Thinking about picking up a G35 coupe. Have been looking at BMW for the past 5 months but the maintenance and reliability scare me.

A few questions,,,

Generally these are realiable cars, inexpensive to maintain??


Would you buy one again?


Major problems?


Do you like the Brembo brakes?


Any words for the wise/ things to watch out for on these i.e. model year problems etc?


Thanks for the awesome forum

 

Hi! Welcome!
I'm a new owner and love it! So I really cant say..but I was considering a 5 series BMW or this 04 Coupe (I know, apples to oranges, but not a 3 series fan)
But I just rolled 15k miles and did my own 15k maintenance and it was a piece of cake.
Definitely will enjoy this car for some time to come and now an infiniti supporter.
Factory warranty is great! But no major problems for me. You can lookup all the recalls and service bulletins online too.
I do not have the brembos, but the stock brakes are terrific. I can only imagine how great the brembos are.
Go test drive a G(for as long as you can)!

 

Awesome,,

congrats on your new car

Any idea what prices should be? Seems like people are asking a ton on autotrader, quite a bit above KBB values.

The market is being flooded by lease returns and with the new G37 I would think it'll be pretty cheap??

 

Thanks!!
I know what you mean, luckily I work at the dealership I bought mine from.. I paid 21809.50 out the door. We were in it for only 20000.00. 2004 5AT 14.5k miles everything except NAV and Brembo.
Down the street there was an 03 5AT with 27k miles and it was BASE (17" wheels) model... asking 26000.00 and wouldnt come down a penny. A year older and almost 2x the miles.. no thanks.

 

wttc . You getting an 08?

Bat™

 

I was thinking about an 04 because I want to buy a new M3 in two years .

 

I would say yes. Mine hasn't had any problems that stopped it from working yet(knock on wood!), and I don't know of too many other people who have had major issues with reliability either. It's not an expensive car to maintain if you do the work yourself... except for tires.


Since I already own a Coupe, I might want to change cars the next time I go to get a new car.. just to mix it up a bit. But if I were to go back in time to when I bought my current car, I would definitely tell the Me-From-2004 to buy the car... and that I would love almost everything about it and have no regrets about the purchase. Every time I drive this car, I have to have the windows down because I can't stop enjoying the awesome sound of the exhaust.


The rear Axels tend to need service after about a year or so(covered by warranty because there is a TSB for it), the window regulators wear out and require replacement(particularly the passengers side), there is a TSB about faulty fuel filler hoses and the pressure release valve in the filler hose(covered by warranty). The paint durability/quality is probably the most severe flaw about this car and it is very soft and chips/scratches very easily.

Some of the Rev-Up VQ35DE motors(2005 to 2007) have oil consumption problems.


I absolutely adore them. The make a lot of brake dust, but they stop awesome... and they get tons of looks and really make the car look and feel a lot more exotic than it is. Replacement Brembo parts are expensive though. They also only offered the Brembos on the 2003 and 2004 G35's, and they discontinued it in 2005+.


Some people don't like the manual transmissions in these cars. They are very notchy in shifting, and rev matches need to be fairly precise to be smooth(personally, I don't mind it much.. but other people complain about it often). You will spend a lot of money on tires while owning this car... they only last about 18 to 27K a set, and a new set will run you anywhere from 800 to 1500 bucks. Fuel economy is not that great either, and as mentioned eaerlier.. if you get the Brembos... they cost a lot to repair.

 

awesome reply


so now how much should I pay???


Are KBB prices or NADA realistic??

 

I got my03 MT6 with 6,000 miles on it for $27,000 last Oct.

 

$19k since teh g37 is coming out

 

It sorta varies based on where you live. Definitely don't rely blindly on the recommendations of KBB or NADA though. Those are more or less numbers that insurance companies supposedly look at for base values on vehicles when they are evaluating whether or not to total a car and how much to give you(at least that's what I've been told).

Personally, I'd go with Edmunds.com's True Market Value rating as a decently accurate gauge of what to expect to pay(it lets you factor in the milleage on the car, as well as condition and various options, and the zip code where you live)... and combine that with price trends you see by looking around at the local used-vehicle publications in your area as well as the local craigslist.com listings, and assume that you might be able to knock $400 to $1000 off of the asking price of an average priced G35 on the local listings.

That's exactly what I did when I was buying my Tacoma about 2 years ago(watched the local listings for a while to get an idea of prices), and it worked out quite well. You're going to need some patience if you really want to get a good deal on a nice car too.... so be prepared to possibly have to walk out on a few cars that don't fall into your price range(assuming you ask a realistic price).