About to Order, Engine Failure Questions

[BimmerFan]

LOL to the math savants here.

It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach and keeps me awake some nights knowing that in this huge investment I have made, there is potentially a grenade just waiting to explode for some random reason.

As others have noted, the odds are with you. But if it literally makes you sick and you can't enjoy it, then get rid of it. Don't save it for the next guy. Go find something that you can afford and not worry about.

It's like those guys who worry about their car getting stolen and are afraid to leave the house. I tell them: You have insurance. In the case of the BW, you have the warranty. Enjoy it while you can, if it still bothers you by the time the warranty runs out, then get rid of it.

I've been in that boat several times with BMWs. Great cars, but owning them out of warranty can be a crapshoot.

 

[ngoni]

My $.02 worth:

I have about 3k mi on my 2023 CT5BW.

This is the nicest car I have ever owned, or probably will ever own. I am not poor but it was definitely a stretch and a sacrifice. I had planned on keeping this car forever, I do not see myself having the spare change to buy another car of this caliber.

It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach and keeps me awake some nights knowing that in this huge investment I have made, there is potentially a grenade just waiting to explode for some random reason. I probably could not afford a $50k+ engine replacement and would just have to sell it for salvage if it came to that.

I thought my car might even have collectible value one day so I only drive it for pleasure and keep the miles low, but now that seems like a bad idea, since the engine might grenade at 40k miles, I better drive the shit out of it and hit 40k miles while it's under warranty, no? So this has completely warped my lifelong plans for how I would own and drive the car and I am thoroughly disgusted with GM.

I do not want to take a bath by selling the car at its current value and I do love driving it, so I am at a conundrum as to whether to keep hold of it and just cross my fingers and pray that I didn't get one of the shit motors, or just "take my medicine", dump it at a loss while it still runs, walk away and move on and never buy another GM product. (I have been debating trading it in for one of those hellcat Wranglers but that's another story and Chrysler has its own quality problems so IDK.)

So my advice to anyone in a similar situation would be, if a 1-in-50 chance of your engine spontaneously nuking itself after the warranty expires would be financially ruinous to you, DO NOT BUY this car and plan to hold for life. If you want to lease one, or plan to trade it in before the warranty expires, that's probably fine.

It sounds like you are in a more comfortable financial position than me, I could never afford a barn full of exotics, so maybe my recurring financial nightmare as I have described above is not something that would trouble you as much.

If you're worried, get the GM extended warranty and maybe even add some coverage to your auto insurance if that's even possible. Mitigate your risk but carpe diem and don't get in knots about what ifs.

 

[T.O.Blackwing]

My $.02 worth:

I have about 3k mi on my 2023 CT5BW.

This is the nicest car I have ever owned, or probably will ever own. I am not poor but it was definitely a stretch and a sacrifice. I had planned on keeping this car forever, I do not see myself having the spare change to buy another car of this caliber.

It makes me absolutely sick to my stomach and keeps me awake some nights knowing that in this huge investment I have made, there is potentially a grenade just waiting to explode for some random reason. I probably could not afford a $50k+ engine replacement and would just have to sell it for salvage if it came to that.

I thought my car might even have collectible value one day so I only drive it for pleasure and keep the miles low, but now that seems like a bad idea, since the engine might grenade at 40k miles, I better drive the shit out of it and hit 40k miles while it's under warranty, no? So this has completely warped my lifelong plans for how I would own and drive the car and I am thoroughly disgusted with GM.

I do not want to take a bath by selling the car at its current value and I do love driving it, so I am at a conundrum as to whether to keep hold of it and just cross my fingers and pray that I didn't get one of the shit motors, or just "take my medicine", dump it at a loss while it still runs, walk away and move on and never buy another GM product. (I have been debating trading it in for one of those hellcat Wranglers but that's another story and Chrysler has its own quality problems so IDK.)

So my advice to anyone in a similar situation would be, if a 1-in-50 chance of your engine spontaneously nuking itself after the warranty expires would be financially ruinous to you, DO NOT BUY this car and plan to hold for life. If you want to lease one, or plan to trade it in before the warranty expires, that's probably fine.

It sounds like you are in a more comfortable financial position than me, I could never afford a barn full of exotics, so maybe my recurring financial nightmare as I have described above is not something that would trouble you as much.

