I hate my car .... more problems!!!

sorry to hear you've had all those issues :(

i thought mine was bad with a coolant tank (expansion tank needed replacing) and it seeming to drink oil for fun (5k miles and topped it up approx 1.5 litres) :(
 
Mine's a 2003 3.0i but with less than 30k miles- had it just over a year- as far as I can see from all the paperwork it still has the original springs , roof motor etc. All the receipts show normal servicing with nothing else . Over my ownership I've spent about £400 on a bumper scuff ,detailing and paintless dent removal . £200 on oil/brake fluid change and £300 on tyres - a lot of money but nothing that can be classed as problems. The only fault I know of is the passenger seat electric tilt mechanism has packed in - happened before I bought it but couldn;t be arsed to take it back across the Solent to the Garage where I bought it - the height and slide work OK and the position of the seat looks where it should be and I didn;t want them messing about with it and making it worse ! All in all a pretty good car - shouldn;t push ny luck by saying all this in case it goes wrong !!
 
Might be solid cars, but when my wing mirror glass dropped off on the motorway a month or so after I bought my Z it did seem a bit of a joke, followed by a qoute of £120 for new glass (£7 on ebay and fine).

Loose gear knob now. Small things, but annoying and potentially dangerous. Shame such things seem to be due to being cheap on such minor components.

Still think it's a great car, especially for the price you can pick up a second hand one for these days.
 
Well I had a bit of a shock tonight! Got a px valuation against a MX5 and they offered £6500 for the Z4!!!!!! I just laughed. I might as well keep it a bit longer as I aint going to let it go for that crappy amount!
 
Sorry to hear the probs youve had with the Zed , personaly mine has been sooperb , a 2004 model , owned it for 3 years , done some 30000 miles an only issue iv had is a coil pack ( cylinde 2 ) . If youve paid to get the isssues sirted , give it some time ,it is a great car .
 
GaryH said:
Well I had a bit of a shock tonight! Got a px valuation against a MX5 and they offered £6500 for the Z4!!!!!! I just laughed. I might as well keep it a bit longer as I aint going to let it go for that crappy amount!
Click to expand...
Was that against a brand new mx5 mate?
 
I can't blame you for your outrage, you really have had a run of it :cry:

I think it's worth remembering that most owners sell because there are problems with the car, or they are concerned it's about to cost them a shed-load of money - bit of a generalisation but true I think, maybe less so with 1st owners/company swap-out. e.g. why you getting rid?

I always expect and budget for a few items when I first get the car, on mine it was a grunchy window lifter, missing lamp-washer cover and misty fog lamp, touch wood nothing else needed in 2.5 years. When it's fixed yours will be almost new by the sounds of all the parts :wink:

Anyway the MX5 is a great little car and I can't blame you for getting out but sad to see ya go.
 
If you dont mind me asking; what where the symptoms that required the replacement of the fuel injector ? I have been debating if i should get my fuel rail and injectors cleaned or replaced. The engine has a lot of vibration.
 
It's an interesting topic. I read an article about it once... not specifically about BMW, but about Mercedes. Merc and BMW used to have the Prestige market sewn up. But since Audi and VW drove their quality up, and Lexus arrived with their reliability, they all realised they couldn't compete price-wise. Increasingly, cars are now built to a price point, whereas Mercs and BMWs used to be over-engineered. My old E34 5 series was far more solid than my E60. My father in law - who drives like he is in a funeral cortège - recently had a complete front suspension failure (shocks, springs and arms) on a very low mileage CLK diesel. Dealers told him this was normal wear and tear due to speed bumps! I am afraid we are all clinging on to a notion of reliability which was gained during the 60s and 70s for Mercedes and 70s and 80s for BMW... Which just isn't there any more.

That said, BMWs core values for performance based engineering remain the same, and I for one am happy to persevere.

Finally... has anyone else noticed that the 'sixes' seem to have fewer issues than the 2.0 cars? By all accounts that is the same with the E46 and X3 too. Hmmm...
 
Hi,
dont forget there are over 9000 users of this forum, thats just Z4's people only post problems, generaly, if everyone who had trouble free motoring posted, I guess there would be too many to read!
 
Had my car 2 years, bought from main dealer it has never missed a beat, even sat over the winter unused it started first time (once battery was re-charged). I had to replace rear springs, but that seems common for the age, I don't agree that BMW quality has gone down, but that everyone else has gone up. Our expectations on build and lack of rattles etc has greatly increased.
Very happy with mine :D
 
I agree this forum highlights problems and they may, I suggest, be entirely out of proportion with all the other Zeds on the road running OK with shall we say 'less discerning' owners.
Another factor is that we have Andy on this forum who makes sure that plenty of problems get highlighted. :wink:
 
mrlozzer said:
It's an interesting topic. I read an article about it once... not specifically about BMW, but about Mercedes. Merc and BMW used to have the Prestige market sewn up. But since Audi and VW drove their quality up, and Lexus arrived with their reliability, they all realised they couldn't compete price-wise. Increasingly, cars are now built to a price point, whereas Mercs and BMWs used to be over-engineered. My old E34 5 series was far more solid than my E60. My father in law - who drives like he is in a funeral cortège - recently had a complete front suspension failure (shocks, springs and arms) on a very low mileage CLK diesel. Dealers told him this was normal wear and tear due to speed bumps! I am afraid we are all clinging on to a notion of reliability which was gained during the 60s and 70s for Mercedes and 70s and 80s for BMW... Which just isn't there any more.

