How much do you make when you bought your NEW BMW?

Well, my wife makes about 115K; since she drives it daily, I let here pay for it.

But the leather sports seats with the extensible thigh support are *for me*.

8;)

-- Larry

I make around twenty a day. That's right, twenty.

Huw

What do you do, flip burgers at McDonalds for 3 hours a day?

I paid cash for mine, but it wasn't new. I seriously doubt that I'll ever buy a new car again.

Firstly, its not how much you make, but should be how much are you worth?

Secondly, what does that have to do with anything?

Thirdly, the low end stripped out 3 series is "as affordable" as a high end camry, lexus, etc.

Most people who drive expensive cars are trying to show the world that they made it; they would be better off financially if they had put the money elsewhere.

Oh no. Although that would still allow me time for those twenty phone calls that I do actually pay for myself per day. He is talking about phone calls isn't he?

Huw

If you're looking for stats perhaps you should do some google searches. For example I found this

suggests that BMW buyers in that area made about ~70K.Several years ago, I think edmunds.com used to have suchdata about buyers of every car -- age, %married, median (or average,can't remember which) income, etc. I tried looking for this onedmunds.com but they don't seem to have it anymore. Anoop

If that is true I am amazed. I make way more than that and could not consider dropping that much money on a new BMW. ...but then I don't like buying new cars in general for financial reasons. I'm perfectly happy picking up my cars a few years old after smoieone else takes the big depreciation hit.

That kind of information would be a gold mine to anyone in marketing. Edmunds may still have the info but perhaps they realized it would be better to sell it rather than give it away...

Ditto that. I prefer to purchase cars that are 3-5 years old because A) of the depreciation and B) because you can learn about the reliability of the cars before you buy them. Each model year has new problems and sometimes solves older ones. As it turns out, I bought my first BMW when it was 8 years old. I've put a little bit of money into it for certain repairs, but overall it's been very reliable. And what a great car to drive!

Karl Winkler