That bad rep on the Jetta turbodiesel with the automatic is interesting. My Jetta was made in MEXICO, not Germany. I was surprised by that - I should have known. Anyway, Motor Trend magazine had it as the car of the year or something like that before I bought it and all the reviews in the auto magazines were praising the car as if it was a BMW or something. I should have definitely known A VW IS NOT A BMW.

I had a chance to buy a low mileage used 745 BMW with a six year 100 thousand mile warranty from a dealer. He also had a five series for the same price with a lot less mileage and the same warranty. He wanted 19K and advised me that either of them would be a way better move than buying the new Jetta. I was straight up with the dude. Never went and looked and totally regretted it. If I would have went and looked I probably would have gone home with one. I had a real nice black '96 Nissan Pathfinder with gold trim and top of the line with a Bose sound system, sunroof, etc., that I was trading. It was the type of trade they like to see around here. It was a manual transmission V6 and a real nice SUV that my X wrecked up twice, wrecking on snowy, icy roads, and I had the body shop repair it under the insurance. Definitely should have went with the used BMW though.

I have a BMW motorcycle, a R1100R roadster. It's the best bike I've ever owned and I've had a bike for almost fifty years. The ride is like a magic carpet with a dual articulating rear swingarm and adjustable monoshock, as well as a great seat. The brakes are the best brakes I've ever felt on a bike. It is extremely expensive to get worked on and any part that has BMW stamped on it anywhere is about five times as much as an aftermarket part if you can find one. It only had a one year warranty. I keep it in excellent shape and I recently put an activated gas mat battery in it. These are cool batteries that they use in dragsters and other special applications where you might have to install the battery upside down even. Never freezes, isn't anything like a lead/acid battery or a gel cell. It is called an Oddyssey battery made by a company called Hawker.

Anyway, yeah, for 20K you will be able to find a great used BMW, probably at a dealer with a good warranty. I believe they even change the oil for you and you only have to pay for the oil and filter. I, however, usually change my own oil.

I'm retired now and my new woman Charity never pressures me. I stay home a lot and watch the dogs and so forth. There is a great music store about two blocks away and sometimes great gear shows up there, like the PRS SE Singlecut Tremolo tobacco burst flamed maple mint used guitar I got there a couple months ago for 250 dollars. I also bought a Fender MIM P bass for 200, near mint, in black and put an aged white pearl pickguard on it and it looks cool and plays really good. I bring in a substantial retirement income that I contribute to everything. The house is paid for and the taxes are not unreasonable, so we have a fair amount of expendable income. I can see where you will miss bringing in that second substantial income, if you have to go without being paid.

When I first retired my X started leaving "to do" lists for me before she went to work and was a real batch about it if I didn't get all the stuff done. I went out and got a part time job, got away from that "to do" list BS, and made some extra money to play with. Back then I said I could never be a "house husband", no way. Now I do it and don't even think of it as being a house husband, I just think of it as being retired. Of course I don't have the responsibility of taking care of kids though. That would be a priority that would require immediate attention, constantly. Different people react differently to staying home while the woman works; even the same person can react differently depending upon the woman they are living with, mysteriously, as in my case - I never thought about how my outlook on that changed until now by the way.

If you are able to come up with something and pull this off, you are sure to be in for some excitement and adventure. It might seem like it will be cheap around here, but it won't be cheap; unless you are rolling in the dough - everything is relative. Over there in Finland it sounds so expensive; someone must be making a lot of money.