Hello, I know this isn't really in the topic of trp, but I would rather trust the advice of some red pilled dude than other random stranger from the internet.

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So I'm a 20 years old programmer, I'm stable financially, and I want to buy my first car.

I thought about financing a brand new Mercedes-Benz, but when I looked at the amount of money I'll be losing I've decided to go for a used car.

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And I have two options:

  1. A Lexus IS220d from around 2008 for 6-7k euros.
  2. A BMW 320d from 2013-2014(the F30 model) for around 10-13k euros.

I've heard that Lexus is pretty reliable, but the IS220D may have some problem, on the other hand I've heard that BMW is not as reliable as Lexus, but the new F30 model is one of the most reliable they built in years(I have a friend who bought one with 120k km on it and put another 30K km on it in a year and nothing broke, he just did some maintenance for around 250 euros).

If there are any of you who are good with cars I'd appreciate a honest response/opinion.

I want a car that looks good and won't be in the shop every month (and I don't want to pay more than 2k euros per year on maintenance). Speed is not really important to me, I just want something elegant, so if you know another car that looks good and is pretty reliable and is under 12k euros used I would like to know it.

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So what's your advice regarding a first car purchase? And btw, I'm planning to keep this car for 3-5 years.

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Thanks you!