That said, BMWs core values for performance based engineering remain the same, and I for one am happy to persevere.

Finally... has anyone else noticed that the 'sixes' seem to have fewer issues than the 2.0 cars? By all accounts that is the same with the E46 and X3 too. Hmmm...
Click to expand...


I think part of the problem is quite frankly. BMW's arrogant attitude when one does have a problem along with overly high new car prices. As I'm old. I do remember an American car magazine did a short interview with Prof. Ferry Porsche in the late 70's early 80's. The reporter asked Mr.Porsche why their cars had gone up so much in price when the car hasn't really changed much since it's inception. The answer Mr. Porsche gave was shocking but very honest. To paraphrase. Porsche said that as new rich auto buyers came to the market. These new buyers almost above all else wanted exclusivity. The only way we at Porsche could do this at the time was to start pricing our cars to create that exclusivity.

I believe that with the success that BMW had in the 70's & 80's. BMW started to get that sort of attitude. All one has to do is look around the US military bases here in Germany. And you will see that BMW is still moving a lot of cars out the door. Even with sky high prices and reliability ratings several times worse than the much maligned US car's. There must be a lot of airmen just scraping by. Most of the drivers of the new M3 I see when in uniform are mostly E6's which on average pays $35,000 a year. The M3 is a lot of car for a $35,000 wage. They (BMW) sell everything they make. So why wouldn't they think they are not doing the right thing in treating every one so badly. It's like a scene out of a Hollywood movie. As the person is being beaten. They scream. Thank you sir, May I have another. Well that rather sums up the BMW-MB buyer these days. Were being tortured and charged to much. But can't wait to go drive one and buy it. And yet! I have owned three BMW autos and two bikes. And really haven't had very many issues. I personally just loath the depreciation the BMW's have. I my self will never ever again buy a new one. Lease returns for me. The US and Japanese cars while good and reliable just don't have any soul.
 
Lillywhite said:
I agree this forum highlights problems and they may, I suggest, be entirely out of proportion with all the other Zeds on the road running OK with shall we say 'less discerning' owners.
Click to expand...

I completely agree regarding previous owners. I'm obsessive when it comes to making sure that all servicing is done, but can't guarantee that others before me have been. That said, I always take a very good look at servicing documents etc before buying a car...

I was simply restating the findings of (I think) an Autocar article about "building to a price", which has caused Mercedes to lose it's hard-earned reputation for bullet-proof reliabilty and quality engineering. But also I cannot overlook the fact that of the six BMWs that I have had the pleasure of owing (and it has been a pleasure, by and large) that the three that we currently have (E85, E83 X3 and E60 5er) have suffered more problems than the three that we had over the last few years (E34 & E39 5er and E36 3er).

I took my E60 in for the well publicised battery cable recall a few weeks back. They booked the car in and then told me there were further unactioned recalls on it. I've since had another phone call to say that there are more. These range from potentially serious (brakes, seat belt) to things which less so. Now, again - I can point the finger at the previous owners (one private owner and BMW) for not having had these done, although I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't. Am I happy that BMW are doing these things... and for free? Yes. But, my question is - should a prestige car that cost £50k new have (at least) 9 recalls?

I'm not into BMW-bashing - I wouldn't be on this forum if I wasn't a fan of the marque. And I wouldn't have bought six of them if I didn't like / rate them. I just think that part of the job of a car forum or owners' club is to compare notes and then if there is a genuine problem: spring failures and cracked wheels being two that *ahem* spring to mind... then try to bring this to the attention of the manufacturer themselves. All three of mine have had springs replaced.

The X3 has done 30k miles. It hasn't been driven up the side of a mountain, only on the public road. All three have had cracked wheels (11 between them). That can't be coincidental, surely?
 
Interestingly, the following story appeared today:

"BMW 3 Series most unreliable car"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2186421/Which-Car-Survey-Most-unreliable-car-named-BMW-3-series-convertible-spending-average-3-5-days-year-garage-repairs.html

Checking the list there is another BMW in there too. I think its fair to say they dont build them like they used to!!!

@SystemLord - fuel injector problem - I didnt know I had one to be honest, car was slightly hesitant I guess on acceleration but nothing else - then all of a sudden totally out of the blue one day the engine just died on me and wouldnt start back up so had to be towed all the way to the BMW garage by a nice RAC man! Engine vibration certainally wasn't a symptom for me.

I expect a few problems with any car, but the problems myself and others seem to have had with their BMWs are simply shocking to say the least, parts failing at such low mileages which on many other cars shouldnt even fail or at least under 50k, or 100k miles. For a premium make, its just not acceptable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom