pive2001 said:
I think ive come to the end of the road with my 325i. it has 186k miles on it and is becoming pretty expensive to keep up. I dont know what i should do, sell it or keep fixing it hoping that something else wont go wrong with it. I love my car and really dont want to get rid of it. If i sold it i would have 20k to spend on another car. what do you guys think i should do???
To answer your original question, you may be well served to sell the car, as you can expect increased expense as the miles climb. I don't know what year 325i you have, but the reliability is fairly similar between the 92-95 years, and is good, but 186k is 186k and stuff starts to break down. I don't think the costs would be prohibitive to keeping it, but if I had 20k to spend on a replacement I probably would sell it, or I might keep it as a daily driver and buy something fast and rare like an old E28/E34 M5, E24 M6 or E30 M3 for nice days.
As for a replacement, depends what you want in a car. If you want the newest, lowest mileage, two-door version of what you currently drive, look at the 98-99 323is. If you want to stay in the E36 family, check out a 95-98 M3, and 96-98 328i. You could go to the E46 323i/325i/328i or 97-98 528i and 540i, unless you want a really large car, in which case try a 740i/il. All of those cars are great, but serve different purposes.
There are also some decent alternatives from other manufacturers, but too vast a field to speculate without knowing your needs/desires in a vehicle.