[blaise]

Allright fellow-stang enthusiasts,

Help me decide. I am comparing between buying a 2006 Mustang GT from the factory and a certified used BMW 330Ci. The stang is gonna be about $3K less, but otherwise the cars have roughly equal warranties, costs of ownership, etc.

I'll assume that everyone here prefers the Mustang (for obvious reasons). My question is: How has the reliability been for the 2005/2006 Mustangs? I am pretty concerned about long-term costs on the Bimmer. Should I feel the same about the Stang?
After scanning the other posts, I see that there's been some trouble with the stereos, the steering, the fuel filters, and clunking with the auto gearboxes (I'm getting a manual). Am I missing anything? Any indicators for long-term problems?

What about longevity? Does anybody have a Mustang with 150K miles? I have a 64 1/2 vert that is running strong at 73K, but I don't think it is a fair comparison.

Any comments would be really helpful. Thanks.

 

[hogpowr]

I'm on my 3rd s197, and the only trouble I have had was fuel filling issues, broken seat adjuster,........uh thats about it. These cars are Rock solid, I mean cast n iron. The 4.6 is well proven 10 years plus now, and it made 10 best engines list. The rear axle is well proven 20 years plus now. There probably is a place for the bmw, just not in my driveway.:winks

 

[sincitystang]

Allright fellow-stang enthusiasts,

Help me decide. I am comparing between buying a 2006 Mustang GT from the factory and a certified used BMW 330Ci. The stang is gonna be about $3K less, but otherwise the cars have roughly equal warranties, costs of ownership, etc.

I'll assume that everyone here prefers the Mustang (for obvious reasons). My question is: How has the reliability been for the 2005/2006 Mustangs? I am pretty concerned about long-term costs on the Bimmer. Should I feel the same about the Stang?
After scanning the other posts, I see that there's been some trouble with the stereos, the steering, the fuel filters, and clunking with the auto gearboxes (I'm getting a manual). Am I missing anything? Any indicators for long-term problems?

What about longevity? Does anybody have a Mustang with 150K miles? I have a 64 1/2 vert that is running strong at 73K, but I don't think it is a fair comparison.

Any comments would be really helpful. Thanks.

I have first hand experience on this one. I almost bought a 330CI because they had a really good lease special. I drove the car and i felt it quite small inside and the power was good, but it lacked the rip-neck-snapping tourqe a V8 has. The BMW is a well built refined car, but it lacks personality the Mustang has. As for quality, well the BMW is really not known for its durability and problem free operations, in fact I hear they lagging behind American cars in reliability lately (european cars in general). No one can beat Japanese cars in this case.

Bottom line, the mustang will be a good driver and will not cost you an arm and a leg to customize compared with a BMW. I think the s197 will get more looks than the 330, even though the 330 is a nice looking car, its very boring in my opinion. I'm really happy with my 06' GT, and if I had bought the Bimmer, i think i would have been bored with it by now.

my .02

 

[Black06]

Most of the problems have been on 2005 models - you have to expect that with any brand new model. My 2006 has been trouble free, and as I am 6'1", one of the few cars around that I can comfortably drive for the hour it takes to get to work.

That said, I used to be a mechanic, and found in the past that most eourpean cars get expensive to own. Parts are expensive, and often take forever to get ordered.

 

[brnrkm]

Well my opinion on German cars (and British cars) is don't buy one unless you can afford two, and I still bought a Porsche. This rule of thumb of mine goes triple for Italian or French cars.

They should wear and tear about the same but the BMW will cost you double the money and time to repair later.

 

[Tilt]

Stang, hands down. THe mustang, even with the minor problems some have seen (I have not seen any on my 06), is still a NEW car. The BMW is used. You have no way of knowing how that car was treated and maintained by the previous owner. It could have been owned by some bozo who spent the last few years reving to the redline at every stop light. With the mustang, you are the first owner and can make sure it is taken care of correctly. The stang is also less money and you don't look like a 'middle management' cubicle jock driving it (no offense to those who live this life).

Tilt

 

[Waxed'05 GT]

A certified used car is still a used car. How well did the previous owner maintain the car- who knows. The stang powertrain has proven very reliable. I had a '97 I ran pretty hard and after 75k miles (when I sold it) it was still running like new with minimal issues. And unlike the bimmer I don't have to clean the wheels DAILY for them to look good. I never could figure out why bimmers give off so much brake dust.
Edit: sorry to repeat what was just said, well at least we feel the same.
BTW - Zero issues with my '06 as well.
Bimmers are a dime a dozen around here, but believe me the stang gets many more looks and compliments than any bimmer I've seen, including the 745LI/IL and up.

