Q: Buying used BMW 2009

Nothing adverse appears on the Carfax report. There don’t appear to be any outstanding recalls. Inasmuch as used car repair, maintenance, and restoration costs are highly dependent on the actual, as found, condition of the vehicle, the only way to get a reasonably precise estimate of costs you might face, and also to protect yourself in the transaction, is to request a pre-purchase vehicle inspection. That inspection, carried out by a certified Mechanic, dispatched to your location, will give you a lot of data regarding the car. If you look at the just cited link for YourMechanic’s inspection service, you will see a long list of the vehicle systems that must be inspected as well as details of YourMechanic’s inspection methodology.

You have additional options, too, insofar as getting useful data about the reliability of the 2009 BMW 328i. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration maintains a database of consumer complaints, official recalls and factory service bulletins for all makes and models, by year. I encourage you to go to the NHTSA website and enter your vehicle’s year, make and model and review the existing reports which will give you an excellent idea of what has actually been experienced by other owners insofar as faults in the particular vehicle you are interested in. I would post the text of the reports here, but they are detailed so it will be more practical for you to view them online (it is free). In addition, "Consumer Reports" publishes system-by-system vehicle reliability data for all years, makes, and models. This data is available free in the library or on-line if you are a paid subscriber. That reliability data will give you an excellent indication of the relative likelihood that key systems on the model (and year) of interest to you will fail at greater, or lesser, frequency compared to those rates reported for other vehicles. Obviously, what you want to be looking for in that database is an indication that the vehicle "make and model year" is not a "lemon" insofar as reliability. If you are unable to access any of these resources, or desire data of a different type, please do not hesitate for a moment to re-contact YourMechanic and we will assist you further in your attempts to make a wise used vehicle purchase.