[nikhilarni]

Hi Community members,
I am looking at buying a BMW X5 ( 2016 / 2017 ) model.

I wanted some help with the community before buying a BMW. I am presently in Pittsburgh, PA . Looking forward to connecting with members around Pittsburgh area as well and some insights into
1. What to be aware of
2. Apart from the KBB indicative price, what can I negotiate with
3. Getting clarity on some of the features.

Regards
Nikhil

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by nikhilarni

Hi Community members,
I am looking at buying a BMW X5 ( 2016 / 2017 ) model.

I wanted some help with the community before buying a BMW. I am presently in Pittsburgh, PA . Looking forward to connecting with members around Pittsburgh area as well and some insights into
1. What to be aware of
2. Apart from the KBB indicative price, what can I negotiate with
3. Getting clarity on some of the features.

Regards
Nikhil

Hi Nikhil,
It would help if you can mention a few more things. Are you considering a CPO (certified pre-owned), or dealer inventory, or open market cars? Are you open to looking online used cars like Caravana, or big used car dealers like Carmax? The things to look for would change based on that. Make sure you have extended warranty on all pre-owned euro cars.

[dennischoksi999]

Hello fellow BHP-ians. I am currently a student in USA and I am living Texas. My flatmate and I are planning to buy a car collectively. I have my heart on a 2011 VW Jetta that has been driven 94,xxx miles. I am yet to close the deal, but if I do, I will be extending my budget by $500. I wanted to know how difficult it is to maintain a German car in USA, specifically a VW Jetta. Also, does anyone know how much it costs to maintain the car? For reference, I live in a town called Bryan/College Station. We need to make sure that whatever car we buy, it should give a fuss free ownership experience for at least 5 years.

Thank you in advance.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by dennischoksi999

Hello fellow BHP-ians. I am currently a student in USA and I am living Texas. My flatmate and I are planning to buy a car collectively. I have my heart on a 2011 VW Jetta that has been driven 94,xxx miles. I am yet to close the deal, but if I do, I will be extending my budget by $500. I wanted to know how difficult it is to maintain a German car in USA, specifically a VW Jetta. Also, does anyone know how much it costs to maintain the car? For reference, I live in a town called Bryan/College Station. We need to make sure that whatever car we buy, it should give a fuss free ownership experience for at least 5 years.

Thank you in advance.

My Jetta TDI has been faultless, check if the AC works and whether timing belt has been changed. Also identify a good local mechanic.

If you want a painless experience, buy a Corolla or Civic

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by dennischoksi999

Hello fellow BHP-ians. I am currently a student in USA and I am living Texas. My flatmate and I are planning to buy a car collectively. I have my heart on a 2011 VW Jetta that has been driven 94,xxx miles. I am yet to close the deal, but if I do, I will be extending my budget by $500. I wanted to know how difficult it is to maintain a German car in USA, specifically a VW Jetta. Also, does anyone know how much it costs to maintain the car? For reference, I live in a town called Bryan/College Station. We need to make sure that whatever car we buy, it should give a fuss free ownership experience for at least 5 years.

Ajmat gave some good advice. I would add to that: when changing the timing belt on these cars/engine also replace the tensioner and the waterpump.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDhoRwnnuxQ

In the USA (and most western countries) the labour cost usually outweighs the parts cost. Although not difficult, it is quite a bit of a spanner job to replace the timing belt. You have to remove a lot. Once everything is out of the way, it’s easy to replace these two as well. The waterpump is driven directly by the same timing belt. In fact if you go on line you will find that many third parties provide one overhaul kit with all these parts in one.

Plenty of VW around in the USA, parts availability is very good. I would always go with an independent mechanic / garage on a car over 5 years. There are some very good and useful VW (Jetta) American forums. Tonnes of information and good technical advise.


Good luck.

Jeroen

[dennischoksi999]

Originally Posted by ajmat

My Jetta TDI has been faultless, check if the AC works and whether timing belt has been changed. Also identify a good local mechanic.