 

[Kyle F]

Stang, hands down. THe mustang, even with the minor problems some have seen (I have not seen any on my 06), is still a NEW car. The BMW is used. You have no way of knowing how that car was treated and maintained by the previous owner. It could have been owned by some bozo who spent the last few years reving to the redline at every stop light. With the mustang, you are the first owner and can make sure it is taken care of correctly. The stang is also less money and you don't look like a 'middle management' cubicle jock driving it (no offense to those who live this life).

Tilt

What are you some kind of Union Assembly worker?

Whats wrong with someone buying somethign nice because they have worked hard to get to their cubicle?

Its efficient use of office space... I guess I am lucky my company only has desks and not cubes huh, and I guess thats why I drive a stang:handball:

Idiot:dunce:

BTW, I have intermittent Skipper Porblems, Already had my Gas Tank Replaced, feels like my 3rd gear Syncro is going out, dash rattle, and the auto drop and raise windows when the doors open and close. Suprised the windows havent broke yet.

Though, I still love my stang for some reason

 

[Guest]

any mustang with 150000 miles wont be an indicator because the s197 is unlike any previous mustang.i loved my bmw back in 93...but man what a ***** to maintain...way too expensive...and a certified bmw isnt another used car..those guys work man....bmw compared to ford service is night and day.ford treats ya like dirt...bmw treats you like royalty...you get what you pay for i guess ...but the new mustang is the most fun car to drive i've ever been in

 

[RedHorse1]

This is the first pony I've owned. I wrecked my mother's '65 (289) - foolish boy, put many miles on my dad's '66 (200). My first car was a '63 beetle. When I hit 55 in '05 I started wanting an "old guy toy". I've always been a Blue Oval kind of guy (nothing against the Chevy or Dodge crowd). The '05 stang was the best looking model since '65-'67 (IMHO) so the choice was pretty easy for me (very retro looking). I thought about a Jag (a little too $$$ and not getting good marks for reliability) and for a short time had the hots for the Z3 and Z4 (sat in one for a while and was cured).
So far (Nov '05) it's been trouble free with the exception of my Shaker 500, which was replaced once and is still not 100% (another dealer visit is in order). But,it is a fun car to drive! Suprisingly, there is enough room in the trunk to do the grocery shopping or hold a couple of suitcases for the road trip. Other 'stang owners are even a bit "clubbish", I get the thumbs-up, honks and waves from other 'stangers.
There's tons of after-market goodies if you want to make it faster or more personalized. I added sequential turn signals yesterday.
At the end of the day you're the one who will be driving it so get what makes you happy and temper the decision with cost of ownership (I agree with the posts who predict you'll spend less maintaining a 'stang). For me, every time I'm behind the wheel the grinnometer is pegged.

'06 GT Torch Red premium 'vert
interior accent (more red)
5 spd manual

17" standard wheels
anti-theft
side airbags

 

[Tilt]

Thanks for calling me an idiot, I appreciate it. No, I'm not a union auto worker. I am a research scientist. I have an actual office. My comment wasn't meant to slam all of those who work in cubicles/offices...just the general corporate mentality of MANY of the people I have run into who are in the middle management arena. Many of these gusy have to get the beamer to compete with Mr. XXX, the manager in the next cubicle. Sorry to have offended. As for working hard to get what you want...go for it. I spent 16 years in college and psot-doctoral training (and too many 80 hour weeks to count) to get where I am, so I understand working for what you have.

Tilt

 

[boss377]

Your comparo of the Mustang and BMW is bizarre. I think you should buy the BMW.

 

[bmwtech]

well i've been watching this thread long enough. now i have to throw in my two cents. i've been a BMW tech for a while now. I've probably driven more 330's than everyone else here combined. I am also the proud owner of an '06 GT. dollar for dollar, the mustang is hard to beat. great performance and ride quality. it does have more overall power than a 330. i do believe the 330 has a little more power in the lower end, but once you get over 200 rpm's, the mustang is the hands down winner. i have the eibach pro springs on my car and i think the handling is almost identical to the 330. both are outstanding. the traction control on a bmw blows away anything ford could ever think of. i can actually smoke my tires with tcs turned on. this would not happen in a bmw. they pride themselves on building safe cars. the airbag system is also above and beyond what ford has in the mustang. as is overall comfort. the mustang transmits a bit of road noise in the cabin. not that i mind. it's a sports car and that's what i bought it. when you pull the carpet out of a bmw and out of the mustang, you can see where all of the extra money spent on the bmw goes. they have very thick foam padding under the carpet. 6-8" in some spots. all of the interior trim pieces, carpetting, and leather was designed for optimum fit and great looks. the mustangs was not. i still love my stang, but the overall quality doesn't compare to the bmw. plus, the cpo warranty on a bmw sucks. i wouldn't buy a pre-owned. if you want a bmw, buy it new. if you can't afford it then, you sure as hell can't when the warranty expires. so to summarize, like i said earlier, dollar for dollar, the stang is hard to beat. if you want the best combination of luxury and performance, you can't do better than bmw. one more thing, bmw's have so much brake dust because they have quite possibly the best factory brakes available on any car, excluding those fancy ceramic rotors on some exotics.

