't purchase the car for that, especially the 135. It is not a high mileage car, it is high speed and high fun, but not high mpg. As gas is inevitably going to skyrocket again, the fuel costs will become a killer again.

THEN, insurance. Of the trillion factors that the insurance companies put on us, one is the mileage per year, and then the other is "Distance of Commute Each Way" with 25 miles being a key line.

I crunched the numbers, and I found that my little beater Ford Focus completely blows away the costs of the 1 on the long run. You purchase either a used dependable beater like a Ford Focus for about $3000 to $4000, with repair costs being low due to cheap American parts and a hosts of shops who will work on it, OR you purchase a new beater like the Hyundai Elantra for $9000 with 10y/100K limited warranty, or the Dodge Caliber (currently 50% off sticker price) for $10K with 3/36 BtoB warranty and Lifetime Engine/Powertrain warranty.

Put the commuter car as the Primary on your insurance. As your 1) Commuting Car, and 2) Errands/Run around town car, the insurance company will be required to put it as your "Primary Car" and they have to base your entire policy. With me, that put my wife's car as second, and then my 1 is THIRD car on the policy with an annual mileage of 6000. They drop the insurance way down.

THEN, when you see all the door dings and rock chips and scratches and wear-and-tear on your beater, while your 1 still shines in the sun with its warranty still intact, you sit back and remind yourself of how freaking smart and efficient you are :->

My "Bianca" thanks me every time it sees the BILLION blemishes on my Focus. Now THAT's residual value for the 1, when it is spotless after 5 years, instead of either beat up or repainted (which devalues the car but costs money to repaint and can only be repainted in a BMW shop or the value plummets even more).

Good luck.

[arrutled]

i created a depreciation spreadsheet in excel at my house, but I am at work right now. If you pm me ill be glad to plug everything in when I get home. But my guess is that no it wont. Age is the most important factor in a cars value it seems and mileage is a bonus.

[tbird]

Age counts, definitely, but the rule is "Anything above 60K miles is wholesale/auction only", so they immediately depreciate it an extra 10% to 20% over if the car was only 58K miles.

If you go to CarMax (which is a major used-car-superdealer along the East Coast, owned by AutoNation, the monster mega dealer), they have a Super-Bargain section on their lots in which they put all the 60K+ miles cars, no matter what type or condition. You could have a beater Chevy Cavalier right next to a BMW or MB. If its over 60K miles, they just want to get rid of it.

Then on top of that, if the car shows wear and tear with those extra high miles, they will rip your residual value to pieces. The dealers are brutal right now.

[pjdvd]

If you want to know what mileage does to a car, use the kbb tool. Pick a 2006 M3 (or something) and re-run the calculator, increasing the mileage 10K at a time from 55K to 105K. See what happens and that should give you an idea, with regard to mileage.

Personally, I have a beater for the winter and my 6 mile daily commute so I put LOW miles on my toy car (prev. owned MY02 S2K). I didn't do the insurance or residual math because I knew I would not want to drive the toy car in the winter or back and forth to work too much due to the repetitive short trips.

[AlBel1214]

Yes it may cost a bit more with regular maintenance/insurance overall with buying a beater... but then again in 5 years even if that total cost of the beater exceeds the difference of what the 1'er is worth with 50K vs what the 1er would be worth with 100K. there is less wear and tear on the 1'er....

and then if I decided to keep the 1 for 2 to 3 years later after it is paid off the manintenance costs for things breaking out of warrenty are way down b/c the likelyhood of things failing would be much lower since it won't be getting killed in mileage every week for 5 years...

[AlBel1214]

I guess one other factor which someone mentioned above is you buy a car to drive it and "enjoy" driving it... if one purchases a junker at least IMO they should still get something they would "enjoy"... not somethign they look at and despise getting into and only do it to save miles on there main car...

that is why I am looking at things totally different than the 1 for my DD... a few older 4 cyl pickups, jeep wranglers, small SUVs....I want something different that I would also like and those are vehicles I am also interested in that I have never owned...

[gatorfast]

To me it makes more sense to just use the 135i as your dd. Yes, you will rack in a ton of miles but why not have some fun while doing it? Wouldnt you rather drive 110k miles in your bmw then in some beater?

[Nole1]

First time poster.....in the market for a 1, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

As far as miles are concerned....we just sold our 2003 50th Anniv. Vette b/c it was just sitting there....ony 22,000 miles in almost 7 years. And one of the things that drove me to selling it was that it didn't get driven enough. Now...I want a FUN DD, and the 1 looks like it might fit the bill!

[Schneller!]

You can run all of the "calculators" and "depreciation formulas" out there, but you can't account for the time spent enjoying a car. EVERY car you buy depreciates, but not all cars can be appreciated. IMHO, no car has any value if it is not driven and enjoyed. If you are worried about it outlasting your high-mileage lifestyle...here in Germany, there are a lot of BMWs with 100 - 200 thousand miles on them...and those are autobahn miles...

buy, and DRIVE, your 300 horsepower / twin-turbo / sex-on-wheels fun machine NOW...'cause in 2016, you're gonna be stuck with a 100 MPG moped...

end rant...

[Yes2m3cs]

Originally Posted by Schneller!

You can run all of the "calculators" and "depreciation formulas" out there, but you can't account for the time spent enjoying a car. EVERY car you buy depreciates, but not all cars can be appreciated. IMHO, no car has any value if it is not driven and enjoyed. If you are worried about it outlasting your high-mileage lifestyle...here in Germany, there are a lot of BMWs with 100 - 200 thousand miles on them...and those are autobahn miles...

buy, and DRIVE, your 300 horsepower / twin-turbo / sex-on-wheels fun machine NOW...'cause in 2016, you're gonna be stuck with a 100 MPG moped...

end rant...

Exactly! Couldn't have said it better myself

They are great daily drivers..way more fun than my 500hp cobra mustang in daily driving.

Brian

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted by e82vette

just ride the 135 as DD and keep it until she dies on the road.....

+1 this is the only real way to reasonably and practically extract full lifecycle value from an automobile. Anything else is vanity and waste of money.

[tbird]

It all comes down to personal preference I guess. To me, seeing my previous cars be covered in dings and scratches, and looking at my 1 and how she will remain hot and carefree, that works for me.

With my little Focus beater, the ZX3 is not bad looking for a cheap car. It is surprisingly fun to drive, and with my mods she has some kick to her. I get to zoom through traffic and have a great time in it.

Then I get home and I drop the top on my 1 and I enjoy her as well.

I agree that whatever car you have, you should drive and enjoy, which is why I didn't trade in my Focus for a Dodge Caliber. While the 50% discount and lifetime engine/powertrain warranty were powerful incentives, the Caliber is NOT fun to drive. It is painfully average. It simply is a boring beater. So, whatever you do, whether you have the 1 and then a beater to protect your 1, or if you just drive your 1 into the ground, either way you should crunch the numbers, and then enjoy whatever your decision is.