Alright, I'll just lay it all on the line.
I'm a student who has no job. I know people have done engineering while having a job, but I honestly don't see how that's possible.
I live in the frozen north, and school is in bumberkeley egypt. Being able to get away from school at a moment's notice is a necessity for my sanity.
I used to not mind the regular maintenance involved in older cars. I had ready access to a garage with all of my tools. This is not the case at school. I also had a mostly regular income before and had no problems with spending the cashola.
Well, I'm getting nickel and dimed at school and my bank account has been steadily approaching zero.
Somehow on my last trip home (about 150 mi), I managed to expose cord on my front passenger tire. My rear diff is leaking, and while body rust seems to be totally in check, the gas tank and filler are starting to get rust flakes. That's the '85 318i.
My other car is the 96 subaru outback sport with the eg33 swap. It's literally 95% sorted. All I have to do is run the wiring for the ecu and make a catted y pipe and buy some O2 sensors. I have about $2400 into this project. I doubt it's worth half that the way it sits. If it were finished, it would be worth more for sure.
It costs me about $50 round trip every time I come back home, so each time I come back on the weekends to do work on either car that's my cost. Just to get here.
I keep eyeing the Fiat 500s. I would almost kill to have a new car under warranty, but the car payments are unacceptable and I doubt anyone is giving out cars these days.
I just want something that I feel comfortable in, something I don't have to think about exploding on me, and something that will be cheap to run.
So I don't know what to do. The less time I spend mental energy on this the better. So parting out the Subaru isn't an option. I can't decide between finishing it, or selling it as is.
Also as far as the BMW goes, I love the car but I have no idea if I'd be better off getting rid of it for something else. I doubt I'll find anything with less rust, but I'm awaiting something to break. The transmission and engine are in fantastic shape, as is the body and interior. The speedo doesn't work which can be nerve-racking, the exhaust has this incredibly annoying tendency to fall off or otherwise leak. It also is in need of emergency tires in size 14", which is frustrating because I have a perfectly good set of 15" all seasons in the garage. They just happen to be on 5 lug wheels while the bmw is 4x100.
I had to choose between the school I'm at now, and one in Boston. The only reason I wish I was in Boston now is so I didn't feel like I need a car.
I've considered year-rounding on 2 wheels, but that just sounds like insanity up here.
Sorry for the verbal diarrhea. I'm just looking for advice from people who have made similar oversights in the past.