My last BMW vehicle

[stevenrankin]

Some of you know me from the airheads part of the forum and know my dislike for anything other than BMW airhead bikes. Well, I can say as of today I am finished with ANY BMW vehicle other than said airheads.

Just had the water pump fail on my BMW 335i convertible at 75,000 miles and before that the valve cover warped at 50,000. Makes me believe I am back in time dealing with my grandfather's Rambler. The last two primary vehicles I owned, two Dodges a truck and car both went well over 100,000 miles without this kind of failure and cost a fraction of what this 335 cost new.

If BMW can't build a car that can go 100,000 miles without a major repair, I sure as heck won't be buying one of their bikes anytime soon. They reenforced my long standing belief the post 95 stuff is crap. St.

 

[classicvw]

BMW’s reputation on the street is - whether right or wrong, is to only own a BMW- car or motorcycle- while it’s under warranty. After that, it’s a crap shoot. Also was told the same from a Mercedes mechanic. These are not like the old days where your vehicle would remain reliable for 10 years. However, most people only lease a car for 2 or 3 years so they rarely have a major repair.

 

[Visian]

BMW’s reputation on the street is - whether right or wrong, is to only own a BMW- car or motorcycle- while it’s under warranty.

I think I bought my Audi Turbo Quattro twice!

 

[Paul_F]

Don’t have a bimmer but a Toyota. Found out yesterday that to replace my non functioning key fob is a little over $500 and to replace the rear lift motor, labour included is a little north of $1400.

 

[stevenrankin]

Fooled

Dumb me, I was fooled by the reliability of my current and past airhead BMW bikes into thinking I covered all BMW products. What a laugh, fool me once shame on me, won't be a second time. St.

 

[motodan]

I was a (part time) BMW bikes sales guy, off and on from 2007 to 2015 and a customer from 1988 through 2023...even before the bikes were sold we had problems and they only exacerbated once on the road: antenna rings failures shutting bikes down, improperly torqued engine cases from the factory (fresh oil on dealership floor), UNSTOPABLE AD campaign that was anything but that, OFFICIAL FACTORY DO NOT RIDE NOTICE due to rear strut failures, DO NOT SELL NOTICES and inhouse directives on transmissions, brakes, axles and so on. One might argue all manufactures have these issues from time to time. However, for me it's becoming their ever increasing price of membership i.e. Premium Pricing. I once believed that premium price meant superior quality supported by unique engineering. That doesn't seem to apply as it once did.

 

[EUGENE]

What percent of BMW bikes are still on the road? All manufactories have some problems. I have a Ford and Toyota not any major problems.

 

[stevenrankin]

super price tags

I needed a primary car. For giggles I looked at the BMW X3, nice size for me lots of goodies. Before I bought one, I compared it to Mazda CX5. Same size, as good outward workmanship, fit and finish of exterior and interior. In a blind trial, I could not tell the difference between the two sitting in them.

I bought the Mazda and laughed at the BMW. Why? Mazda, ventilated seats and heads up display, (ok hight tech stuff to go wrong I admit but so far hasn't). Same or close HP and torque as BMW but runs on less expensive regular grade gas. Overall viewpoints on the web sources give BMW hell and praise the Mazda.

Oh yeah, the Mazda was $20,000 less for the same almost but not quite equipped BMW. I have 48,000 miles on my Mazda with NO problems. My BMW 335i convertible I admit I purchased as a toy bit me at 48,000 miles with the stupid and known (to everyone who took the time to research and BMW) warped plastic valve cover gasket. Only $800 to fix. now, I am looking at $2400 to fix a common overheating problem.

I really can't fathom how BMW stays in business with the problems they have. Geese, I know better to stay away from British cars and was brainwashed into believing the Germans did things better. Maybe they did at one time. St.

 

[classicvw]

I wish Toyota made motorcycles. We’ve owned about a dozen since 1971 (4 drivers in the family) and two RAV4s are still working and looking perfectly, one with 175K and 18 yrs old, and one with 200K and 22 yrs old. The one with 200K was traded in only because my daughter wanted to treat herself to something new. That one did have a $1200 transmission repair once at 175K. Dealer wanted to replace the entire trans for $6K, took it to AAmco and it was just an electronic module controller on the trans. Also had a high mileage Sienna for over 10 years and the only thing that went on it was a small electric motor that opened the rear vent windows.

