"for being conned by the so called superior quality of BMWs"
Would you share your expert knowledge to demonstrate this akr?
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Various reasons why I say this. The nearest I've ever got to buying a BMW was to test drive a current shape Compact with a view to buying a new one. To say I was underwhelmed by this £20000 car is an understatement. It was ok to drive and the quality was ok but £20000? Where is my extra 4/5/6 thousand going over equivalent hatches? The perceived interior quality you find in current Corollas, Civics and the new Astra is just as good if not better and if you disagree all I can say is that you've been well and truly duped by the BMW "image" thing. I'm actually a Golf driver so I've fallen for this so called "image is worth paying for thing" myself but I draw the line at the near £19000 they're asking for the new Golf GT TDi and, in any case, 8 years of driving them has convinced me they're no better than anything else. Electrically, they're actually very poor.
And finally if you want any further evidence a friend of my wife's who used to be chief mechanic at a local BMW dealership doesn't rate them and says they get just as many problems with them as anything else. He now works for Honda.
So you tell me, why are you paying £000s extra for that BMW badge? It certainly isn't for their rarity value!!!
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Well the BMW has given way in terrific fashion after just 300 miles, you can read the tale of woe here.
** WARNING ** - EXTREMELY FOUL LANGUAGE, don\'t click on the link if you don\'t like swearing. But since I\'m looking at hundreds of pounds of repairs, (in fact, more than a pound for each mile travelled), I hope you\'ll excuse me the profanity. I am \"Chopley Turnip, and the new registration I\'ve given my car speaks for itself.
www.fruitforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threa...5
PLEASE NOTE Alex\'s warning. I have disabled this link from being clickable - you\'ll have to copy/paste it if you want to view it. DD.
Now where did I put that Honda?
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Oh dear, you do seem to have had a string of unfortunate experiences. I suspest that you must have some legal comeback against the "outfit" from whom you bought the BMW, and/or against the dealer who just performed the work. Maybe next time you buy, it would be worth getting an inspection by an "expert" and take out a used car warranty?
Good luck in whatever action you do decide to take. Got a Citizens Advice Bureau on the IoM?
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That's grim - 300 miles - can understand what you think about your beemer - now where's that anorak someone was mentioning Honda owners need ..... this just doesn't happen to Hondas - unless you're called Sato.
I take it the Type S is gone?
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For me, your post over there just reinforces the need for decent moderation on a forum.
However, good luck with the notor.
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For me, your post over there just reinforces the need for decent moderation on a forum.
We have perfectly good moderation (I'm one of the two admins there) - we're a bunch of adults who don't mind spicy language and know not to let youngsters have a browse around the place.
In fact, the hosting costs (£75 per month, high traffic) are largely paid for by the members, people who accept fruitforums.com for what it is, a warts and all collection of people who don't mind a few curse words. (Most of us are ex-gambling addicts, swearing is very much down the list of nasty stuff we've come into contact with over the years.)
Anyway, there's a lot worse going on in the world than a bit of swearing.......
Cheers for the good luck wishes with the motor though, I honestly think I'm going to need it......
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I don't think I will ever take aprilia's advice lightly. Twice in the same day he advised getting the cooling system thoroughly checked and only 4 days after his warning, it lets go. I have all the parts to do a precautionary change of the waterpump/thermostat/fan clutch/belt etc sitting behind me and I am planning a long drive down to the motorshow today, so hopefully aprilia can hold off on his predictions until I get back. 8-)
The best you can hope for is that the head is not cracked or warped and that its a straight headgasket job. Hopefully you have an independent on the IOM who isn't trying to retire a millionaire. Don't forget to sort the cause of the overheating when going about fixing the headgasket.
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Well the really annoying thing is I paid £455 on Friday for a full Inpesction 2 and service at a main BMW dealer, if the cooling system was so close to total collapse I'd really have expected them to pick it up.
