and trade in my TC, i know ill take a loss, but im looking for something larger,

i still owe like 16,000 on it?haha but, i really want a used 2002-2003 3 series..

What do u guys think?

 

I think you should have thought it out more before buying a car in the first place.

Seriously though, I would see what you could get trading in the tC. If its equal to or more then what your payoff is, then its a matter of deciding what you want. If you owe more then you can get for it on trade, I would wait till you build up more equity. Careful though, more you drive your car the more it depreciates so..... On the other hand, if you are upside down on your loan(ie owe more on the tc then you will get on trade), and don't mind taking a loss, it is possible to take the inequity and tack it onto the loan for the other car you get. I've done it before, and its not pretty. I was just glad to have had $3600 in equity on my Tacoma that I traded for the tC. Miss my Tacoma, but still love my tC.

Oh, and a tip whenever you're going to go trade in a car, go to SEVERAL dealers and have them give you a written quote for how much they will give you for your trade. The amounts I got quoted for trading in my Taco varied from dealer to dealer by as much as $1k! This will be tougher to do in your situation tho if you are looking to trade for a used car, as you'll be limited in what dealers you can go to that will have the used car you want to trade for.

 

Is a 3 series that much bigger? Besides havin 4 doors, im not sure just how much more space your going to get. Besides, the tC seems much more versitle with the huge hatchback and the folding front/rear seats.

 

If you got the money, go for it. Just remember you have to pay all the taxes, etc. AGAIN when buying another car. Also you should sell the tC yourself and save a couple of thousand dollars. NOBODY ever gets a "deal" when trading a car to a dealer. The only thing you save is the hassle of selling yourself.

Good luck.

Kevin

 

The only reason I bought the 3 series is because of the $0 maintanance fee. Once the warranty is up, I dont think my wife will keep the car. Buy it new and dont buy it used. Also, 3 series is pretty small. I can seat more comfortably in the back of a tc than 3 series.

 

here in wisconsin we only pay taxes on what we owe after the price of our trade in, so if i buy a 30k car and get 20k for my trade in i only have to pay taxes on 10k

 

You will get a little better reliability (questionable) and better resale with the 3 series.. period. My co-worker has one (a 2002 I believe). Very little space in the back, I think the tC has more actually, plus more room to carry stuff, especially with the seats down. His has been in for every scheduled maintenance the dealer has conned him into.... the doors do not close right due to saggy hinges (worn door pins already, even on the passenger side) and it doesnt run right a lot of the time. I personally think they are over-rated. The more expensive beamers are much nicer... but you pay for what you get. Now I am assuming you mean the bmw... not the mazda 3 (the "3 series" is a beamer). If you are looking for space I would not go with that car.

 

im more looking into 4 door's... and better pickup..

i would keep the TC if the SuperCharged was allowed in my AUTO, really annyoing, for somone who needs a little more zip for highway driving...

is the SC coming for AUTO's to?

 

Funny you should mention this, engi. On CR's list of Most/Least Reliable Cars, the BMW 3-series and the 6-cyl X3 and X5 were the only Beamers CR didn't have on their unreliable list.

 

Wow, so they were the more reliable of the bmw's? I wouldnt have guessed that going by friends and co-workers cars.. but I have been suprised before! So the rest o the beamers were on the unrleliable list?

One thing to note though about CR.... I read about a lot of issues with thier ratings (from a statistician). Beamers, for example, tend to be taken in for all of the scheduled maintenance (since the owners tend to have more money) and also are usually not driven 100,000 + miles, so it is natural that they do not have more reported issues, as most of the reports come in during the warranty period. Second, in many years (dont know about last year, they did not have NEAR the percentage of surveys returned needed to provide "reliable statiscal data". Not arguing with you about the BMW data, just something to keep in mind about the reliability reports that many companies put on the market.

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Here is some interesting reading regarding CR: http://www.allpar.com/cr.html

 

Here ya go, they got responses from 1 million of their subscribers.
http://autos.msn.com/advice/CRArt.as...tentid=4023544

Trade in my Toyota/Scion, I don't think so.

 

Why don't you get a nice used TSX. Those are real nice and have four doors.