Another example of BMW shoddy design/build quality..
- Thread starter Maniac
- Start date
Perhaps with this litany of faults it isn't surprising the residuals are going South rapidly?
Residuals are down to big engines and two seats IMHO. People want niche (true M) or efficiency. Mine doesn't typify an e89, some of the issues are down to me being very picky (like the new DCT) some are just crap build.
As for the person that buys my e89 in future, they'll get a cracker of a car because ill have spent most of my life making it like that!
As with my houses, I make them perfect then get bored, sell, and someone gets a bloody nice house!
( the new exhaust was due to a faulty exhaust flap, which, has happened to the replacement exhaust too! Something to sort yet again at my own expense).
I'm really concerned about buying BMW again tho..
As for the person that buys my e89 in future, they'll get a cracker of a car because ill have spent most of my life making it like that!
As with my houses, I make them perfect then get bored, sell, and someone gets a bloody nice house!
( the new exhaust was due to a faulty exhaust flap, which, has happened to the replacement exhaust too! Something to sort yet again at my own expense).
I'm really concerned about buying BMW again tho..
Dealer has been great and without them it would have been sold ages ago.
If it wasn't for the depreciation I'd probably trade it.. Having said that, I still love the car, even if it is a bit of a joke with friends now.. I can't find anything I prefer to drive..
Bear in mind tho that this is 3 years worth of faults.. Most on here haven't had theirs long enough to see faults yet..
If it wasn't for the depreciation I'd probably trade it.. Having said that, I still love the car, even if it is a bit of a joke with friends now.. I can't find anything I prefer to drive..
Bear in mind tho that this is 3 years worth of faults.. Most on here haven't had theirs long enough to see faults yet..
This makes me mad too.
It seems BMW have taken an approach of expensive materials covering cheap innards. I guess designers think we will only see and touch the bits they want us to see. Audi do this a lot and it is what puts me off that brand.
I wouldn't expect a cheap fastener attached to crappy plastic in a low volume car for which we have all paid a premium. I've just oiled all the seals and moving parts in my roof because the squeaks started to get on my nerves. The mechanism is fantastically complex, compared to say an SLK, but it doesn't look built to last. The good news is my roof is squeak free, for now.
Similarly, my sister's telly (huge screen, v expensive, top brand) broke last week because of a part I reckon cost less than a quid. The part was soldered to a control board and will wreck the whole part if removed. So the whole telly is ready for the landfill. At least it is under guarantee.
A sign of the times I guess? Makes me wonder what other corners were cut when they were designing the car in the first place.
It seems BMW have taken an approach of expensive materials covering cheap innards. I guess designers think we will only see and touch the bits they want us to see. Audi do this a lot and it is what puts me off that brand.
I wouldn't expect a cheap fastener attached to crappy plastic in a low volume car for which we have all paid a premium. I've just oiled all the seals and moving parts in my roof because the squeaks started to get on my nerves. The mechanism is fantastically complex, compared to say an SLK, but it doesn't look built to last. The good news is my roof is squeak free, for now.
Similarly, my sister's telly (huge screen, v expensive, top brand) broke last week because of a part I reckon cost less than a quid. The part was soldered to a control board and will wreck the whole part if removed. So the whole telly is ready for the landfill. At least it is under guarantee.
A sign of the times I guess? Makes me wonder what other corners were cut when they were designing the car in the first place.
A
Anonymous
Guest
ronk said:
I can see your point, but I still don't let them off that easily. When buying a BMW you are buying into a brand...and that says to me Quality.
If they design a car, I expect them to make that design and build process such that these things don't happen.
EVERY BMW I have had has had issues when collecting. Most of them were AUC's which went back in and got resolved in 1 or 2 visits (meaning the dealer hadn't done the fixes before the sale!) and the rattle issue with the 1'er was fixed in 1 visit. The submarine Z4 was an extreme example, but the replacement Z4 has rattles which I am nearly ready to take in for fixing (was trying to avoid it).
I know the dealers are independent, but to most people they are the "face" of BMW so I consider them to be 1 and the same company, so wether it is the factory that screws up, or the dealer, it tarnishes the brand for me.
I accept that with any "mass" produced product you can get faults, and components can fail, but I do wonder where the quality control has gone in order to allow faults to leave the factory.
I'm looking to buy back in to BMW but hearing stories like these are a bit worrying . To bring it all in to context there are probably hundreds of people out there who have never had a problem - probably ???????????
