Re: Mercedes vs. BMW
^ You may get lucky. I just don't see cars as a viable investment. IMV, they way cars depreciate, its impossible to make money on your car.
Coming back to the original question, if you have the car properly inspected before purchase and maintain it, it won't likely break down on the road. The problem is when you take in your car for regular service (to the dealer), they start telling you that you need to replace this that and the other thing. If you are not very knowledgable, your regular service bill can go in multiple thousands every year, even when the car is seemingly running perfectly fine. Its hard to get peace of mind on an expensive car when it is out of warranty. In most cases, you can always get extended warranty, if the car is under 70k miles. Read carefully the exclusions section of the extended warranty though. You don't want to get an unpleasant surprise when you are about to use your warranty.