I dread to think how much this is going to cost to put right, all our money was tied up in that car (I only did the swap for the Type-S 'cause I figured I'd sell the Beemer more easily), we're already having to move from Ramsey into Douglas because of this (no need for a car to get to work and lower rents) and if the repairs on the Beemer are more than a grand I simply won't be able to get it done, and it'll basically be scrap metal.
Not good, especially considering my wife is pregnant, due in September, and stopping work in a month.
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I think you first have to have a good luck and see if you can find what caused it.
If, for example, it was a split pipe which otherwise looked ok, then I doubt you've got anything against the servicing garage.
If it was a pipe that they replaced that let go, then obviously you can go back to them.
Others know better that I, but I thought there was a new law which said that any faults which developed were the responsibility of the dealer unless he could prove it was not pre-existing - or something like that. David ?
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Hells bells - BMW had inspected it :-0!
I'd focus on that, and possibly a contribution from BM given they had missed it. Especially given your need for transport in your current position.
Excuse my ignorance but could this engine letting go have anything to do with the Nikasil issue? Anyone know?
If so - it is a known problem.
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I also think you have some comeback - given you have only been driving the thing for 300 miles.
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Blimey Alex, I think you were very restrained in your language, given the circumstances.
This will be no consolation, but at least it's not a Rover K-series engine to which this happened, otherwise you'd need a new clutch and the gearbox stripped down as well. You will detect the voice of experience here.
I think I would be going to have a quiet word with the dealer who serviced it, yes..... Does the Sale of Goods Act and related legislation apply in IOM?
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Oh for flip's sake. (Alex J M and Captain Alex Zippy O' Toole are the same person by the way, work PC and home PC :))
I've taken proper legal advice on this and the situation is as follows.
The dealer who did the swap for the Type-S with me would have been liable for the full cost of repairs or a complete refund *BUT* because it's been to the BMW dealer for a service he can wash his hands of it because he wasn't the last person to do any work on it. Therefore he's in the clear, I have no comeback against him because a third party has worked on the car since he supplied it.
I could take him to the small claims court, but I'd almost certainly lose and be out of pocket for costs.
As for the BMW dealer, I would have to prove that something they did to the car is directly responsible for the coolant system failing and the head gasket subsequently failing.
The fact they did the full service and then the coolant system goes pop *proves* nothing, even though it looks dodgy, that ain't good enough in the small claims court.
I can't get an independent mechanic to look the car over because then the BMW dealer gets the "third party mucked around with it" excuse to use.
I can't get the Vehicle Test Centre here to do a check because they don't do independent tests, they only do tests if referred to them by the OFT. So I contacted the OFT and they said they only refer cars where they have a view to pursuing criminal action, which they wouldn't in this case because what's happened to the car since the service would invalidate that possibility. (i.e. It's been driven on the roads for 50 miles with no one able to verify how it's been used.)
However, the guy at the OFT said he'd contact the guy at the Vehcile Test Centre and see if he'd make an exception and take the Beemer in for an independent test and try to determine the cause of the fault with the cooling system.
Failing that my only hope is to get an independent mechanic to be at the BMW dealer whilst they take it apart (at my own expense) to try and spot what the exact cause of the problem is, and hopefully spot something that can be nailed to them.
Needless to say I'm not optimistic, I'm going to end up paying for this out of my own pocket.
Bankruptcy just before birth of baby. Wicked.
Oh yes, the Type-S has been sold by the dealer already, he was after £5995 for it, I've had it for sale in the paper, on the local classifieds websites and forums and government intranet for weeks and not one person has shown any interest at all (and I was only asking £5500 ono) - yet the dealer sells it for £6K within 3 working days.
I think "unhappy" is the word I'm looking for.
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>>The dealer who did the swap for the Type-S with me would have been liable for the full cost of repairs or a complete refund *BUT* because it's been to the BMW dealer for a service he can wash his hands of it because he wasn't the last person to do any work on it.
I appreciate that you have taken legal advice, but that doesn't sound right to me.
Surely if you can show that the work they did was in no way related to the coolant system , and presumably the dealer can supply you a schedule that confirms that, then its back to the supplying dealer.
