OT: Advice needed on how to get rid of a BMW

[Coronita]

Sorry man…I’ve been telling folks all along, when it comes to these things. You got to pay to play or be willing to turn the wrench yourself. It’s why I run a Miata on the track instead…I joke with my buddy, because he goes through tires like there’s no tomorrow. And he laughs that because the cost of his tires+ brakes each time he needs to get them done is probably the cost of me switching out my engine.

If it makes you feel better, the f10 550 I gave to my dad have a battery drain such that if you don’t drive it at least 1 time each week, the battery will reach a level that it will throw up a warning that it’s almost dead…It’s a known issue on the cars with a lot of options, particularly the keyless entry…Because when the car goes into a sleep mode, it’s still drawing from the battery a bit… The battery on the 5 costs 800 to replace BTW…. To be fair, my friend who has a two year old Lexus LS also has the same problem… It seems like the problem is that there’s way too much electronics in cars these days. The solution I have is I just stuck a battery tender trickle charger on it with a quick disconnect plug…My X5, which is one year older is flawless… But I got bought it stripped, because I didn’t want to deal with electrical gremlins… No navigation, no remote key, no active suspension, etc.. Nothing… ended up being cheaper than a Ford Explorer too.

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For starters..Did you buy this CPO or just used? If you bought it CPO, then you should still be under warranty. If you didn’t, do you know the history of it? Do you have the entire service history of the vehicle since new? If the car was properly maintained, you should be able to have a complete history by just going to any stealer and having them pull the service history on it….Start there. That should tell you if the car had problems since day one that was never addressed..
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What is your car’s year and packages. I’m assuming it’s with the 6 cylinder, not the new N20 4 cyc.

What exactly is wrong with the car? Provide the list of issues.

1. Is it failing smog. What sort of codes are you getting?

2. Mechanical. What is wrong? You need brakes and rotors? If so, unfortunately, these are consumables and I don’t consider these defects…They shouldn’t be *that* outrageous… $100 for a decent set of pads, and probably about $100 each rotor if you need them. Very DIY….If your rotors aren’t warped, you can take them to most auto shops to have them resurfaced for like $10 each. I have two seats of rotors, so that when I change brakes, I swap out the rotors with a fresh set…Then I have the old rotors I just took out resurfaced for the next ones.

3. Tires are expensive (again consumable) because BMW’s run runflat tires and don’t have spare tire in the trunk. Unless you go long distances, you can opt to just not get runflats. It will be cheaper and the tire quality will be better. Worse comes to worse, if you get a flat, you end up just calling AAA anyway to have the car towed.

4. If you need a second shop opinion instead of the stealership, let me know.

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Or you can just keep it and ignore the smog issue and just run it on the track and ignore everything that breaks, until physically the car doesn’t move anymore. That’s what I do with the miata. I have a break-and-toss policy. If something breaks, i toss it… Radio doesn’t work, perfect. Toss, and less weight… A/C broken.. Great, toss that too… Power steering leaks? Power stearing is for wussies…Toss that too. Speakers starting to hiss? Gone.. Glove box latch broken? What glove box…. Center console has a crack in it…Perfect, crowbar is your friend to remove it.. Trunk release doesn’t work…..Duct tape is my friend… Check engine light? No problem… Disconnect the bulb to the check engine light…If it’s not tires, not brakes, suspension, and not preventing the engine/tranny from running, I ain’t fixing it…

Actually, the funny thing about smog inspections. There are some zip codes in San Diego county that don’t require a bi-annual smog inspection if you live there but only required at ownership transfers

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As far as trade in. You probably will get dinged a bit with the trade in because the F30 3 series is out…But it is what it is….As far as alternatives, you might want to consider the Infiniti G37…Err I mean Q50.. AN has an infiniti G and he swears by it….I’m not a fan of the Lexus IS…. People have also been pretty happy with the FR-S..It’s going to be one of those cult-type cars…

I would stay away from Audi and Mercedes, again unless you plan on turning your own wrench….
Porsche is pretty reliable. BUT obviously more expensive… And service cost is expensive, and that’s one car you probably don’t want to dick around with yourself…

[The-Shoveler]

[quote=flu]
Actually, the funny thing about smog inspections. There are some zip codes in San Diego county that don’t require a bi-annual smog inspection if you live there but only required at ownership transfers

[/quote]

Dude really?, do you have a list of those Zip’s ?