Is this a joke?
OMG the drama!
Sick to your stomach, awake at night?
Sorry if I am not sounding very compassionate but your post is pretty out there and so take this as a bit of tough love.
If you are really suffering this much, sell it.
And for God's sake don't buy a Stellantis product if you are genuinely concerned about build quality and reliability.
Nothing is certain in life and if a remote chance of your engine blowing causes you this much psychological grief, sell your car now and buy a Camry and some Ativan.

 

[MookdocOE]

Geezus, if it worries you that bad sell the thing and move on with your life. No luxury car should keep someone awake at night.

Just when I thought I have hear it all...Naturally, I come to the Cadillacvnet to get me some good ol' entertainment almost daily! Luv it!

 

[minn19]

Just when I thought I have hear it all...Naturally, I come to the Cadillacvnet to get me some good ol' entertainment almost daily! Luv it!

I legit feel bad for the guy/gal. I haven’t felt that way about a car since my late teens/early twenties. That was when I had .12 cents to my name though and I couldn’t afford a major breakdown. Now with a toy/luxury car that isn’t a need though…….no way I’d let it get me that stressed out. It would be gone for a new Camry or Accord.

 

[Finally-a-V]

I'm not worried about my engine going. It goes, it goes. No, I won't be happy. I'd probably be really pissed off, but they aren't blowing up at a rate that worries me. Again, the issues with the 6.2L in the trucks/suv's, yes, that would worry me and I have crossed them off my list. I figure with the warranty, it'll get fixed. Then you make a decision to keep it, or dump it. If you're really that worked up, just get rid of it and move on.

 

[1Evil55]

Not that I'd ever look forward to damaging an engine but, a great excuse to go bigger.

 

[jbawden]

@revvhigh Have you considered that the fodder for your anxiety and nightmares is less about the LT4 and more with the financial opportunity costs purchasing a 5BW presents? If the warranty doesn't give you piece of mind, something else is going on. I can't fathom a car keeping me up at night (unless I'm trying to figure out a repair) and not doing something about it. I focus significant effort towards removing/correcting objects, behavior, circumstances, etc., that try to make my finite time here unpleasant.

 

[565565]

Yeah definitely not worth losing sleep over a car.

Consider this. A man's lifetime risk of getting cancer is 42%. For many of us on this forum, the cancer that turns our life upside down could be growing in us at this very moment.

Well I hope that cheers you up a bit tonight at least.

 

[T.O.Blackwing]

Yeah definitely not worth losing sleep over a car.

Consider this. A man's lifetime risk of getting cancer is 42%. For many of us on this forum, the cancer that turns our life upside down could be growing in us at this very moment.

Well I hope that cheers you up a bit tonight at least.

Google AI tells me that the lifetime risk of dying in a car crash in the United States is 1 in 93, or a 1.08% chance based on data from the National Safety Council in 2022.
So that means if you only drive the BW from this date forward and no other car, there is a chance that you will die in it that is not that much lower than your LT4 going tits up.
Or, at the very least, still a statistically significant chance.
Choose your poison!

 

[pmsteinm]

Yeah definitely not worth losing sleep over a car.

Consider this. A man's lifetime risk of getting cancer is 42%. For many of us on this forum, the cancer that turns our life upside down could be growing in us at this very moment.

Well I hope that cheers you up a bit tonight at least.

This was me. No lifestyle risk factors, young, no family history. Out of the blue and very low survival rate. Probably have dodged the bullet but no more "saving" my car. Drive the hell out of it because you never know.

 

[1Evil55]

If you don't drive it now, your kids will later.

 

[RDATLTE]

If you don't drive it now, your kids will later.

Or, Sancho!

 

[rubberduck]

On the drug front, I always get confused on what people cherry pick. Drugs is a problem so take away the drugs and the addict will stop. Then they apply diff logic to guns. Don’t take away guns, instead fix mental health to reduce mass murders.

Taking away drugs doesn’t work. Addiction is a mental disorder. However, stopping illegal trafficking is fundamental to law and order. These same cartels exploit woman and children into sex slavery. Taking away guns doesn’t work. The recent shootings in Sweden, with strict gun laws, exemplify that. Again, these people are mentally sick. All strict gun laws do is harm innocent people by taking away their constitutional rights to defend themselves.

 

[1Evil55]

Or, Sancho!

How's that Sublime song about Sancho go?

 

[RDATLTE]

How's that Sublime song about Sancho go?

Something about popping a cap.

 

[1Evil55]

Something about popping a cap.