Otherwise you'd lose your rights the second you had a flat tyre changed.
I'd def. be going back after the dealer who sold you the car. I ask purely out of interest, but is the selling dealer aware that it had a subsequent service ?
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Just wondering if this line of argument makes any sense:
selling dealer has an obligation to ensure that vehicle is fit for the purpose for which it was sold, etc.
To cover himself, any half-way sane dealer would surely do a multi-point inspection and record the results, so that he would have a stronger defence than "I thought it seemed OK".
If selling dealer can't produce inspection record, he's on sticky ground ... but if he can produce it, then independent checks might be able to verify whether the inspection was reasonably thorough (I presume there is some sort of due diligence requirement in the middle of all this)
Me no lawyer, so pls forgive if the above is all nonsense!
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Surely if you can show that the work they did was in no way related to the coolant system , and presumably the dealer can supply you a schedule that confirms that, then its back to the supplying dealer.
Well part of an Inspection 2 is to check the coolant system for leaks and flush the coolant system out and replace the coolant, so the BMW dealer did work on the coolant system as part of the Inspection 2.
However, their line is "it was fine when we checked it, must just be your bad luck" - which doesn't really put me any further forward.
I haven't let them have the car back yet because I'm hoping the vehicle test centre will re-check everything BMW said they did, but if the vehicle test centre won't do a check then I'm really on my own.
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When they were 'replacing the coolant', could they have introduced something which caused it to clag up?
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I believed Aprilia's old BMW 7-series's engine went the same way as yours, Alex. He had a service at BMW dealer which introduced a air-lock during a coolant change. Engine overheated and head gasket was blown as a result.
Aprilia: Would you mind telling your story again? Sorry for bring up this sad story again.
Gazza
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I believed Aprilia's old BMW 7-series's engine went the same way as yours, Alex. He had a service at BMW dealer which introduced a air-lock during a coolant change. Engine overheated and head gasket was blown as a result.
See it's so annoying, if it is the dealer's incompetence that caused this to happen (and to the man on the street it's pretty obvious) then I'm thousands of pounds out of pocket because of their foul-up, yet with no way of *proving* it, I have no comeback.
To them, the cost of repairing the 5-series is peanuts, to me and my wife it's the difference between a stable financial situation when our baby's born and genuine financial crisis.
At the moment I've had to tell my boss I don't have access to a car (I'm supposed to have one for my job) and I'm walking 30 minutes to the bus station to get a 7:10am bus to get to work for 8am, then getting the 5:10pm bus home, which after the 30 minute walk back to the house makes it gone 6:30pm.
The BMW is 1.5 tons of scrap metal sat on the driveway, depreciating every week and no sign of any progress on how I'm going to get it fixed.
Joy of joys.
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If BMW worked on the cooling system then it packs up 50 miles later then I would definately be pointing the finger at them. Either they didn't do the work they billed you for, or they did it, but not properly. BMW engines are very easy to airlock and it only takes one careless or impatient mechanic to do it.
The only "bad luck" on your part I can see here would be if the water pump impeller (if still plastic) disintegrated or the thermostat is proven to be faulty. If those two are sound, then it is all on the dealer who did the work.
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I was away in Germany last week, doing some engineering consultancy for a well-known German car manufacturer ;-)
Sorry to see your BMW went bang. Unfortunately you're not the first to find that BMW cooling systems can be a bit marginal.
If you click on my 'name' you'll see from my profile that I've been dealing with cars for a very long time. I worked my way up from 'spannering' in my father's garage to being a consultant working for many of the 'big' names.
I've had dealings with BMW's over many years and can just about remember my dad working on the early BMW-built 'Isetta' bubble cars (the 'Rolling Egg') in the early 1960's! My own experience stems from the time the 2002 was introduced.