Our daily driver is a Ford Fiesta bought new for £7750 in 2004
Total problems including any paint/bodywork to date after 44k miles excluding normal servicing and a set of tyres:
Bugger all ! -
Our daily driver is a Ford Fiesta bought new for £7750 in 2004
Total problems including any paint/bodywork to date after 44k miles excluding normal servicing and a set of tyres:
Bugger all ! -
I think though buying any new car is a lottery regardless of manufacture, Maniac I think you have really just been unlucky with your particular Zed, you have to remember were probably in a minority who voice any problems or even discuss our cars and that the majority of E89 owners are perfectly satisfied. My own experience regardless of make;
1) Brand new Suzuki Swift GTI, cracked cylinder head after 1 month, 5 weeks in the garage awaiting parts, seriously damaged door whilst being worked on.
2) Brand new Audi A3 1.6 Sport, required new driveshaft seals at 3 months old, numerous window rattles.
3) Brand new Audi A3 1.8T Sport, rattling gear selector ratio, took dealer a month to fix as couldn't diagnose problem, numerous window rattles.
4) Brand new VW Passat 2.0 Sport, footwell trim kept detaching after numerous attempts to fix.
5) Brand new MINI Cooper S, numerous dash rattles, gave up on that one, failed headlight relay which sent all electrics haywire.
6) Brand new Peugeot 207cc 120GT, patchy paintwork all over the roof, bonnet and boot and gearbox whine, car rejected and new one ordered.
7) Brand new Peugeot 207cc 150GT, roof rattle from the start, dealer was inept and diagnosing fault, thought it was fuel tank so replaced this, to do this they had to drop rear suspension to get the tank out and dropped the car off the ramp onto the rear discs, unbeknown bending the shocks. The car was very interesting to drive crabbing across the road. Got rid after 2 months.
8) Brand new Vauxhall Corsa VXR, wing mirror housings cracked by themselves, replaced under warranty, door pulls would come away from door panel. Erratic power delivery, rear end rattles, got rid after 12 months.
9) Brand new Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLX, grinding brakes, leaking windscreen, suspension clunk when reversing.
10) 2001 BMW Z3, bought in 2008, been perfect.
11) BMW 118d SE, 4 month old demo, failed DPF at 12 months old.
12) BMW 118d M Sport, 3 month old demo, kept 2 years, was perfect.
13) Brand new BMW E89, a few occasional water drips on passenger side, engine whine when cold (considered normal), no other problems.
Just my experience of new cars of which BMW appear to have been the best upto now. The clincher for me as in Maniacs case is finding a good dealer when problems arise which is one of the reasons I've gone back to BMW. Vauxhall and Peugeot dealers were simply inept and unprofessional regarding any warranty work.
Forgot to add
Brand new mark 3 Toyota MR2, engine failure at 200 miles which required engine rebuild, was put down to a faulty bearing, had to fight tooth and nail to reject the car
Most reliable and fault free car was a Mazda 323 bought new in 1985 and sold in 2005, just required a new battery
Tim.
1) Brand new Suzuki Swift GTI, cracked cylinder head after 1 month, 5 weeks in the garage awaiting parts, seriously damaged door whilst being worked on.
2) Brand new Audi A3 1.6 Sport, required new driveshaft seals at 3 months old, numerous window rattles.
3) Brand new Audi A3 1.8T Sport, rattling gear selector ratio, took dealer a month to fix as couldn't diagnose problem, numerous window rattles.
4) Brand new VW Passat 2.0 Sport, footwell trim kept detaching after numerous attempts to fix.
5) Brand new MINI Cooper S, numerous dash rattles, gave up on that one, failed headlight relay which sent all electrics haywire.
6) Brand new Peugeot 207cc 120GT, patchy paintwork all over the roof, bonnet and boot and gearbox whine, car rejected and new one ordered.
7) Brand new Peugeot 207cc 150GT, roof rattle from the start, dealer was inept and diagnosing fault, thought it was fuel tank so replaced this, to do this they had to drop rear suspension to get the tank out and dropped the car off the ramp onto the rear discs, unbeknown bending the shocks. The car was very interesting to drive crabbing across the road. Got rid after 2 months.
8) Brand new Vauxhall Corsa VXR, wing mirror housings cracked by themselves, replaced under warranty, door pulls would come away from door panel. Erratic power delivery, rear end rattles, got rid after 12 months.
9) Brand new Suzuki Swift 1.5 GLX, grinding brakes, leaking windscreen, suspension clunk when reversing.
10) 2001 BMW Z3, bought in 2008, been perfect.
11) BMW 118d SE, 4 month old demo, failed DPF at 12 months old.
12) BMW 118d M Sport, 3 month old demo, kept 2 years, was perfect.