<-----

 

[CA139]

Anyone else notice how he wrote 6000 words and then slipped this in near the end?

Holy smokes dude! That will certainly change your perspective on life. Glad you survived OK and hope you are well now.

I had been toying with the idea of buying a GR Corolla and maybe a Supra for a couple years since the manual supra came out. 2024 was an amazing year for my fitness so I got crazy busy training and doing all kinds of insane outdoor adventures like never before. Also our old Minivan died with 250,000ish miles and we were having problems getting a replacement car from Toyota the order was taking month or couldn't be fulfilled. I didn't know it at the time but our local dealer just can't get cars. They jerked me around for a Grand Highlander so I kept sitting on all this money because my wife wanted something more fun, a Lexus, a BMW, God knows what. The problem is that while she didn't want to be told what she wanted she knows exactly ZERO about cars. If you tell her a car handles better or has more or less acceleration of is fun it doesn't really sink in. I'd be happy to buy her anything she wanted but nobody had anything to test drive so while normally an extremely stable lady who is confident and self assurred she was being impossible. I married her because she sleeps at night and she is probably one of the only women on earth that doesn't need to be on like 3 antidepressants at max dose to (barely) get through the day without going full whackjob. She has NEVER busted my balls in 25 years we've been together about anything yet she was all pissy about that nonsense like getting mad at my suggestions or discissions but not not actually knowing what she wanted. We ended up getting a Grand Highlander that someone was able to source but didn't buy but I had a lot of money left over which got created because I had cancelled my automatic investment plan due to not being sure about our finances or what she wanted.

Anyhow I finally tried a friend's GR Corolla in Dec and he told me that was when they produce them and Dec/Jan is the time to buy because they have them. It wasn't an impulse buy. And since I was sitting on a lot of money that I had saved just in case my wife wanted something more expensive, also forgot to invest, and finally just got some life insurance proceeds/inheritance after mulling my car dreams over for 1-2 years I pulled the trigger. It wasn't an impulse buy at all just something that had been nursed a long time and I was finally ready. Then I got a taste for it and wanted the Supra which I had desired for 2 years since it went Manual. I did invest a decent chunk of the proceeds as the market had dropped a month ago a bit but then started thinking V8 and wanted the Blackwing and figured I could also swing that a Dark Horse Mustang next year. I would have to continue being off the automatic investment plan for another 8-12ish months maybe and see what bills materialize once my older son starts college in the fall.

What happened was I got a nasty stomach bug that occulted a severe pneumonia. I started to pee like every 30 minutes and my cough was so bad that sucking down a bunch of inhalers that normally work well for my asthma would make the cough worse. I caught pneumonia once before 10 years ago and felt like there was a film inside my chest. Now normally good urine output means you're doing well but I looked it up and in this case the infection, or should I say sepsis, can poison your kidneys so they don't resorb sodium so all the salts wind up in your urine and it drags more water with it pissing your brains out. The body has compensatory mechanisms by making a hormone in your brain to fight dehydration, unfortuantely this very vasopressin acts in the kidneys to concentrate sodium exactly where you're losing it so the defensive mechanism exacerbates the problem. I had to switch antibiotic but for the first time in 15 years missed 2 days out of work and couldn't get out of bed for most of that time which is pretty bad considering I can go up and down entire mountain ranges on my own power either by bicycle or foot.

A month later I am still a bit in a bad way. I have known of a few young or middle aged people like myself who died of sepsis. I am no longer that terrible, I've started training and working out again but more than a month into this I can't tolerate anything intense. I've been scrimping and investing a lifetime. The kids college 529's are long since paid for. I could retire early but won't because its bad for mental health and a bad example for the kids. Fuck it if I don't buy these cars and keep them now when they all turn rainbow alliance EV's like a "Demolition Man" future where they drive themselves and play "Here Comes the Muffin Man" automatically I will be kicking myself. Just like if it were 1970-1971 but no light at the end of the current tunnel because I've tried like 6-7 EV's including on track days/autocross and they blow dead goats.

 

[CA139]

+1 to buying MTs while you can, i feel the same way. Same reason I bought a 5BW and a GRC (great car, both practical and fun). Will get to enjoy a Dark Horse when my buddy (a Ford guy) gets his. And I will also buy the new Celica if/when it comes out, only if it's not a hybrid and only if it has a manual transmission. No interest in the Supra, though.

Word. It shall not pass this way again.

 

[BimmerFan]

Congrats on finding that most excellent wife.