If you want a painless experience, buy a Corolla or Civic

Thank you for your valuable input. I was in the market essentially looking for a Honda/Toyota/Nissan. However, with my tight budget, all the Japanese cars I was able to find were of 2008 model year or older, and none of them had less than 130,000 miles on them. Which brings me to an important question. Should I go for an older, more driven Japanese car or should I take my chances and go for a newer, less driven VW Jetta?

Also, thank you for mentioning about the AC and timing belt. I test drove the car today and the AC was working fine. I missed out on checking the timing belt.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Ajmat gave some good advice. I would add to that: when changing the timing belt on these cars/engine also replace the tensioner and the waterpump.

That video is surely very helpful. Thank you for sharing it.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

In the USA (and most western countries) the labour cost usually outweighs the parts cost.

I agree with you there.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Although not difficult, it is quite a bit of a spanner job to replace the timing belt. You have to remove a lot. Once everything is out of the way, it’s easy to replace these two as well. The waterpump is driven directly by the same timing belt. In fact if you go on line you will find that many third parties provide one overhaul kit with all these parts in one.

Plenty of VW around in the USA, parts availability is very good. I would always go with an independent mechanic / garage on a car over 5 years. There are some very good and useful VW (Jetta) American forums. Tonnes of information and good technical advise.


Good luck.

Jeroen

Thank you for mentioning VW Jetta American forums, I shall definitely check them out before reaching a final decision.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by dennischoksi999

T I was in the market essentially looking for a Honda/Toyota/Nissan. However, with my tight budget, all the Japanese cars I was able to find were of 2008 model year or older, and none of them had less than 130,000 miles on them. Which brings me to an important question. Should I go for an older, more driven Japanese car or should I take my chances and go for a newer, less driven VW Jetta?

That is almost a philosophical question, which is very hard to answer.
In general I do not worry about 130.000 miles on the clock on most cars, certainly not on Japanese or VW. But I need to see some evidence that the car has been maintained reasonably well. So always start with what is available in terms of written proof, invoices, signed of maintenance record. If there is nothing like that, you need to make your own judgement call. Or rely on a friend with sufficient car knowledge.

There are several good threads on the forum on what to look for in a test drive and when buying second hand.

In general the older a car gets, the more wear and tear it is likely to have had. That is just normal. And once cars pass 100.000 km things might break down that were never a problem before. So parts availability, spare part pricing and ease of maintenance are big factors on whether it could be attractive to continue with an old car.

In the end it is also down to a bit of luck. You can never be a hundred percent sure what you buy, no matter the age/mileage, you could still get a lemon.

You talk about fuss free ownership for 5 years. A lot of that will, obviously, depend on the state of the car you buy in the first place. But also on the mileage you will be doing. Once you have a car, in the USA the miles tend to rake up easily. Even at 5-10 miles a year you are likely to need at least one or two sets of tires, brakes, several oil/filter changes, plugs, regular maintenance etc. That is before items such as battery, shocks, exhaust etc die on you. And of course on older cars this is more likely to happen than on new cars.

So it is also a bit on what you consider fuss free. There is a big difference in regular maintenance and cars breaking down and leaving you stranded. The first you need to account for and to some extend age and mileage will play a role. The latter tends to be related to proper preventive maintenance (or lack of) and some (bad) luck. The 3 year old Ford Focus we bought for my wife from CarMax in Kansas City left her stranded twice due an electrical problem. Not a big thing to fix or even cost wise, but certainly a hassle and at the time quite inconvenient too. Other than that it never gave us any problems.

The good news is: You are in the USA! Car parts are a plenty and mostly relatively cheap, but you do need to find a reliable mechanic that will give you sound advice on car maintenance and repairs. That might take a bit of effort, but there are plenty of them around too.

Rather then try to make it a very rational, fact based, approach (which I think doesn’t work well on this very generic Japanese vv VW case), give some thought what makes you comfortable. What would make you enjoy the car, or rather what would spoil it. If you enjoy your car, you are more likely to live with a few quirks as well. If you do not feel comfortable about cars with 130K miles on the clock do not buy one. No matter what the internet says.

