Wife and I finally did this after 35 years

[bmwe32]

Not to jump in too deep, because I'm a slightly different demo.

I own a 733 and 735 BMW (and will never sell the 420K mile, manual tranny 735) but it was this or a 3 series convertible or a E39 M5.

At the end of the day I compromised on the 'feel' and handling performance of say the M5 for the CPO warranty of the Genesis (many more, subtle pros and cons, but that's the simple version). If it breaks, somebody else can fix it, I have plenty of cars I like to tinker with now.

When shopping 'direct compares', I honestly don't know how anybody buys say, a 528 instead of the Genesis, and I always swore I'd never buy anything that wasn't a BMW.

After the 'early 2000s' vintage of cars (E39/E46/etc. era), I'm just not sold on them on any level. I've done plenty of maintenance to some last 2000s 3 and 5 series for some friends, and although some things are remarkably similar (for instance a brake job on a 25 year old 7 series and a new 3 series), I just didn't want to go that route currently.

With all that said, I can't imagine owning a car that I wouldn't do the regular service and 'non-warranty covered' repairs on, so I wouldn't know if its any cheaper to frequent the BMW or Hyundai dealer. I know either one is 10 times more than it would cost me to do it myself.

Does it handle as well as a BMW? No. BMW is the gold standard for 'driving feel'. Lexus/M-B/Audi all shoot for those type of accolades.

Is it well made, luxurious, fast as a scalded dog and good to look at? Yes.

Is the direct-compare BMW worth the difference in price? Not even close imo.

 

[Southern Boy]

In 1972 I was traveling 130 mile round trip going to work every day. I was married for about 5 years and just bought my first home.
I needed a dependable economical vehicle to commute to work every day. I choose a brand new Chevy Vega. You know the old saying “If you’re dumb, you got to be tough”. Well at 12K the head gasket blew (Just out of warrantee of course). At 25K the engines was blown, and believe me I babied this car because I was up against the wall with a new house and car payments and had just found out there also was one in the oven.
The dealer just about laughed in my face when I said the engine was defective from the start and GM needs to make good for it. The answer from the dealer, factory rep, and GM corporate was TS, you’re out of warrantee.
Sold the junk with the blown engine and bought a used Toyota with 50K on the clock and drove it for 3 years, it had just over 300k still running strong when I sold it.
That Vega was the last GM product I ever bought and the last GM product anyone in my family ever bought. I would rather hitchhike then drive a GM product.

 

[rsdukes]

Yes I also was a "proud" owner of a 1974 Vega..... 2 guarts of oil a week .... no not an exaggeration, I changed oil at 500 miles for every other car I could find and used the used oil....... Ahhh memories.

Thanks to all for comments and advise,
I will let this thread go and look forward to commenting on your's.

Berni KY