I worked at a BMW dealership for a couple summers. It wasn't often that I saw a used M3 that was representative of the miles and age. Usually, they would be lease turn ins that weren't properly cared for. Even more common was ownership by individuals who weren't responsible or knowledgeable enthusiasts. It would make me hesitant to buy a pre-owned M3 from without knowing the previous owner.

 

I think it's pretty much the same for any fast car, unfortunately.

 

But especially those that attract (1) young buyers and (2) people buying it for the impressive badge more than their own car enthusiasm (which happens a lot with the M3, perhaps because they are (or were, before the E9X generation came along) somewhat affordable.

 

More so the first reason. lots of young kids buy/lease evo's & sti's and i dont know anyone impressed by a mitsu or subaru badge.

I'm not knocking any evo/sti drivers.. i like both those cars but part of their appeal is they're great performance for such affordable prices.

I think the badge thing applies as well though.. As an example, I feel like alot of Boxster (at least older ones.. they're pretty costly now)/MB C300/BMW 328i.. etc owners pick their car just for the badge. I know a lot of people just really like those cars, but i'm sure many others just want to be seen in a car with a luxury badge on it. Obviously I drive an entry level type luxury-sports coupe as well so I hope nobody gets offended by that comment.

 

There exists a powerful marketing machine designed to convince recent college graduates that they have "earned" the right to put a shiny new BMW/MB/Audi/Lexus/Infiniti/Acura etc. entry level car in their driveway or parking garage after finishing four grueling years of partying. These people are oftentimes not savvy buyers and oftentimes know very little about cars. Consequently, they lease more expensive "prestige" cars rather than replacing their college beater (or whatever) with a practical, new(er) Honda or Toyota. Since they often lease, they don't maintain the cars (who would?) as well as those who finance or buy outright.

As for people on this forum (enthusiasts), I think the decision to buy a "nice" car right out of school is a little different. And I would bet you agree with me!

 

Yep, very true. And because of the types of people who buy the badge and not the car, some "luxury" brands definitely have more of a snob-appeal than others. For instance, MB/BMW/Lexus top that list for me, while Audi/Lexus/Acura round out the list (in that order) Of course there are the differences in quality/salesmanship compared to less expensive car brands.

Again, I dont mean to offend anyone who may be reading this. In all honesty, when my parents and I were looking for my car the final 3 options that we agreed on were the Infiniti G37 Coupe/G35 Sedan (no G37 sedan at the time), BMW 335i, or Lexus IS350. For those of you who aren't familiar with these cars, the Infiniti is the cheapest, as well as least practical (the Coupe) of the three, with the BMW being the most expensive and the IS falling somewhere in between.

Basically the infiniti is also the slowest I picked the car I enjoyed driving the most based on a few test drives in all three and I think thats what all drivers should do when trying to decide what to buy/lease: Test out all the options, of course look at the price tag, and just choose the best fit for them. Obviously if I cared about badges i would've gotten either the Lex or Bimmer.

 

Well,...I have to admit that I may fall a tiny little bit into that category...
I was raised with BMWs and I can identify with the brand BMW,so I chose to drive a BMW 3 Series over a Class because of the handling,performance figures and...well the appearance and what the typical stereotype of a MB driver is..
old fart,old fashioned and driving slow..
the bimmers are more dynamic guys,sadly also kinda kocky assholes,but somehow I feel more comfortable driving a more sporty BMW with the appearance of a car for "rising stars" at the beginning of their career than a MB which appears to be a car for the more settled and generally older people..
The new C class is very different though...very attractive and modern looking.
Audi is sweet anyway..no question about that.

 

People who are "setting stars" maybe? LMAO!

 

I was not a big fan of the looks of audis before, but the 09/10's are really slick.. i love the LED's they're putting on all the headlights. I almost waited for the A5 to come out when i was buying my car, but decided it was way, way overpriced.

 

Wait, so more people lease a brand new Camaro than the rest of these? I've never even seen one of these on the road but I've seen a million M3's. I leased a car once, never again, from now on I buy it outright. The lease write off argument is bs imo, unless you don't really care about pissing away a whole lot of money a year. I guess it just depends on your income.