If you really like the Jetta, try and find the best one for your budget.

Good luck

Jeroen

[devil_klm]

Hi All, Need an advice on car loan closure. I got title from the bank. Do i need to go to DMV to transfer ownership to my name?
I am located in NJ.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by devil_klm

Hi All, Need an advice on car loan closure. I got title from the bank. Do i need to go to DMV to transfer ownership to my name?
I am located in NJ.

Should be a very straight forward process. One visit to the nearest DMV with the docs should do it.
https://www.dmv.org/nj-new-jersey/bu...ing-a-lien.php

[devil_klm]

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Should be a very straight forward process. One visit to the nearest DMV with the docs should do it.
https://www.dmv.org/nj-new-jersey/bu...ing-a-lien.php

Thanks for the quick reply GutsyGibbon. I went to DMV today and they said as its not mandatory to get a new title. I can have the one sent from the bank as the title document. If I would like to do it, then there is a fee of $60. I havent done it yet. I may be moving out of NJ as part of my new assignment and need to plan weather to go for it or not. I bought the car when it was under lien title from a seller in NY and he closed his loan and sent me the title released by his bank. It was accepted in NJ without any question. So I guess it may not be an issue when I sell the car at sometime later in another state. Any thoughts or experience from anyone will help.

[vj123]

Originally Posted by devil_klm

Thanks for the quick reply GutsyGibbon. I went to DMV today and they said as its not mandatory to get a new title. I can have the one sent from the bank as the title document. If I would like to do it, then there is a fee of $60. I havent done it yet. I may be moving out of NJ as part of my new assignment and need to plan weather to go for it or not. I bought the car when it was under lien title from a seller in NY and he closed his loan and sent me the title released by his bank. It was accepted in NJ without any question. So I guess it may not be an issue when I sell the car at sometime later in another state. Any thoughts or experience from anyone will help.

Yeah it isn't mandatory to get a new title removing the lien holder info.

You current title + lien release letter from bank should be good if you are selling the vehicle now. But a title without lien info would make your sale at a later point less stressful especially selling it out of state.

[Jeroen]

I would check with the state you intend to move to if it is a problem or not. DMV rules are made up per State and they differ. Some states will require some other documents next to the title document. Eg Kansas/Missouri requires a physical verification/inspection by the cops.

[nikhilarni]

Originally Posted by GutsyGibbon

Hi Nikhil,
It would help if you can mention a few more things. Are you considering a CPO (certified pre-owned), or dealer inventory, or open market cars? Are you open to looking online used cars like Caravana, or big used car dealers like Carmax? The things to look for would change based on that. Make sure you have extended warranty on all pre-owned euro cars.

Hi Gutsy,

I am looking at everything, all the options.

I even checked out Enterprise and Hertz for their used car sales to see what they have.

I'll definitely look for the factory warranty. Thanks for the tip.

There are nitty-gritty details that differ from dealer to dealer which impacts the prices. I really need some help deciphering the costs vis-a-vis the features.

For ex : There is this X5 at Carsense in Pittsburgh that's done about 25xxx miles and is a x5 eDrive 40E for 33K and something another one was without the hybrid system and costed more.

I am definitely convinced about going in for a used car, but also wanted to compare it with a Benz and possibly with the Volvo XC90.

I just feel I am complicating it for myself .

[vj123]

Originally Posted by nikhilarni

I am looking at everything, all the options.

Are you sure that you want to look into used rental car options as well? It would have been driven by several people and you can never guess how it was being used or maintained.

When I bought a used Civic early this year and I only looked into single owner vehicles preferably a lease return. Having owned a luxury German vehicle in the past, I would highly recommend the CPO / extended warranty offered directly from the manufacturer (and not from a third party).


Note from Support: Quote trimmed. Typos fixed.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by vj123

Are you sure that you want to look into used rental car options as well? It would have been driven by several people and you can never guess how it was being used or maintained.

I agree. I have bought and owned dozens of second hand car, including many lease car, but never a rental. Run a mile. there is a reason they are selling them cheap.

Jeroen