You want how much for a battery???

[mrvco]

It has been a number of years since I owned my last BMW, but was there a period during the last 10 or so years that BMW dealerships actually charged prices for out-of-warranty work comparable to independent shops or doing it yourself?

I did get to a point with my out-of-warranty E36 328is that I took it to a dealership to solve a recurring emissions problem. I was fully aware that it wouldn't be cheap, but this was my last resort and they were able to resolve the issue once and for all.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by DSSG

Go to Autozone and pick up a battery. They have one specifically for the car. Then go to an independent and have them code or register it.

Any service or repair from BMW will be expensive. Also you should be reminded that BMW has the reputation, not undeservedly, to sell when the warranty ends. Of all cars, an extended warranty is probably a good idea.

I hear this all the time - people saying how terrible it is to own a luxury German car out of warranty (I realize you didn't actually make the suggestion, just state that the notion is out there). It makes no sense to me. No matter the cost of maintenance and repairs, it's for damn sure cheaper than buying a new car. By a long shot. Keeping a car long term requires maintenance and, yes, the occasional repair (although your repair costs can obviously be mitigated by good preventive maintenance). On our cars, the maintenance and repair costs tend to be higher than, say, a Camry. But once you've already paid for the car (and taken the biggest depreciation hit) you'd be nuts IMHO to start the process all over again and spend a lot of money on another car because you're worried about spending a little bit of money on maintenance and repair.

FWIW, I'm about five years into ownership, with no significant repairs in or out of warranty.

[Bimmer-Bob]

Originally Posted by Vigilante375

Roads to drive on? Oookkkk....find out who were the first people to have roads and tell me if they were "engineers".

Of course they were engineers. They may not have gone to engineering school, or have engineering degrees, but were they engaged in engineering? You bet. Roads don't design themselves, even the first roads.

[Gray_Panther]

As an engineer. I dont think it is their fault. I think it is the higher up sales department that decided to charge people $200+ for installing and coding the new battery. They could have also told engineers to incorporate a setting in the stalk to reset the battery when it was changed. Buuuuut, they wanted to make more money I am sure.

[brocklanders]

This is my fourth modern BMW in the last ten years and in my opinion these cars are engineered and built for lease. I don't think they concern them selves too much about the cost of maintenance or reliability after 50k miles.

[shah269]

Originally Posted by brocklanders

This is my fourth modern BMW in the last ten years and in my opinion these cars are engineered and built for lease. I don't think they concern them selves too much about the cost of maintenance or reliability after 50k miles.

deep dark dirty secret of the auto industry....yes....they make all the money they want via a lease...after which point if the car isn't sold in 6 months they are crushed.

want to get even sadder? got to the NYC car show...every single car there with the exeption of the hyper exotics.....at the end fo the show...crushed.

So when you return your leased 135 and they charge you for new wheels and for this and that and the other things so the car looks good......all that if the car isn't sold in 6 months....crushed, gone, no more...thank you have a nice day!

So yes you are right. Which is very sad because well.....some of us like to keep our cars for a few years after we have payed them off.....

http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Killing%20Customers

[DSSG]

Read the article on extended warranties in the Consumer Reports April 2014 issue page 21. The article implies of all brands of cars sold, it might be a good idea to get an extended warranty for a BMW.

Actually this is kind of sad. Most brands have been getting better over time and having few major repairs. BMWs aren't cheap, so I'd expect a higher level of reliability. From what I can determine on this forum, that doesn't seem to be the case. Just the cost of replacing a battery is frightening. I shudder to think what a transmission or engine problem would cost.

[128Convertibleguy]

Originally Posted by DSSG

Actually this is kind of sad. Most brands have been getting better over time and having few major repairs. BMWs aren't cheap, so I'd expect a higher level of reliability. From what I can determine on this forum, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Actually, from a historical perspective, it has. When I first started driving cars and riding motorcycles, the threat of mechanical breakdown was always in your mind. Cars also didn't tend to run at their best without constant tune ups.

Today, they're all far more reliable. And tend to work at 100% of their capacity most all of the time. They start in winter. The flip side is, when things do go wrong, they're difficult to fix. Earlier cars were designed with repair in mind, they had to be. Modern cars are designed for easy assembly.

And there are far fewer independent shops with the technical knowledge to fix them. But they're out there, and the real cure. Having an independent shop replace your battery is not that bad. Especially for something that only needs to be done every several years. BMW, like other car dealers, charges repair prices that are paid by those who are relatively insensitive to price, and want the security blanket of the name. Or an extended warranty from BMW.

[mr.fabulous]

Originally Posted by brocklanders

This is my fourth modern BMW in the last ten years and in my opinion these cars are engineered and built for lease. I don't think they concern them selves too much about the cost of maintenance or reliability after 50k miles.

