My wife has a friend-of-a-coworker who buys cars at dealer auctions and will sell them for cheap to friends/acquaintances. Apparantly he typically gets upscale stuff like bmw, audi, saab, etc. So it looks like we could get into a used 3-series for about 12-15k. And behold, it comes in AWD!!
Any experiences? Reliability seems decent based on Consumer Reports and all the old beemers I see driving around.
I really like the looks of the 03-04 models, and I've always wanted a 6-cyl. I want something smaller and less emasculating than the 03 Passat wagon (err, sportswagon... SPORTSWAGON!!) I inherited from the wife when she got a job that provided a car. Plus, Consumer Reports ranks VW reliability as abysmal as they get older.
The only niggling thing about the beemer is the stigma/snob factor. (funny how a $15k car can have that, but anyway...) Will the car be so great that I'll instantly get over that?