We were not impressed by the cheap interiors of the new Rav4s when car shopping, (also the dealership sucked and pissed off my wife so that was that) so we now own two Hondas and two Hyundais.

Friends had a BMW X3 out of warranty that nickel and dimed them to death. $600 to replace the battery since there’s a computer board over it that the user is not supposed to touch. All sorts of electronic switches and modules that were $500-600 each time, Etc. Etc.
Same thing (electronics) happened to me when I bought a lightly used VW Cabriolet.

Hmmm.. VW, Audi, BMW and Mercedes are not what they once were, what’s happened to German automakers?

 

[BC1100S]

Just had the water pump fail on my BMW 335i convertible at 75,000 miles and before that the valve cover warped at 50,000. Makes me believe I am back in time dealing with my grandfather's Rambler. The last two primary vehicles I owned, two Dodges a truck and car both went well over 100,000 miles without this kind of failure and cost a fraction of what this 335 cost new.

If BMW can't build a car that can go 100,000 miles without a major repair, I sure as heck won't be buying one of their bikes anytime soon. They reenforced my long standing belief the post 95 stuff is crap. St.

An odd post to be complaining about cars in a motorcycle forum.

 

[stevenrankin]

First

I am still riding my first new BMW bike, 39 years, 250,000 miles. I am not the only one riding an older airhead BMW, I know several people with over 200,000 miles still going strong.

Back until 94, I had a dealer that was reasonable priced for labor as he didn't have to have a multimillion dollar experience to sell and work on bikes. I can and do still do 99% of all maintenance and repairs on my own and my labor rate is far higher per hour than the current BMW shop, LOL. Still I save a lot of money.

The bike has of course had engine rebuild work done and I have "overhauled" it a few times with new paint and stuff due to riding in the winter.

Even with all the major repairs I have had done, it does what I want it to do and has cost me less out of pocket then buying a new BMW bike every three years. Also I know the thing is simple, I don't have to worry about a damed computer controlled thing a ma jig conking out that will cost me a huge amount of money to fix.

Yeah I get it BMW wants to and has to sell cars, they don't care about guys like me who don't trade in every three years. Nor do they give much Care about second buyers.

I will admit they do stock or have in stock a far bigger selection of parts for older bikes than many other companies, thanks you for a small thing.

STILL, I pay top dollar for something I expect it to live up to the dollar paid. Not so anymore with German, British or even American cars. Buy it, use it throw it away is something I detest and that is what they are pushing. St.

 

[brownie0486]

I don't particularly like the cost of maintenance or repairs on previous and/or current camhead or the one 16RSLC. I don't wrench, don't care to wrench so it's always money spent on maintenance and repairs since forever [ since 1971 ] no matter what I've ridden [ which are Harleys, GW's, Yammies, Kawi's ].

In my world, it's the cost of ownership [ maintenance and repairs ], no matter what makers models I've owned. I keep the motors maintained on or earlier than required by the manu's. I also have my mechanic do preventative maintenance like the oil changed in the front tubes and new fork gaskets which weren't weeping but were 12 years old. Just the way I've always rolled.

Expensive repairs? Only a few under an extended warranty fairly soon after I bought the motors and had my mechanic go over the motors with a fine tooth comb like drive shafts lubed, cracked throttle bodies etc.

Cost of riding a motor for me, always has been not being a wrencher, since 69 when I bought my first bike in HS. I like to ride, so there's cost involved. Try taking a GW in for service and you'll quickly see their rates and prices for services I have performed on the beemers is comparable.

I may no longer ride beemers starting next year, moving to a Honda CsC'd trike. It's been a good long run on two wheels since 69. I've payed to play for decades, that won't change with a GW trike IMO

 

[EUGENE]

Have had three BMW bikes in 23 years,not bad. I could do maintenance but don't like to ,at my age. I'LL keep my 07 F800ST because of low maintenance.

