• db2@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Oh look, another reason not to buy BMW, I’ll just add it to the other 456788656752 reasons.

    • jonne@infosec.pub
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      2 months ago

      The problem is that once one manufacturer starts doing this, they’ll all do it, so you won’t even have the option of buying a new car without a subscription.

    • helenslunch@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      I was a BMW mechanic from 2009-2012. I can’t believe anyone buys them after what I’ve seen. The engines are all made of plastic and start to literally crumble to pieces and leak oil from absolutely everywhere after ~70k miles. We had to have customers sign disclosures on these cars because inevitably they would just crumble to pieces when we went in to replace one part and we’d end up having to replace others to reassemble it. Or we would pressure-test the cooling system to find a leak and end up creating several more.

      On their V8s there’s a plastic cooling tube that runs from front to back on the engine. The tube itself is like $10 but you had to disassemble the entire engine to access it so it would cost several thousand $ in labor.

      We eventually started selling an aftermarket CNC aluminum one that was threaded and expanded into the hole. We would just beat the old one out with a hammer and thread the new one in in a couple hours and they’d never have that problem again. Why BMW couldn’t think of that is beyond me. The people who did made buckets of money selling aluminum tubes for hundreds of dollars just because they could.

      You might expect cost cutting like that from a Kia or something but not from a car that’s advertised as a premium brand and sold at premium prices.

      You’re literally just paying more for less.

      • db2@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The Buick 3800 had a tube like that on top, it would crack from thermal stresses and piss out hot coolant. There was an aluminum aftermarket replacement like you describe but it was Dorman and a cheap fix. Buick also addressed the problem in later versions. I miss that engine.

      • SreudianFlip@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        I used to own a W124 series Benz (bought used for 5% of sticker price, I ain’t no fauntelroy). Nearly everything on it was redundant or excessively skookum.

        When systems that weren’t as rugged started going down, like the vacuum controllers for doors or the 4matic computer etc, the car still worked safely with reduced convenience. A few minor design flaws like the wiring harness but that’s it. Room to work under the hood, too.

        It was built in '93 when the engineers still ran the company.

        Current main driver is the super reliable '03 CRV.

    • iamanurd@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      I love my bmw plug in hybrid. I don’t see myself ever paying for a subscription though. Maybe if it comes with pizza, but even then it’s unlikely.

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          Please do if possible.

          Seriously tho, was it so hard to understand that i was pointing out that all big car companies are starting to do this?

          If this is a reason not to buy a BMW then its a reason not to buy any modern car. Which it is imo.

          • db2@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            The problem is a huge number of cars were removed and destroyed which would otherwise have been in the used market. It’s a big reason why even used cars are priced so high. Buying used isn’t what it used to be.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System

            And they want to do it again not because it helped anyone get a car but because it let them make the prices so stupidly high.

            I agree that new cars suck but they’re removing the stocks of used cars that would be worth buying at any price and at our expense.

            • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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              2 months ago

              Agree with that yep, its also already been shown years ago that modding used cars into electric cars is totally doable, economic and saves fuckloads of resources. Same thing happening with tractors too btw. Lots of farmers are buying up old tractors because they can actually repair them on site when they break down. With modern ones they have to wait for some asshole from john deer to come in with a debugging laptop to do the exact same thing for lots of money and downtime.

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        While this is completely true, it’s a bit tone-deaf. Fuck cars, but many people barely have a choice because their public transport consists of a handful of busses that come once an hour and nothing is close by.

        As an aside, I spend a whopping total of about $1/day (edit Australian $, so less USD) on maintenance and electricity for my electric cargo bike. I go about 17 km each way to work and the funny thing is it’s only about 10 mins longer than driving, lol

        • Blaster M@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Imagine a bus coming once an hour… try only twice a day for the entire county… early morning and late night.

          • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            💀 where is this?

            … Re-read before I sent. I thought this said country, lol.

            Yikes, why even have a bus at that point?

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          Yeah i know many people dont really have much of a choice, see the thread nex to your comment. I was more intending to talk shit about modern cars that all seem to have this shit.