Hello Everyone, Current Acura MDX owner looking to purchase a new vehicle. Have been looking at a G35/37x, CTS or a 3 series. I'm very concerned about the repair costs of the 3-series.

My basic buying guidelines are:
Under $20,000
Under 60,000 Miles
Newer than 2008
Must have AWD
Sedan, no coupe
Automatic

Any input, help, advice, or knowledge is very much appreciated. I know the budget is a little low, but i have found a few cars local that fit the description. Still up in the air on what to do.

Thanks!!!!!

 

3 Series = Low acquisition cost, potentially high recurring maintenance costs. Beautiful cars, but this is something you just have to live with when it comes to luxury German brands.

Assuming RWD is a requirement (FWD opens up alot more choices in this price range), the G sedan and CTS are excellent choices.

It will be tough to find a used G37x (2009 or newer) with less than 60k for sub 20k locally that is not a salvage title. However, if you can relax the age requirement, a second gen 2007-08 is a possibility. Consumer's Guide also ranked these two years as best buys in terms of overall reliability. If 2009 is a must, then you may need to save up a few more thousand.

Nonetheless, there are still sub 20k G37xs out there from reputable dealers, such as this one at an Infiniti dealer in OK.

The CTS depreciates a little faster, so you will be able to find 2009-10 CTS sedans in this price range, but it seems the problem with these cars is that not many are purchased with AWD, so the used CTS AWD market is somewhat limited at sub 20k. 2010 CTS was also ranked as a Best Buy from Consumer's Guide, so reliability should be decent on it as well.

This one is a fit.

Or this one.

Note that if you expand your search beyond local, there are third party services you can hire that will inspect the car for you and provide a detailed report for a couple hundred bucks. In addition, most dealers have third party shipping services they work with that are relatively inexpensive as well. I have considered this myself based on the lack of sub-30k 2010-11 G37S Sport Sedans here in Socal (most of our resales are lease return Journeys); the Southeast/Central US has a much larger supply.

 

Thank you very much for your input, Im good with a 2008. Wish the first one u listed was local, I would probably purchase. there are a couple 2008 35x for 18-19,500 locally. I'm from the Pittsburgh area. I initially liked the CTS, however it seems to be more expensive than the g35x, so im leaning that way.

 

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-s...48794094&Log=0

here is one i'm looking at, sorry not sure how to post the links like you did, don't think i would pay more then about 17,5-18k max though. not sure if the would do that.