Macster

Why not keep the E46 in service as your beater car? You should know it better than any other used car out there.

Also, when you sell your current car you lock in the depreciation and you stand to lose again on depreciation for any car you replace your current car with.

Sincerely,

Macster.

MichaelL

I have a BMW X3 as a beater car. 2008 with the sport package. Actually fairly roadworthy for an SUV. Comfortable & good in the snow. The new 2011's are supposed to be pretty good.

Tsurara

I am in Chicago as well. The only sketchy months are late Nov to early Feb. I don't drive much at all and ZipCar has been doing well for me for short trips and meetings.

06911s

I have a similar dilemma, would like to replace my 2007 Lexus GX470 with a smaller car, but able to accommodate occasionally my wife and two children. We also have a minivan, the workhorse that we use most of the time when we haul the kids and dog around, and I feel the Lexus is depreciating in the garage especially april-november when I usually stop driving my C2S (I live in the midwest). The Lexus is a great truck, but I think we could downgrade, especially now after we purchased the minivan. I would appreciate any suggestions, thank you very much.

Macster

Why not just get rid of the Lexus and do with the minivan and the Porsche?

Or just keep the Lexus? Generally, the car you own is cheaper than the car you will replace it with. So there's an argument for keeping the Lexus.

Or replace the Lexus with another minivan. Same brand/type or different brand? I mean you admit the minivan is your workhorse car. Maybe time to upgrade to a 2nd workhorse, err minvan? Share the workload between the two minivans, share the wear and tear and if one's in the shop you still have a 2nd minivan for those workhorse things.

Sincerely,

Macster.

zanwar

I drove my 997 through a couple of Chicago winters on snow tires and it was fine. Never got stuck. If you want something to handle the really nasty stuff during the winter months I would do a Jeep.

mousecrab

E46 M3 vert as beater. that's still a lot of HP for driving in deep snow.

alexb76

I'd pick VW Toureg, or Audi Q5 over those two. Better value than Cayenne, and look a lot better than X5. Toureg is essentially Cayenne at a discount!

If you care about MPG, get the Toureg V6 TDI!

islandtrader

I love my E46 M3 (only 55k miles), its a pretty sweet car. I have 2 sport cars now and I living in a high rise in Chicago. It just sucks in the winter here, if it snows the m3 is unusable. Maybe I'll get a jeep or something like that.

pewter82

Subaru Forester 2.5L 30mpg best snow vehicle I've owned. Never had an issue...but I do take care of my cars.

p-cardriver

I just bought a 2005 X5 4.8is for utility work, year-round stuff. But I will retire the 997S from daily driver use as a result; it is too worn to be a garage queen, but great for weekend fun and so forth.

The X5 was 93k miles full CPO with maintenance which had a month or so to run when I got it, so everything that could be taken care of has been now. I gave about $21k for it which is a tad high but I can rationalize it. So not a lot invested nor a lot of downside price risk. If I like it through 1-2 years I will sell it and buy a newer one.

The 997S saw 3 winters in daily driver duty in Michigan (Detroit area), its 4th winter here in KY. Snow tires and no problem. But then I did just put in a new windshield and need to get the hood sprayed.

alexb76

Not sure about the new Chrysler products, look like an improvement over older models... however, as I said earlier, the only SUVs I'd look at would be Toureg, Q5, or Subaru actually... Subaru would have the most car-like driving dynamic, with the best AWD system to boot!

yemenmocha

M3 is no beater. Please take that comment back. :-(

islandtrader

Now that I have both a 997 and an M3, M3 is essentially my sports beater car lol. The m3 is great but the 997 c2s takes things to another level. I have also realized how much people hate on you when you drive an m3 around especially a vert. I've never got so many people road raged around the car, its quite incredible, I don't understand why people are so jealous. Now the 911 I've realized is another story, people really respect it and really adore it, I get compliments everyday.

akw

+1

Why not got this route? That way you are only "investing" in one depreciating asset.