The problem with BMW's in the UK is that people are so brand conscious that they tend to overlook the potential costs and problems and thus buy into trouble at an over-the-odds price. This is not helped by motoring journo's like Quentin Wilson et al who go on about BMW cars covering 'starship mileages' etc etc - never having taken a spanner to a car themselves or actually run one over an extended period. How do they think ECP and GSF make all their money? Over in Germany its only in recent years that BMW have shaken off their earlier reputation for unreliability.
I remember back in the early 90's I saw loads of the M30 engines (the 3.0/3.5 big-block) where the oil spray bar banjo bolts had come undone and wrecked the cam/followers requiring the head to come off etc. etc. No change out of £1000 even at that time. I've also fixed loads of electrical problems on '90's BMW's.
Anyway, on to Alex's problem.
Well, in your original post you stated that the car had two new radiators. That made me suspicious because a '96 BMW would probably have been fitted with a Behr rad., and given proper servicing it should still be on the original rad right now. I suspect that the car had a history of cooling problems (as so many of the E39's did) and the new rads were an attempt by the dealer to remedy the problem. Hence my earlier posts about checking the cooling system.
How the cooling problem arose is anyone guess - the car might have overheated in the past leading to a minor crack or blow from the head gasket causing gas to leak into the cooling system. Over a period of time this causes an airlock and disrupts the cooling circulation - leading to a boil-up which cuases yet further damage. Other possibilities include a sticky thermostat and duff waterpump.
In another thread I reported how I bought a wrecked-engine E39 last year (stuck 'stat) and rebuilt the engine for a nice profit.
A BMW Inspection II is really not a lot more than a fluids and filters change. They will not be checking the cooling pump impeller or the operation of the thermostat or doing a pressure test. I would expect them to do a basic check that its not overheating though. BMW servicing is expensive and £455 does not buy you as much as you might think. Also, being a '96 model, the dealer would have you down as a 'poverty punter' and the job would probably be given to the most junior technician.
It is possible that the dealer did not correctly bleed the cooling system after refilling. This is what a local dealer did with my 7-series a couple of years ago (only the second time I have had a dealer service in my life!). The engine boiled less than 10 miles after I'd left the dealer and, beacuse of heavy traffic, I couldn't safely stop quickly. The result was a wrecked engine. The dealers will never admit anything and BMW UK will back them to the hilt with legal representation etc. I had to chalk up a loss of many thousands of pounds. A friend of my was actually a salesman at the dealer and even he admitted to me that they were a bunch of shysters (although they paid him well enough on it!).
I would advise anyone buying a BMW to check the cooling system thoroughly - this should include a test for combustion gases in the expansion bottle *and* a pressure test. Treat any replacement radiator or fan unit with suspicion if the car is less than 10 years old (it means either a cooling problem or collision damage!) - the rads and fan couplings always have date codes on them.
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Another top post by Aprilia, I vote that whenever someone needs their car serviced they call him around at any hour of the day or night. There's clearly a difference between a mechanic/engineer and a mechanic/fitter. Time to post your phone number up Aprilia!
Alex, I hope you can get your problem fixed somehow.
Gareth
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garethj: mixing up mechanic or technician or fitter with an engineer is an insult to engineers !
alex: a typo in the original title - "bodge" vs "badge"?
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garethj: mixing up mechanic or technician or fitter with an engineer is an insult to engineers !
I know that - I'm a mechanical design engineer with a fair few years in the automotive industry!
The point I was making was that most dealer mechanics are "fitters", this is (probably) the faulty part, I'll fit a replacement. If that doesn't fix it I'll fit something else. All at £75 / hour.
An engineer / mechanic is someone who is better educated, understands the processes behind the parts and can fix the REAL problem. I was saying that Aprilia seems to be the engineer rather than the fitter.
Gareth
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He's a clever bloke that Aprilia.
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OK, stop it, you're making me blush.
Yes, I'm a 'proper' engineer (undregrad degree and PhD).
I too get irritated when I tell someone I'm an engineer and they assume I fix washing machines! Mind you, with labour rates these days I might earn more. Two neighbours in my close are plumbers - one drives a new Boxter and the other (next door to me) has just bought himself a new £39k Jag....
