There’s a good reason why some high-end luxury cars with exotic mechanical solutions depreciate more than a treasury obligation once the warranty is over: you’re left to foot the bill for both regular maintenance and ghastly unscheduled repairs. The service costs are almost always equivalent to a car with the original sticker and not…the price you paid for it used.
In the world of BMW’s 8-Series, the most desirable models by far are the 6-speed manual gearbox 850i and the M-prepped 850CSi. The latter is the crown jewel of the series featuring a 380PS (375hp) 5.6-liter V12 and we found one on eBay selling for $42,995 or best offer. That’s down from its original MSRP of $104,650 back in 1995, after it clocked 73,000 miles (~117,500km).
We knew that maintaining a V12-powered 8-Series can quickly get very expensive, but the actual costs hit us like a stack of bricks: according to the seller, from the 36,000 mile mark and onwards, the owner spent a whopping $47,583! That’s more than $4,000 over the MSRP of a brand new M235i Coupe ($43,100).
What’s even more surprising is the frequency of the services as listed by the seller below:
At 36k miles $652.00
At 38k miles $1,500
At 42k miles $1,825
At 43k miles $811
At 45k miles $4,520
At 47k miles $913
At 48k miles $6,700
At 49k miles $340
At 51k miles $1,600
At 52k miles $1,100
At 59k miles $964
At 60k miles $760
At 61k miles $1,588
At 63k miles $6,600
At 64k miles $680
At 63k miles $2,370
At 65k miles $7,400
At 66k miles $4,880
At 67k miles $1,200
At 69k miles the whole clutch set was replaced for $1,180
On the other hand, you can’t say that he/she didn’t take care of the car, but that should serve as a warning of what you’re getting into when buying these special vehicles.
By John Halas
PHOTO GALLERY