I got 18 years and 170K out of my M42 E36. No major failures... but with plenty of the usual PM. That car is still out there, different owner. Can I expect the same out of my E82? Somehow I doubt it, what little experience with it I have tells me this car is too complicated (I had a teacher in college who told me "the mean-time-between-failures of a part that does not exist is infinite"... I thought that very wise). When my CPO is up (two years), I either sell the car or buy a fat warranty. I expect the worst.

[bmw1racer]

Originally Posted by mr.fabulous

I got 18 years and 170K out of my M42 E36. No major failures... but with plenty of the usual PM. That car is still out there, different owner.

Wow, same here with my 1994 M42 E36... Though I did have to have the diff replaced after it blew up at 75K miles.

[DSSG]

I assume the E46 wasn't a turbo? Sometimes I wish I had bought the 128i, the six sans turbo, the best six ever made and what BMW is primarily known for.

I too think this car may be a bit too complicated for my tastes. BTW, it was Will Durant, an early executive with GM, who said, "If it ain't there, it won't break!"

[brocklanders]

Originally Posted by DSSG

I assume the E46 wasn't a turbo? Sometimes I wish I had bought the 128i, the six sans turbo, the best six ever made and what BMW is primarily known for.

I too think this car may be a bit too complicated for my tastes. BTW, it was Will Durant, an early executive with GM, who said, "If it ain't there, it won't break!"

Its not necessarily the turbo cars, I had a 2000 e39 528. At 60k the waterpump, by the time I traded it a 130k I had to replace the entire air con sys, the radiator poped a leak on a plastic part but needed a complete radiator, and an abs control module went bad at around 100k, there my be something I'm forgetting. I bought it when it was four years old with 40k miles, all these problems were before I paid it off. I lease now and said I would never own a BMW but I really like this one so I think I'm going to buy after lease and get a second car as a daily. Now that I think about it the keyless entry stopped working on my 528, I bought a new key and it didn't fix it, that probably would have been hundreds in diagnostics alone to fix. Everyone is complaining about batteries that key was $200.

edit: the engine in that car I believe was the m52 was bulletproof however.

[brocklanders]

Originally Posted by shah269

deep dark dirty secret of the auto industry....yes....they make all the money they want via a lease...after which point if the car isn't sold in 6 months they are crushed.

want to get even sadder? got to the NYC car show...every single car there with the exeption of the hyper exotics.....at the end fo the show...crushed.

So when you return your leased 135 and they charge you for new wheels and for this and that and the other things so the car looks good......all that if the car isn't sold in 6 months....crushed, gone, no more...thank you have a nice day!

So yes you are right. Which is very sad because well.....some of us like to keep our cars for a few years after we have payed them off.....

http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Killing%20Customers

I don't actually lease here Texas we have what's called an "owners choice" which is a finance with a balloon payment at the end of 36 months. So I put nothing down have lower payments then a lease and I turn them in, or trade them in and get a tax break on the new one, depending on what is better for me.

[BrokenVert]

Originally Posted by shah269

deep dark dirty secret of the auto industry....yes....they make all the money they want via a lease...after which point if the car isn't sold in 6 months they are crushed.

want to get even sadder? got to the NYC car show...every single car there with the exeption of the hyper exotics.....at the end fo the show...crushed.

So when you return your leased 135 and they charge you for new wheels and for this and that and the other things so the car looks good......all that if the car isn't sold in 6 months....crushed, gone, no more...thank you have a nice day!

So yes you are right. Which is very sad because well.....some of us like to keep our cars for a few years after we have payed them off.....

http://search.dilbert.com/comic/Killing%20Customers

My ActiveE has probably been crushed by now. But I got to take a few interior panels from it and put them on my 135. So I like to think that a bit of it has lived on.

Originally Posted by DSSG

I assume the E46 wasn't a turbo? Sometimes I wish I had bought the 128i, the six sans turbo, the best six ever made and what BMW is primarily known for.

Until 2007, BMW hadnt built a production turbo motor since 1976. The N54 was their first modern crack at a turbo motor, sans Mini. No real surprise that it had some growing pains. Theyre mostly worked out now though.

[Silenus]

Originally Posted by BrokenVert

Until 2007, BMW hadnt built a production turbo motor since 1976. The N54 was their first modern crack at a turbo motor, sans Mini. No real surprise that it had some growing pains. Theyre mostly worked out now though.

They had built production turbo engines throughout the 80s and the 90s. In the form of diesel, but that does not matter if you're making an argument against BMW and turbo engines. The last mass produced gas turbo engine before the N54 was the M106 from the mid 1980s.

The issues with the N54 are mostly related to direct injection (and they're much more prevalent in the U.S. because of our gas) and new technology (electronic water pump), not turbocharging.

[JB135MDCT]

Originally Posted by Bimmer-Bob

Of course they were engineers. They may not have gone to engineering school, or have engineering degrees, but were they engaged in engineering? You bet. Roads don't design themselves, even the first roads.

The Wright brothers didn't have engineering degrees too.