My attention was caught by this thread and wanted to give some inputs and other point of views. You guys out there are so lucky to pay a much lower cost compared to us here in the 3rd world. Price (due to import and luxury taxes for corrupt government officials) for imported cars here (euro or anywhere else) cost around 300% of the blue book value. e.g. a used good conditioned 03 E53 4.4 in the US would cost around US$20k, you multiply that 3 times and that would roughly be the cost here. Yes, US$60k (peso equivalent). I paid for my 03 E53 for US$47k (peso equiv) For Porsches, an 03 911 Cabrio on ebay motors costing US$20k cost 4 times here or roughly US$80k (peso equiv). This pricing applies to brand new models as well. Now here's the good part, there are a dime a dozen European, American and other imported car indy car shops/mechanics in the country and I pay 50% - 80% lower labor cost versus you guys. OEM / replacement / genuine BMW parts however cost +30% versus the real value.

So, the long and the short of it is I envy you because you pay 30% only of what we pay to own these babies but we can certainly afford to maintain them.

Now, comparing the cost of acquiring and maintaining a Japanese or Korean car to our BMW (or other European cars) is another story.