[Coronita]

[quote=paramount][quote=bearishgurl] The state is obviously attempting to make it really hard for Joe and Suzy 6pack to keep driving their $2-$6K vehicles to work and back.[/quote]

That’s called tyranny.

A couple of weeks ago the state was running a smog checkpoint in RB.[/quote]

Actually, I was stopped twice for this. Once I was in my Audi…And they couldn’t smog me because they didn’t have a 4 wheel dyno….lol….

The second time I was stopped, I just told them my car was 4wd and if they were going to try to dyno me on a 2 wheel dyno and pay for any damage done to my car if it happens. They let me go too. And that was when the car was not a 4wd car…

So, you could just debadge your 328 and say your 328 is an 328iX, and you should be fine…Most people doing those street checks can’t tell the difference….

[Coronita]

[quote=The-Shoveler][quote=flu]
Actually, the funny thing about smog inspections. There are some zip codes in San Diego county that don’t require a bi-annual smog inspection if you live there but only required at ownership transfers

[/quote]

Dude really?, do you have a list of those Zip’s ?[/quote]

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/vr/smogfaq.htm

There are six counties that require smog certifications within certain Zip Codes only. These counties are:

El Dorado, Placer, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Sonoma.

http://smogcheck.ca.gov/80_BARResources/02_SmogCheck/Engineering/Program_Map.pdf

Just saying…..Not implying anything at all….

[The-Shoveler]

Thanks flu.

This interweb thing is great..

[Coronita]

paramount… Just PM me if you need further help… I’ll try to check in every once in awhile, but I’m busying helping out the other boards these days so I won’t be checking in regularly…

Oh, and hey… You do realize regardless of what the new/CPO warranty is, if it’s emissions related. Emissions related components are warrantied for 7 years under CA laws, and 8 years under federal law. So chances are if you’re getting a CEL, and provided you didn’t screw around with the engine yourself (modify it), BMW has to service your car and eat the cost of emissions related repairs…

My Audi’s MAF went out at year 7.2, and they ended up replacing it for free, under this…

http://www.smogtips.com/federal-emissions-warranty-california.cfm

[The-Shoveler]

Somewhat unrelated but an amazing turn around for the USA,

U.S. is now the world’s biggest oil and gas producer.

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/energy-ticker/2013/10/04/move-over-russia-u-s-is-now-the-worlds-biggest-oil-gas-producer/

The U.S. will end 2013 as the world’s largest producer of petroleum and natural gas, surpassing Russia and Saudi Arabia, the Energy Information Administration said Friday.

[an]

[quote=flu]As far as trade in. You probably will get dinged a bit with the trade in because the F30 3 series is out…But it is what it is….As far as alternatives, you might want to consider the Infiniti G37…Err I mean Q50.. AN has an infiniti G and he swears by it….I’m not a fan of the Lexus IS…. People have also been pretty happy with the FR-S..It’s going to be one of those cult-type cars…

I would stay away from Audi and Mercedes, again unless you plan on turning your own wrench….
Porsche is pretty reliable. BUT obviously more expensive… And service cost is expensive, and that’s one car you probably don’t want to dick around with yourself…[/quote]Hell yeah I swear by my 2004 G35 :-). paramount and I actually had a debate about G vs his 328 awhile back. I’m surprised his tone changed so quickly. My G is over 105k miles right now and still is as powerful as new. I’m planning to keep it for another 3-5 years, so we’ll see if it stays trouble free at 140-150k miles.

[paramount]

The overall driving experience of the 328i is excellent, it feels very well made.

But, I just can’t understand how on one hand BMW’s seem to be well made, and then on the other very unreliable (or at least they need lot’s of TLC/$$).

[FlyerInHi]

You don’t buy a luxury car if you worry about depreciation.
That’s why I bought a Toyota Camry. Boring, I know.
Btw, my Camry is pretty flawless. It has iphone connection and other electronics. I park it weeks at a time it starts every time. Good, reliable transport is what I need.

[The-Shoveler]

“flawless”
Feel the same way about my Ford ranger, except the radio no longer works very well. and that’s about it for unnecessary electronics on board.

Need go get one of those Tesla Model-S car’s someday.

