Does anyone have recommendations for models/years of BMWs are good and which models/years to stay away from?
I know @DGKALIS is a BMW guy but it seems like there are a ton of you that are BMW aficionados
If you are hands on and can do the majority of the maintenance yourself.. then anything pre 2003 is cool. If you have a friend who is a BMW tech that you can hire on the side for help with more complex things like Vanos, timing chain guides, ect, then i would say anything 2004-2010 is cool. Anything newer than 2010 can have potential to have electronic nightmares, fuel system nightmares, and are super expensive to fix. So if you get a newer one.. i would either lease, or buy a CPO with a full bumper to bumper warranty...
I used to be a BMW fan.. but they lost me with all the electronic systems. I had a X5M that drove fine, parked it overnight, woke up and the truck was smoking like crazy. Ended up needed a complete fuel system.(fuel pumps, injectors, ect. no clue what made it all go bad overnight) $10k. Luckily it still had warranty. I got it fixed and got rid of it.
I been into the older cars these days. Super easy to fix, mod, diagnose, just harder to get parts for them.