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It's a sad story and no-one would wish it upon anyone else - I really hope you find a good solution Alex.
It's also a thread well worth reading again, not just for Aprilia's spot on points but also for all the praise for BMWs which now seems rather misplaced - I particularly like the one about Japanese car drivers looking like dorks(that's drivers of Japanese cars not Japanese people!)unlike BMW drivers, and another about the quality of German cars.
Having also read your other thread and the amount of money you have spent on what I would call "exotic" cars that you would have been better off with a Fiesta or something.
Nevertheless, hope everything turns out well - new baby in Sept will take your mind off cars!!Good luck!
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Don't get me wrong - BMW's are great cars, but the British go a bit OTT on them. They need maintaining, they break occassionally, they need fixing - just like any other car. I've always found the Germans fairly pragmatic and realisitic about their cars, but for some reason the British seem to have unrealistic expectations of German cars.
In part I blame the motoring hacks. I saw one TV programme where Quentin Wilson was heaping praise on the old E32 BMW 7-series. He was saying that they were underated bargains, go on forever, built like Panzer tanks etc etc. All a load of nonsense - most E32's are a money pit with massively over-complicated and unreliable electronics, the 4HP22E auto transmission (never the most reliable of autoboxes) and a slightly 'dodgy' range of engines.
Modern engineering design and manufacture means that a new Mondeo 2.0i will do 95% of what a 320i will do, and do it just as reliably - for half the money. This wasn't the case 20 years ago when there was a large gulf between a Ford and a BMW.
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Now if I was a TV producer, I'd set up a series with Quentin v. an expert like Aprilia to offer opposing judgements on a given car - one from the POV of prestige/cred/whitstles & bells etc and the other to give the low down on what goes wrong on them. How's your camera style Aprilia or have you got the perfect face for radio :)
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Well, I have actually been on the telly (couple of years ago) but I wouldn't say I've a 'TV face'. I was also involved with a BBC TV series (as a 'project manager') that ran last Autumn. Some years ago I was interviewed as an 'expert' on the Thrust SST project - LOL! (I had to crib most of the info off the web!).
My experience with the media leads me to believe that most 'experts' don't know what they're talking about. For example, I was contacted to talk about Thrust the morning of the day they wanted to interview - I told them that although I knew a fair bit about the automotive industry I actually knew very little about the Thrust project. The response was not to worry and just ad lib!
At the end of the day always remember that TV programmes like Top Gear are primarily for entertainment, rather than education (ditto Watch.
On a slightly different theme, I well remember about 10 years ago being contacted by an Autocar journalist to be interviewed about developments in vehicle electronics.
He was fairly new to the magazine and turned up at the appointed hour with his tape recorder. After some discussion it became pretty obvious to me that he had very little technical knowledge at all.
Over lunch I asked him about his background. He'd been to public school and then studied music at university, but was interested in cars and 'fancied journalism'. He was a perfectly nice guy, but seemed to be in the wrong job to me.
Anyhow, I saw an article written by him just a couple of years ago, so he obviously stuck at it.
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Thanks to all who've replied to this thread, and particularly Aprilia for his very knowledgable insights :)
The BMW went back to the dealer today (cost of getting it towed a mere £80......) and they've got back to me with what the problem is, apparently a pipe has split, but the rest of the cooling system is intact (as far as they can tell at the moment).
They're going to get the replacement pipe ordered (£40(!!)) and they'll fit it as soon as it arrives (around £100 in labour).
Needless to say no acceptance of liability on their part, it's just "one of those things".
Once the new pipe's on they'll run the engine for a while to let it get "proper warm" (the exact phrase I was given) and see if all is OK.
To be honest I just want to get the thing fixed so I can sell it on and get my money out of it and put a nice practical little Peugeot 106 diesel (or similar) on the road.
I never wanted a Beemer in the first place, I only swapped the Type-S for it 'cause I figured the Beemer would be easier to sell - and I have to say I'll be very glad to see the back of it.
