My tranny went on me at 79,000 miles. I just had alot of binding noise when i shift gears. They are replacing it now. I rented a FX 45 and that shit kicks ass. Should i get rid of the CL and buy like BMW 545. All i would be doing is moving my equity (resale value- trade in value) from my car to another so i wouldn't lose anymore money. Plus I just also spent $1600 on a avic I put in the Cl like a month ago and new brakes a week ago. should i cut my losses?

 

Tough call. My tranny went at 42K. I'm planning on keeping it for a while. But you have a bit more in the milage department. I know that there are a bunch of guys that said they had multiple tranny replacements, but it's very uncommon. If you have a lot invested in the car, I would keep it. However, if you have the cash to buy a new BMW 545....go for it.

 

I'll tell you one thing (but you probably already know this) ... if you plan on getting 80K miles out of the BMW, you're gonna need more than "equity" to keep it on the road. Those beasts are one expensive proposition once you leave the factory warranty.

For example, I had a 97 BMW 540. According to the maint schedule, when the brakes need to be redone, they replace the rotors EACH time.

I would stick with the Inifiniti.

 

as RaviNJCLs said, maintaining bmw are very expensive. stay with the Japanese cars.

 

As of right now, they are very cheap, in fact free to maintain for the first 50k miles. Everything from brakes to wiper blades. At that point, sell it and you won't lose that much money. I wouldn't be to keen on keeping many new cars anymore, cause as companies pack cars with more technology, there is more shit to go wrong later on and I wouldn't want to see those repair bills.

 

I meant that buying a new 545 costs a butt-load of money. Thing starts at over 55K. If you get 15K for your's on a trade in, and that's probably a lot. Not counting any financing rates, extra options, and assuming that you don't make payments on the CL no more....what's that, over $600 a month in car payments? Maybe closer to $750. Maintaining the CL may not look as bad right now.
If you trade it in, you won't lose a lot of money on the CL, but you will adopt a much higher car payment.
Also, if your car has an extended warrenty and it's good for another 20K, you'll get about another 18 months of average driving. Save the extra payments and when you're ready to trade up, you will not only have the extra savings, but the trade in value of the CL. Granted that will be lower than it is now.
I felt the same as you when my Nissan started acting up. I kept it and I saved a lot.

 

get rid of your CL before its too late. now that the trans is gone it'll never be the same. plus the rebuilt unit that will replace it probably won't last much past 100K. if it makes it that long.

time to shop again. no recommendations. i prefer coupes. but there aren't many left. unless you can suffer w/ a tiny one w/out rear seats or a trunk. good luck.