Well many of the nitpicks have been covered in this thread and in many others. I have had my BDR since 2005 and have 15K miles on it. I drive it to work and back almost every day it is not raining. I did not buy it to be a show car taken out only on weekends so if my paint job was not perfect when I got it, it sure ain't now
I have been in an accident and came away in one piece with an appreciation for the strength of the car. It did pretty well considering these cars are really not safe at all by today's standards. My nitpick was the length of time it took to get some of the replacement parts. I could not really pin it down to what the problem was. It could have been the shop I used to fix the car did not communicate effectively with BDR or it could have been poor delivery on BDR's part. I have gotten other things from BDR on my own without a problem.
As many have pointed out you should expect little nitpicky things to gone wrong with these cars because of the vibration etc. But many of my little problems have been related to mechanical things not delivered by BDR. Engine water leak,
oil leak because of a bad seal install, tranny failure due to a small pin breaking.
If you do buy a new BDR you can buy it direct and have a local shop you pick do the engine and tranny install, or you can do it yourself. Any good speed shop could handle it. Just make sure the car is gone over front to back checking every single nut and bolt before you put it on the road and then again after few hundred miles. There are also several good shops that do BDR's that frequent this site and I would not hesitate to use them, ship it here when done and then do the maintenance yourself or find a local shop.
The guy that build my car is not in business anymore. This really bugged me in the beginning but now I have more confidence in my own skills and I have found a few local shops that can handle almost anything that would come up. Really. These cars are pretty basic. Engine and trans, take it to any guys who handles Ford hot rods. Suspension and brakes, I found a guy that works on older BMW's and he has no problem looking after me.
Oh now that I think about it I did have a short in the lights one time. I discovered after a day or two that the wire, for the lic plate, going through the license plate holder had frayed because there was not a little rubber or neoprene tube to protect it. Maybe they took care of that in the newer models. hmmmm maybe I need a new BDR.
Jay do you take trade ins?