 

[blaise]

well i've been watching this thread long enough. now i have to throw in my two cents. i've been a BMW tech for a while now. I've probably driven more 330's than everyone else here combined. I am also the proud owner of an '06 GT. dollar for dollar, the mustang is hard to beat. great performance and ride quality. it does have more overall power than a 330. i do believe the 330 has a little more power in the lower end, but once you get over 200 rpm's, the mustang is the hands down winner. i have the eibach pro springs on my car and i think the handling is almost identical to the 330. both are outstanding. the traction control on a bmw blows away anything ford could ever think of. i can actually smoke my tires with tcs turned on. this would not happen in a bmw. they pride themselves on building safe cars. the airbag system is also above and beyond what ford has in the mustang. as is overall comfort. the mustang transmits a bit of road noise in the cabin. not that i mind. it's a sports car and that's what i bought it. when you pull the carpet out of a bmw and out of the mustang, you can see where all of the extra money spent on the bmw goes. they have very thick foam padding under the carpet. 6-8" in some spots. all of the interior trim pieces, carpetting, and leather was designed for optimum fit and great looks. the mustangs was not. i still love my stang, but the overall quality doesn't compare to the bmw. plus, the cpo warranty on a bmw sucks. i wouldn't buy a pre-owned. if you want a bmw, buy it new. if you can't afford it then, you sure as hell can't when the warranty expires. so to summarize, like i said earlier, dollar for dollar, the stang is hard to beat. if you want the best combination of luxury and performance, you can't do better than bmw. one more thing, bmw's have so much brake dust because they have quite possibly the best factory brakes available on any car, excluding those fancy ceramic rotors on some exotics.

Why does the CPO warranty suck?
So is this a BMW tech telling me to get a Mustang? High praise....

 

[bmwtech]

the cpo warranty sucks because it doesn't cover as many things as a new vehicle warranty will. things such as bushings, trim pieces, power steering hoses. none of those are covered. a large portion of the items that will need to be replaced when the vehicle hits 40K or 50k, are not covered. this can get real costly, real fast. it will cover any of the engine sensors, regulators and such, but not a lot of other stuff. this is a bmw tech telling you to buy a stang over a cpo bmw. if it was a new bmw, and you had the money, i would go for that. bmw new vehicle warranties are the best thing any manufacturer has to offer. but, if you want to save some money and still have a great vehicle, go with a stang. you can use the extra couple of thousand dollars for the steeda supercharger.

 

[tw0scoops123]

Biimers aint what they're cracked up to be. My friend has an '01 and it started falling apart 2 years ago. The stang is well built, but it's anybodys guess. sometimes it's luck of the draw...

Just don't believe the hype that american cars aren't as good as imports. The times have changed!

 

[bmwtech]

the times have changed. ford and gm are going under and president bush won't offer them aid to help them stay afloat. bmw just finished it's best year ever. the 3-series has been on car and drivers ten best list for 15 years straight. the new stang has only been around for almost 2 years. we need to give it more time to see what issues are out there. right now, i'm glad i work for bmw.

 

[thump_rrr]

Keep in mind that with the BMW 330ci you will be driving a dated design with the introduction of the new body style by the end of the year. The Stang is a brand new body style which will be around for a while.

 

[sincitystang]

Keep in mind that with the BMW 330ci you will be driving a dated design with the introduction of the new body style by the end of the year. The Stang is a brand new body style which will be around for a while.

The new body for the 330CI is out, its the 06 model and it has a 5 series type look, but better I think! American cars are better quality now, but the Europeans are still pretty good, but not as good as Toyota(lexus) or Honda(Acura) But remember, your paying more for the BMW and the other imports in its class, like BMW Mechanic guy, the mustang has the best bang for your back when it comes to a Sports 2+2, but in the 2 seater catagory, the Corvette is hands down the performance and technology leader DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR. I cant think of any car that will compete with the S197 in its price range, or even a C6 Vette in its price range.

 

[blaise]

Keep in mind that with the BMW 330ci you will be driving a dated design with the introduction of the new body style by the end of the year. The Stang is a brand new body style which will be around for a while.

What an interesting statement. The Stang is new, but the BMW is dated? The Stang is a rehash of the 1967-68 model.
Actually, I am just playing with ya. The Stang is a modern version of a classic design. In truth, so is the BMW (think 2002tii).
Yes, the 3 series has a new generation out now (E90), but the coupe version isn't out yet. Plus, I like the previous generation better, especially inside.