Herculodge

Biggest Car Flop of 2008: The BMW 1 Series

I'm sure the BMW 1 Series will sell briskly, but Dan Neil writing in the Los Angeles Times argues convincingly that the 1 Series is in many ways a failure. I'd even call it a flop because BMW brings high expectations. But here's what the 1 Series is: A cramped version of the 3 Series, the new 1 costs nearly as much and doesn't really differentiate itself from the 3 except being a squished version of the 3 and less practical. As Neil points out:

Worse yet, the 1-series really isn't much of a value proposition. Our test car priced out at $42,325, which is only $4,525 less than an identically optioned, better equipped and infinitely more attractive 335i Coupe. I suppose there are other cost-of-ownership issues such as insurance and so forth, but I think you'd have to be slightly mad to choose the 1-series over the otter-sleek and beautiful 3-series.

If you look on the Internet, you can see the beautiful 3 series coupe sold used (about a year old with low miles) for about $40,000. You'd be mad to fork out more for the new 1 Series when you could get the gorgeous 3 Series coupe for less.

Quote of the Week: Previous Malibu "Styled on an Etch-a-Sketch by blindfolded barbers."

Dan Neil wins quote of the week for his line about the improvement of the 2008 Chevy Malibu in his Los Angeles Times Highway Column  in which he says that the Malibu, competing with the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, achieves a grade of "average," which is precisely its goal. He makes the great point that the car's C-pillar gives it an Audi look (I'd say the A6). And now for the quote of the week, Neil goes on to say that the Malibu "is a major improvement over the previous-generation Malibu, which looked like it was styled on an Etch-a-Sketch by blindfolded barbers."

How Buying a Volvo Devastated My Finances

On September 5, 2001 I bought a 1999 Volvo S70 GLT in silver at a Toyota dealership in Costa Mesa. The Volvo had 31K miles and cost me 21,999, about 24K out the door. Five and a half years later, I spent over 11k on maintenance and repairs and the dealership wanted close to another 3K for ABS brake sensors and airbag replacement (I never crashed the car or triggered the airbag). It seemed every six months or so I had to put in one or two thousand dollars into that Volvo to "stop the bleeding," but the bleeding never stopped. So on June 22, 2007 I went to Power Nissan in Torrance (a mile from my house) and traded in my Volvo for a slightly used 2007 Maxima SL in precision gray. With the trade-in, my out the door cost was $20,700. The Maxima drives like a 60K-dollar Lexus for a third the money so indeed I'm happy with it. A little big for my tastes (parking the whale sucks), but overall the Maxima is a superior auto in terms of sporty bold looks, reliability, acceleration, comfort, and quiet ride. I go into detail over this transaction in an earlier post.

I got to thinking about that Volvo I bought back in 2001 at the Costa Mesa Toyota dealership. For the same price I could have bought a loaded Toyota Camry SE. The repair costs would have been far less than the Volvo, probably 8K less to be conservative. Since I only drive 6K miles a year, I'd have fewer than 35K miles on the Toyota and I would have kept it for a good 4 or 5 years longer, maybe more. So with a icy fury in my breast and with some self-loathing over my own stupidity, I must conclude that the Volvo burned a thirty-thousand-dollar hole in my wallet. What a waste of money. I could have used that money to put in a slate or flagstone driveway and to buy a Spanish red tile roof.  My financial woes surrounding that Volvo have given me a steely resolve to never buy a Volvo again. Nor will I buy any European car. European cars are sexy, to be sure, but their maintenance costs are a joke and only people who like wasting their money should buy them.