With a baby on the way all I want from a car is cheap, practical, reliable motoring, badge prestige and image means a big fat zero (and my wife never gave two hoots about cars anyway, it's just "a red one" or "a black one").
That said, thanks again to all the back roomers for making this a good place to talk about cars, and car woes :)
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Oh yes, it's the rocker cover seal that's gone, not the head gasket (early false alarm).
However, the opinion seems to be that the rocker cover seal won't leak again under normal operating temperatures.
I'm a bit sceptical myself, but I shall wait and see..... If it's correct though I can just clean up the block (there's not a lot of oil on there) and hope for the best.....
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Well Alex, I sincerely hope it is just the pipe. There is nothing worse than a car that makes you poor!
If they get it all up-and-running and everything is OK then get the cooling system checked over by a recommended independent. There is nothing so special about your car that you need to pay the dealer rates.
Check that the little bleed pipe back to the expansion tank is clear (they can clag up, resulting in air locks). If the independent is good then consider a replacement water pump and thermostat. the parts will cost less than £50 from ECP and it shouldn't take more than an hour to fit. You will also need three 1.5 litre cans of Febi 'BMW' spec. antifreeze at about £3.50ea. unless you can save the old stuff in a clean bowl.
I know its more expense, but its peace of mind on these motors.
Get them to thoroughly check fan operation also - should charge you buttons for that.
I would be interested to know which pipe split, and why. Top/bottom hoses on these should last 10 years.
Also a bit sceptical about the rocker gasket story.
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.. I never wanted a Beemer in the first place, I only swapped the Type-S for it 'cause I figured the Beemer would be easier to sell - and I have to say I'll be very glad to see the back of it.
your selling skills must be superb to be able to buy from a dealer, and then be confident to sell on quickly at a profit as a private seller.
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Where does he say he was planning to sell at a profit? Give the guy a break, he thought he had bought a gem and it's turned out bad, no need to come over all superior on him.
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If you read the thread you'll see that he did a straight swap with the Beemer and his old car in the belief that the Beemer would be easier for him to sell, not to seek extra profits.
It wasn't too bad an idea apart from his lack of luck - BMW's are a very popular car, while imported rice rockets only appeal to certain markets.
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£40 for a replacement pipe & £100 for fitting. Owwwww owwwwwwww owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Is the BMW such a superior car that 2 jubilee clips (£1.99 - Halfords price!) plus a length of suitable hose (£2.99 - Halfords) and 5 minutes won't do the job?
Now that's where the AA membership would be useful. Free tow home. Chap look under bonnet, sees split hose, cuts bit off his long roll of spare hose & fits it - no charge. On your way!
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>> £40 for a replacement pipe & £100 for fitting. Owwwwwowwwwwwww owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! Is the BMW such a superior car that 2 jubilee clips (£1.99 - Halfords price!) plus a length of suitable hose (£2.99 - Halfords) and 5 minutes won't do the job? Now that's where the AA membership would be useful. Free tow home. Chap look under bonnet, sees split hose, cuts bit off his long roll of spare hose & fits it - no charge. On your way!
Well, fingers crossed for Alex that it is just the hose.
BMW bottom hose on the 528 is 'shaped' and so simple bit of straight hose from Halfords is not a realistic cure. Also, IIRC, these hoses might have the dreaded 'quick release' clips on the end.
Anyway, its not just the hose, the dealer will charge him for new antifreeze as well no doubt. I agree though that I final bill of somewhere towards £250 to fix a split hose is a lot of money. I remember buying a full exchange engine for a Chevette from Blue Diamond in Derby - cost £133+VAT delivered! Nowadays you pay that for a keyfob (who says motoring's got cheaper!).
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Most shaped hose can be replaced by a piece of straight hose, so BMW must have been real so-and-sos to make a piece that cannot be.
Fair enough, 4 litres of antifreeze must cost them at least a fiver, and then there's the 4 litres of water as well - do they use Evian or Hildon...