 

[kbasa]

We had a succession of E90/92s over ten years and they were reliable for us. We put about a hundred k on each. 330i, 335i and a 335d.

The 335i ate a water pump at about 75k, but other than that, it was bulletproof.

Same with the others. I’d own a 335i Cab.

The new bikes aren’t hard to maintain. Just need some tools and some understanding. My RT has 65k on it and has been bulletproof

 

[senseamidmadness]

The fundamental issue is that despite all ze highbrow German engineering that goes into their cars, BMW AG always cheaps out when it comes to actually building the things. They use cheap gaskets, O-rings, rubber, and plastic bits wherever they can. This is not so much a problem when the car is under warranty, but as soon as it expires the issues are guaranteed to appear. Oil leaks being the most common. Another common one? Plastic water pump impellers disintegrating.
Unfortunately you as the owner have to either spend the money to fix all the cheapness, pay someone else the grand sums to fix it, or ignore the problems until your BMW explodes (which is what most owners seem to do). Or, and this is often the best decision, you buy a different car.


I still want to own one because I'm my own mechanic and therefore won't end up buying someone else a new boat in labor costs. Drove a friend's E90 328i with a 6-speed manual once and was immediately smitten. What a fabulous machine.

I won't own anything newer than an E39 5-series, though. Every car since has only gotten uglier and harder to work on and I don't want anything with a turbocharger.

 

[Visian]

UNSTOPABLE AD campaign that was anything but that,

Hey, I liked that campaign! But “Make life a ride” is a way better message platform.

 

[Omega Man]

Any notice that most “end use” products are a conglomeration of outsourced parts?

Hey Mr. Takata

Anyone notice that so much change is actually forced by governmental regulations such as mileage and emissions concerns?

Soy based wire coverings, my favorite fruit- .

Possibly vehicle manufacturing is headed the way of RV manufacturing- “They are assembled with cheese-wizz and hope. They hope the cheese-wizz holds until the RV is sold”.

OM

 

[classicvw]

Any notice that most “end use” products are a conglomeration of outsourced parts?

Hey Mr. Takata

Anyone notice that so much change is actually forced by governmental regulations such as mileage and emissions concerns?

Soy based wire coverings, my favorite fruit- .

Possibly vehicle manufacturing is headed the way of RV manufacturing- “They are assembled with cheese-wizz and hope. They hope the cheese-wizz holds until the RV is sold”.

OM

I agree with most of that but I wouldn’t give manufacturers a pass on faults “caused by” government regulations. These automakers have at least a decade of notice on these mileage and emission regs, plenty of time to make modifications, and no one is forcing them to take the cheap route in making those modified parts.

 

[stevenrankin]

Sad

It really is sad the BMW design people come up with a great idea then the bean counters tell the development engineers to take the cost out, make it cheap so we can make more money.

One of my jobs was ling ago working at a food plant as QC. A customer would bring in a recipe for us to make, we would for X cost. Or research guy would then take that recipe and work at it to keep the same taste but be cheaper to make. For example, powdered milk instead of condensed milk. Yeah, a lot of time he could and of course we made more money making the stuff, only real picky customers cared, most didn't.

But the times it didn't work out could be a disaster for me on the line. It is no fun when a product being pumped through pipelines for canning suddenly gums up and blows a seal in a pipe junction. I got covered more than a few times with hot sticky product or had to run like hell to shut things down. The powedered milk decided to solidify faster than the condensed.

A good friend worked for Black and Decker back when they were at the top of the game. Their downfall he attributed in part to this idea of taking a good product and as he called it "taking the cost out". A $1 spring would last ten years, but a $.50 spring could last five. it was worth the company gamble to choose the cheaper spring.

Oh well, Thankfully I have the income I can afford such things as BMW bikes and cars. But I worked hard for my income and I don't like wasting it. I again thank God this 335i is NOT my primary car or I would be a lot more volcanic in my anger. St.

 

[310jen]

I thought this was a BMW motorcycle forum?