[Coronita]

[quote=paramount]The overall driving experience of the 328i is excellent, it feels very well made.

But, I just can’t understand how on one hand BMW’s seem to be well made, and then on the other very unreliable (or at least they need lot’s of TLC/$$).[/quote]

Question: Was your 328 a CPO or just used. If the later////Do you have a history of the vehicle?

I hate to bring this up but, 328’s are often loaner cars for stealerships. As a result, they get beaten up pretty badly. I’m one of those people…And just this weekend, someone brought a 328 service vehicle to the track because his car was in the shop…

It’s for this reason, you need to know what the complete history, or buy new or CPO, especially if you buy a car that can be found in a loaner/fleet rental.. Any stealer should be able to give you a complete history of the car, when service was done, when recall was done, etc, even if you didn’t buy the car from the stealership. And if there are service records missing, that should be a red flag too, since there is absolutely no reason why a BMW would not have a complete service record from new to year 4, since all BMW’s come with free 4 years of maintenance. Start there, so you get a gauge for what sort of problems the car might have had before you got it.

And as I said before, IF your check engine light is on, more then likely it’s emissions related, and then it’s covered under emissions warranty for up to 7-8 years, depending on what part it is. If you fail emissions, more then likely BMW has to pick up the tab to fix it since you’re still under warranty.

Brakes are wear and tear items. Especially on the sports package, 4 years is about right for a moderate to aggressively driven car. The sports package has pads that have more bite. You stop shorter, but that also means you wear out both the pad and the rotors a lot quicker than say a car that doesn’t have performance related brakes (*cough* insert your favorite run-of-the-mill toaster car)…Before you bought the car, did you check to see where the wear indicator was? Was it already close to the limit of being replaced when it was driven by the first owner? It sounds like it was driven aggressively before you bought it…And if you have cooling issues this early on..It sounds like someone beat the crap out of the car before you bought it…(Sorry if it was me :()
$1500 for brakes is stealership prices. You could go to a third party shop that does it probably for 1/2 of that….Or do it yourself. Bimmers aren’t that hard to swap brakes…

The cost of the battery is unfortunate. Because people want to have all the bells and whistles of a navigation, keyless,entry,etc. And you need the bigger/deep cycle battery to handle it…

Don’t feel bad though. I run a $250 Shorai battery in my miata. It’s a motorcycle LifePo3 battery that weighs about 3 lbs versus the standard weight of 30 lbs, and it’s mounted in the passenger seat instead of the trunk…And the bonus is if I completely drain the battery, it becomes an instant brick because they can’t be recharged if they end up fully drained…. (Ask me how I know )….

[Coronita]

Hey paramount. If you’re interested, and really don’t want the car, I’ll trade you my miata for it…
🙂

Miata’s are really reliable. Especially mine, since it has no radio, no power doors ,windows, no antenna. Nothing in the trunk (no spare tire, jack,etc), no A/C, no power steering soon, no carpet, no door side panels/trim, and pretty soon, no passenger side airbag..

It does come with a rollbar, and I think it comes with two seatbelts, some pretty sticky tires, and brakes that squeal like there’s no tomorrow (because that’s what race pads do when they are cold)…

I’ll remove the entire front dash for you and just leave you the instrument cluster, if you’re interested…

J/K….

But seriously, if you need help getting it serviced without getting reamed PM me.

[ucodegen]

[quote=bearishgurl]The CA DMV has been cracking down Big Time on older vehicles for a few years now (except those vehicles legally considered “Antiques”) and have stepped up their “inspection criteria” of what constitutes a biennial “smog check.” The state is obviously attempting to make it really hard for Joe and Suzy 6pack to keep driving their $2-$6K vehicles to work and back.[/quote]I’ve noticed that. It seems that they are more interested in forcing people to buy new cars than reducing smog. The most recent change in testing actually bans catalytic converters on cars that were not originally built with them. They also make it nearly impossible to convert an open loop carburetor system to closed loop fuel injection system.

[equalizer]

Cars from late 90’s, esp Japanese cars, are just amazing. I met a guy with a 90’s corolla with 400K miles that he bought used around 300K miles for a $1000 and its running.

Guess it no that uncommon for older cars. But I doubt newer cars esp untested CVT will be this trouble-free.

http://automobiles.honda.com/mile-makers/owner-stories.aspx

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