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bazza and nsar:
it reads worse than what i meant to say.
i actually meant to compliment him on his supreme confidence that he could sell it on when the dealer presumably did not feel the same about the beemer.
by the way, personally i just would not have that confidence nor would i spend £455 on an official dealer inspection 2 service if the purpose was to get shot asap.
but then that is what makes the world an exciting place - not just populated by boring safe risk averse people like me.
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bazza and nsar:
one of alex's earlier notes - copied below - is where i got the flase impression that alex was looking to make a profit. on reading it carefully, it is now clear to me that he was only talking about how good a bargain he had got rather than how much he could sell it on for:
"Well this is where it all gets a bit funny.
I have been offered £4000-£4500 on trade-in for the Type-S by several dealers, which was far less than I was after (it's been in the paper for £5750 as a private sale).
However, the dealer (Jap imports only on the forecourt) who swapped the Type-S for the 528i was only after £4000 for the Beemer, despite the dealer retail price being £6500.
He said it's 'cause high mileage cars simply don't sell on the IOM (you get five year old cars that have done less than 20K here quite regularly), despite the fact that regular proper servicing means a lot more than mileage.
He only deals with Jap imports, he took the Beemer as a trade-in on an FTO but the guy he usually passes his trade-ins onto didn't want the Beemer 'cause of the high mileage (despite the complete BMW dealer service history) - so he basically just wanted rid of it.
Therefore he wanted the Type-S 'cause it's the sort of car he deals in, and he wanted rid of the Beemer 'cause his usual supply channel didn't want it 'cause of the mileage and he didn't want it on his Jap import only forecourt.
I realise it sounds a bit too good to be true (I get a car that's £6500 on a dealer's forecourt on a straight swap for a £4000 trade-in) - but I had a couple of my mates down who are car nuts (one's a BMW freak the other's a general car buff) and they gave the 528i a thorough going over and pronounced it to be in superb condition. Plus it's got that full BMW dealer service history as well, and on a long drive test drive it was superb.
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Cheers Dalglish, for what it's worth, having read my own post it reads a bit more brusquely than I intended. Was just trying to correct your misinterpretation rather than try to 'tell you off' for it.
Hey, can you feel it? There's a lot of love in this room ;)
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OK Dalglish, I'll call off the fatwah on you, your friends and your friends's friends, after all the sun is shining today.
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Indeed, profit was never the intention, I couldn't sell the Type-S (despite adverts in the local press and on all the local websites), but then again the Isle of Man is a very small catchment area.
So I did the swap purely because I thought the Beemer would be easier to sell privately if I got a full dealer service done so I could sell it on with a complete dealer service history.
All I want to do is get my money out of it ready for the baby and when the nearest and dearest stops work.
Anyway, I get it back tomorrow, all fixed up apparently - we shall see.......
Anyone want to buy a lovely '96 BMW 528iSE?
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Collected the car today, first pleasant surprise since I got it.
Total cost for new pipe, new alternator belt, new aircon belt, replacement coolant and all labour was only £201.
It drove back from Douglas fine, doesn't appear to have lost any fresh oil, temp stayed normal, no loss of any fluids.
Hopefully I'll be able to get the thing sold now.....
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Just wanted to add as an owner of a 100k plus 528 that Alex's experience is probably typical of any high mileage non jap car serviced at dealers and that the initial driving impressions (of which in may he was so enthused by) never go away.
They are, if serviced at independents, fantastic cars. Main dealers do a good job in my experience and the labour is manageable but the parts prices kill the bill. It can be a limo or a sports saloon depending on mood. On bumpy twisty roads the ride quality allows much quicker progress than my wifes choppy nervy z3 on 17" alloys.
However having chopped a range rover in for the z3 recently after a series of multi hundred pound bills for spurious electrical glitches, I know the feeling of a money pit and no matter how good the driving experience (not that good either!)can be soured.
Given the prices quoted by HJ at auction recently you did well to get out when you did. Ian
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