13) Brand new BMW E89, a few occasional water drips on passenger side, engine whine when cold (considered normal), no other problems.
Just my experience of new cars of which BMW appear to have been the best upto now. The clincher for me as in Maniacs case is finding a good dealer when problems arise which is one of the reasons I've gone back to BMW. Vauxhall and Peugeot dealers were simply inept and unprofessional regarding any warranty work.
Forgot to add
Brand new mark 3 Toyota MR2, engine failure at 200 miles which required engine rebuild, was put down to a faulty bearing, had to fight tooth and nail to reject the car
Most reliable and fault free car was a Mazda 323 bought new in 1985 and sold in 2005, just required a new battery
Tim.
Reckon I've been lucky then with the Fiesta - had my 2003 z4 for around 18 months without a problem but only did about 1k miles.
The point is though if you pay so much money you expect perfection and become ocd about every little thing - one of the reasons that I couldn't bring myself to part with so much money for a car - I can live with spending £10k on a new car but £40k !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd be a nervous wreck
The point is though if you pay so much money you expect perfection and become ocd about every little thing - one of the reasons that I couldn't bring myself to part with so much money for a car - I can live with spending £10k on a new car but £40k !!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'd be a nervous wreck
A
Anonymous
Guest
Christ Tim, you've had some number of new cars!!!! And some bad luck as well! Your history is enough to put people off buying new!
I reckon you're cleaning them too much!!!
I reckon you're cleaning them too much!!!
I have a suspicion that taking cars back to dealers constantly can contribute too... I have a feeling that this broken clip under the hoops could well be a dealer 'fix'.. perhaps done when the car was in for various rattles to be fixed.. a case of 'screw everything down tight' without thought. All this was sorted under warranty, and yes possibly the amount of money involved has made me OCD about it all. Unless I get a sudden windfall, this car is a keeper and I will fix every fault (under the free insured warranty BMW provided because of the issues I've had, along with the credit I got, all of which was the least they could do IMHO). Can't help but wonder what next... :rofl:
strugglinauthor
Member
Maniac - I understand how you feel. The issues you have had would get right up my nose as well. As others have suggested, I think the issue with BMW is not its outright reliability/quality but the degree to which it trades on its name. It stands to reason that if you buy a premium car with a quality image then your expectations may be higher than if you bought, say, a Ford. And rightly so, given how much these things cost to buy.
The problem is that most of our experiences are anecdotal - as we tend to own a few cars each rather than tens of thousands. As such, our view of a brand is coloured by our own experiences - and perhaps those of friends (e.g. other Z4-Forum owners!). I bought my first ever BMW 3 months ago and it hasn't been an absolute disaster by any stretch of the imagination. It's a brilliant car and I love driving it - every bit as much as my beloved S2000. But - there have been problems and having owned Mazdas and Hondas for 15 years with barely a single issue, then my opinion is understandably coloured.
I know Mercedes went through a bad patch some years ago but they acknowledged it and upped the quality. Whether BMW now has a quality issue or not, I really don't know. But if they do, then I hope they work on it as they produce some handsome cars with great engines and it's for these two reasons that I still own my Z4 and haven't traded it in for an MX5. That said, I was close...
The problem is that most of our experiences are anecdotal - as we tend to own a few cars each rather than tens of thousands. As such, our view of a brand is coloured by our own experiences - and perhaps those of friends (e.g. other Z4-Forum owners!). I bought my first ever BMW 3 months ago and it hasn't been an absolute disaster by any stretch of the imagination. It's a brilliant car and I love driving it - every bit as much as my beloved S2000. But - there have been problems and having owned Mazdas and Hondas for 15 years with barely a single issue, then my opinion is understandably coloured.
I know Mercedes went through a bad patch some years ago but they acknowledged it and upped the quality. Whether BMW now has a quality issue or not, I really don't know. But if they do, then I hope they work on it as they produce some handsome cars with great engines and it's for these two reasons that I still own my Z4 and haven't traded it in for an MX5. That said, I was close...
TitanTim said:This is why I love cars such as the new Suzuki Swift Sport etc, cheap as chips to buy new but still great build quality for the money and if things do fall off it doesn't feel as though you've been ripped off
I wouldn't be surprised if nothing went wrong with the Swift, they're a great well made little car.
I bought a big Mitsubishi Magna AWD sedan to take care of work duties (lugging camera gear, leaving in iffy places, carrying extra people) for 1/7th of the price of my Z4, and it feels far more robust.
Chutters said:
Wasn't a Samsung with a blown capacitor was it? There was a class action in the US over that. http://www.samsung.com/us/capacitorsettlement/
