[devine mak]

Within the previous year I was a victim of vehicle theft (this was not the first occurrence) so in the pursuit of a more secure enthusiast platform I began researching suitable cars that I would be comfortable putting my family in going into the future. This led me to the F30 being my top pick for my price range in the used car market.

There were the few things I've always heard when discussing BMWs , the usual oil stain jokes , price of maintenance , ect , all things that intimidated me at first but the most intimidating was the amount of people I had met that told me to stay away from 4cyl T BMWs because of timing chain issues. This led me to picking up my first 2014 F30 335i in 2023 with a little over 60k miles on it. Little did I know the adventure I was about to go on.

After a long period of staking out the market and doing research , I found the perfect pickup on Carvana with a carfax indicating key maintenance had been taken care of very recently , mainly the valve cover gasket and spark plugs , I pulled the trigger. When I took delivery of the car , it was an awkward day, I was happy to have put my butt in a BMW but the car was a bit underwhelming coming from a VQ and a door was very poorly paint matched which the carfax indicated nothing of , I could have returned the car but I still felt something in that car I hadn't felt in many other cars and knew I was too impatient to wait on another one so I took the car to the dealership after the first 200 miles to see what they had to say about the state of the car.

This is where I get into the harsh truth of maintenance on these cars in 2024 going into the future. They are down right expensive to fix after the years of neglect from previous owners, in my first 2 trips to the dealership within my first 2000 miles with the car I had done : Oil Pan Gasket, Cylinder head hose, Turbo oil return line, Heater core, Radiator hose, battery , thrust arms, break pads, rotors, and finally the Low pressure fuel pump. Even if one was to do this all one self , you are still spending a good chunk of change on parts in todays economy to get a base for a fun tunable platform.

I just finished installing these yellow fog lights, after market headlights and tail lights Hope to see them as reliable as oem. In all honesty after a year of ownership with tuning the car and adding exterior and engine mods , changing every fluid in the car, this platform has made me smile way more than I thought it would. It can get pricy and I don't know if I will regret what I've got myself into but I love my F30 335i. The smiles make it ALL worth it.

[RuskiE39]

It's hit or miss I suppose and a lot of times the way the car was cared for and driven by previous owners will ultimately determine how reliable it will be in the future.

I bought our 2015 335i with about 35k miles and it's about to hit 80k. The worst I've had happen is the coolant expansion line cracked which is a known issues and also one of the very simplest things to replace as both ends are extremely accessible.

Aside from that, spark plugs, oil, and fluids... this thing has been rock solid and never left us stranded considering the performance mods I have now (FBO).

[im_an_alien]

Carvana is a terrible place to buy a car IMO. Them and CarMax. They are good at quick turnover sales...buy it, febreze the @#$ out of it, some touch up paint here and there with a spray can (it seems) and that's about it. They pay more money for cars that a dealer would not, because said dealer would look over the car first. So if your gonna buy a car from them you may be getting something that was made to look and run pretty for a short while. I've heard of people putting sawdust in the engine oil to quiet down bottom end knocks.

[eff32fl]

Carvana is about to go under I wouldn't recommend buying from there.

[devine mak]

Luckily Carvana had the car under limited warranty and covered almost all of the work because I took it to the dealership within the first 200 miles after receiving it. Knocked out about 12000 USD in parts in labor. Even somehow got brakes and heater core thrown in there even though the policy explicitly stated it wasn't covered. SilverRock came through for me or maybe the service advisor who contacted them helped , I don't know but from this past experience I would 100% buy a BMW from them again. I know this is not often the case with Carvana but I can only speak from experience.

[schernov]

Originally Posted by devine mak

Luckily Carvana had the car under limited warranty and covered almost all of the work because I took it to the dealership within the first 200 miles after receiving it. Knocked out about 12000 USD in parts in labor. Even somehow got brakes and heater core thrown in there even though the policy explicitly stated it wasn't covered. SilverRock came through for me or maybe the service advisor who contacted them helped , I don't know but from this past experience I would 100% buy a BMW from them again. I know this is not often the case with Carvana but I can only speak from experience.

I bought a Porsche Cayenne 6 speed (super rare) from Carvana couple years ago. It got shipped from CA to IL. Drove it straight to the Porsche dealer.
Had the same experience. SilverRock approved $4k of work during the initial 5 days of free return period and another $3K during another visit during 100day warranty. It's consistent with what I have seen on other forums and Reddit. Sometimes they have good cars and the return policy is good.
Some cars are crap. I would not do a trade with them or third party financing. Complicates things if you have to return.

[sykriss]

Imo, 50-100k miles is the danger zone when buying a used car. This is often the mileage that original owners will trade-in at - frequently, without doing any maintenance to the car. I bought my 2012 335i at 150k miles and it runs/drives perfectly - the car wouldn't have made it to 150k if maintenance wasn't kept up with.