Info about BMW

[Camry00]

Hello,
I have never used the BMWs. And today I saw one 3 series and I like it. But I’m just confused as its 02 model and have 125000 miles. And I like to know that how good is the BMW after 100,000 miles and for how many miles they are good if we maintain it right.
Another thing is the maintenance like oil change is higher as compare to Toyota’s?
And for the maintenance and oil change do we can only go to BMW dealers or I can take it anywhere.
Please help me and advise me shell I buy this car. The only problem that noticed and the owner also informed me that the power steering is hard when the car is not moving or on very slow moment.
Please also advise any other useful information about it and for the new buyer’s
Thanks.

[daddyo8]

It would be advisable to get a Bentley repair book and research forums and DIY sites to learn how to do the work on your own car if maintenance price seems to be a problem.
Even our local Walmart has stopped changing the oil on my bimmers as it is recommended by BMW to change the fill plug and metal seal ring regularly, as well as using high quality filters, and these large volume shops dont have such things on hand. ( I had to educate my WM service techs how to check and top-off the fluid in my 325i's auto trans...not what one would expect).
And at 100K miles you can expect the non-drivetrain items to start to need replacing so get ready for a lot of hands on education. It's challenging but interesting to explore the technical mindset of the Germans, thus the need of the Bentley book.
Good luck.