You and me both. I’ve always been a fan of GT cars, and the 8 is one of my all-time favorites. It’s just a shame that they’re such maintenance whores. I would love to own one myself, but I can’t justify dropping that kind of coin to keep a 10+ year old ~$20-30k car on the road. There has to come a point where a vehicle is just no longer worth the money you’re sinking into it… that’s why I no longer have my e46 M3.

That is why I haven’t picked up a 8 either – I can’t afford the repair bills.

Small price to pay, compared to how much you’re likely to spend to keep it on the road. One of my bosses has a 1996 840ci. It typically spends at least a week (often two) per month taking up one of our lifts. It doesn’t help that parts aren’t easy to get ahold of, either. This month was due to a door handle issue. Still took a week to source the parts so we could get it gone from the shop. Last month was $2314.19 worth of misc suspension parts (wholesale cost on parts, no labor) and cooling system repair.

This is a car that we’ve had for about 3.5 years, so it’s not like we just got hit with a poorly maintained car and tried to fix all the issues at once. We currently have $20,293.81 worth of tickets on that one car, all parts at our cost with no labor.

Great cars to look at; fun cars to drive. I don’t have a bank account that can support one, though.

Yeah – I actually feel similarly about a new 8 Series. It would be interesting but I’d rather see the 8 stay in BMW’s history books versus a new iteration. I won’t mind seeing a new, dedicated GT or 4 door GT like the CS Concept. Apparently that’s likely the way it would go though.

This is my favorite model and I don’t look forward to seeing how BMW management will ruin it.

haha, I agree – I was tossing around the idea of the Z8 or 507 next.

Yeah, it was a fantastic car – the 850CSi was cut down due to emissions regulations and the M8 prototype was never fully realized which is a shame as I feel that now, that car would be legendary had it been produced.