Which M should I buy?
Pick what the car is for, your budget and how much repair risk you can live with. You get the three cars that fit best on that list, each with its cost to own a year and its chance of a big bill.
The chance of a repair bill over $10,000 in the first five years, for a car bought without service records.
Your shortlist: first m, under $50,000, some risk
- 92Guide Score for 1999Exceptionalabout $1,822 a year to own
- Why it fits
- It scores 99 for this purpose, 7th of 15; its strongest parts are analog connection (95) and weight (92). Best year to buy: 1999.
- Cost to own
- About $1,822 a year ($1,168 to $2,920)
- Chance of a bill over $10,000 in five years
- under 0.1%
- Typical price
- About $43,745, the middle of 14 permitted prices ($20,995 to $74,990)
- 66Guide Score for 2021Goodabout $3,288 a year to own
- Why it fits
- It scores 90 for this purpose, 10th of 15; its strongest parts are analog connection (75) and ownership (68). Best year to buy: 2021.
- Cost to own
- About $3,288 a year ($1,924 to $5,048)
- Chance of a bill over $10,000 in five years
- under 0.1%
- Typical price
- About $48,498, the middle of 5 permitted prices ($39,572 to $68,900)
- 91Guide Score for 2000Exceptionalabout $2,321 a year to own
- Why it fits
- It scores 80 for this purpose, 12th of 15; its strongest parts are weight (97) and analog connection (95). Best year to buy: 2000.
- Cost to own
- About $2,321 a year ($1,575 to $3,499)
- Chance of a bill over $10,000 in five years
- 1.8%
- Typical price
- About $43,990, the middle of 9 permitted prices ($32,000 to $129,990)
Of the 15 cars on this list, left out: 11 whose typical price is over $50,000.
Where the prices come from
The typical price is the middle of the asking and sold prices we recorded from sources whose terms allow this use (bonhams.com, classiccars.com, driveway.com, enthusiastauto.com), read October 27, 2026 to October 28, 2026, with 11 auction results sold between 2015 and 2023. A car fits a budget when its typical price is at or under it. 43 of the 69 generations have 3 or more such prices; a car with fewer shows “no permitted price yet” and is left out once you set a budget. Asking prices sit above what cars sell for, so treat a car near your line as a stretch.
Each list is ordered by the Guide Score’s parts weighted for that purpose (method v5-final.14), so a car can lead a list with a lower overall Guide Score; the score shown beside each car is its overall one. It is an editorial score, built only from permitted, sourced data. The cost to own is for a car bought at five years old, or its own age if older, kept five years. How it works.