Quote:
Originally Posted by Chelsea_Tractor
I think one of the issues is manufactures saying rubbish like the gearbox is filled for life. Life being defined as 100k miles. The warranty takes you up to 60k / 3 years on some and after that the not-mentioned maintenance starts. May be it is a sales thing. Getting people into newer models and profit margins. So when the support ends at 60k miles the panic has already been created. One of things BMW don't do is the high mileage club like Mercedes. For keeping your Mercedes 100k miles and more you receive a badge / mini medal and certificate for your documents. In fact Mercedes are so confident many of their models can make it to starship mileages why don't BMW hold the same confidence?
Financial gurus offering advice on how a car cost more the older it gets. We live in a fast paced world where some people don't know how to slow down. Even maintaining a car seems like an effort to some so they opt for a service package.
I came from a generation where cars were passed down. I had two uncles working in Ford. One uncle even went on to work on buses and heavy haulage equipment. Whenever we would go to see my uncle he would be under his car. Tinkering with it or maintaining it. He taught his son maintenance and how to change oil. Not every man is hands on. I saw my dad change taps on a sink once and fit fog lights to his car. Beyond that I never bonded with him over cars yet I became a car guy somehow. We bonded over computers as that was his thing. I built my own PC at age 14. All my cousins were spending $$$$ on things such as the Gateway 2000 or whatever the latest model was. My $150 one made of parts from different computers destroyed theirs. I digress but you get the picture it depends on childhood influences and values.
My dad kept his car 10 years+ and every car until it died or couldn't be repaired. If the repair was worth more than the car he didn't have it fixed by his brother. I learned the value of things and kept my cars longer until I met my wife. I wouldn't say she is materialistic but she thought I could do better. She encouraged me to get my first BMW. It was a ball ache to maintain but for some reason I fell in love with it and wonder who is driving it now. When it wasn't worth repairing I moved on to my next BMW. My reason for change being to save money.
I think manufacturers have also made it difficult to DIY. They want you to go to the service department. Making specialist tools or inside knowledge of things they can only fix. This is probably another thing that puts people off. May be it too complex or time consuming to learn about new things.
I think I am rambling on here so will stop here.
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That's my thing with these cars. I grew up working on/building them, and had a 3000GT VR4 that I built through college. Did all of the work by myself or with a friend, tearing down the engine completely, rebuilding the transmission/transfer case/rear diff, swapping turbos, intercoolers, clutches, etc. But that's a car from the 90s, it had a lot of tech on it for that decade but nowhere near stuff now, and it was still pretty easy to work on.
I would love to get an M3 (looking for a ZCP now) but owning that outside of a warranty long term and worrying about stuff like the DCT, water to air intercooling system, VANOS, and all the other numerous computers that control every aspect of the car......I'm out of my depth with all of that. It's also expensive as hell to pay people to do it for you. So the logical solution (aside from just not buying it in the first place, which isn't gonna happen haha) is to sell it and move on to something else with a warranty.
Times change *shrug*