The German car makers also make gas powered vehicles versions of some of their fleet which are quite different from gasoline cars.
What takes time is building the facilities and technology to create reliable and serviceable electric vehicles.
I was quoted $15,000.00 for a new head because they failed to gap a spark plug.
They remove the access panel in the aero pan when doing oil changes and don't replace it. They over torque everything (drain plug, filter cover, etc).
They broke a wiring harness mount when doing routine maintenance. Just ripped it off instead of releasing the clips.
They scratch up the interior when pulling the steering column apart for airbag recalls.
They broke a headlight housing when replacing a light bulb.
They curbed my wheels and then told me it couldn't be them because "there are no curbs here". The service manager said this while standing on a curb.
These people are predators. The incentives are perverse and they do nothing but exploit their customers and the manufacturer.
My hope is that Tesla's approach will push the costs of these unnecessary repairs and shoddy workmanship up the chain where the parent company actually has an incentive to fix them.
At this point the only way I would consider buying a new BMW is if I was able to find an independent shop that can still do warranty work. Still searching for that.
The problem was not a gap that was too large, the problem was 0 gap.
They misdiagnosed it as a bent valve and told me that I probably missed a shift at freeway speed and slammed the car into second gear, causing the engine to over-rev and skip a tooth on the timing chain. Somehow this bent only one valve and the other 23 are still fine. Oh and it ran fine until they had it in their shop. Also the timing chain is still in the correct timing.
I told them to get bent and took it to an independent shop that fixed the problem for $45.00.
The BMW dealer claimed there was low compression and a misfire on cylinder 4. My independent mechanic found perfect compression on all six cylinders and a misfire on cylinder 6 (the one with the bent plug).
I went back to the BMW dealer and they refunded me the $4,000.00 in unnecessary repairs they did. At this point I think they are either intentionally sabotaging customer cars because they get away with it or the incentives drive them to employ complete idiots. Either way the most dangerous place to take a BMW is the dealer.
A foreign object through the intake tract would be a more likely case for a 0 gap plug, as it would basically require a broken piston or valve to otherwise close up the gap on the plug and you're not missing this.
Either way, absolutely terrible on their behalf and a zero sense diagnosis.
I cut my teeth driving grain trucks so I always heel-toe double clutch. That makes missed shifts highly unlikely as the shifter slips easily from gear to gear, assuming you’re pulling it into the correct gear. Also I’m not an idiot and I have never selected the wrong gate. BMW also puts heavy springs on the shifter to make it unlikely the incorrect gate is selected on accident.
There is no internal engine damage as far as my mechanic can see. The dealer did also do an intake cleaning (allegedly) which involves media blasting the intake runners. It is possible there was FOD introduced at that time. I mentioned that to the dealer and they assured me that is “impossible”.
The dealer did put about 35 miles on the car while they had it for new plugs, maybe they missed a shift but there’s no apparent damage to the engine.
The plug damage appears to be a result of negligent installation.
My most generous guess is they dropped it on the floor. I wouldn’t be surprised if they intentionally re-gapped it to cause a misfire but I have no evidence.
When they told me I needed a new head I called around all the shops in the area that work on these cars. I asked them how this could happen and if they have seen it before. All the shops I talked to in the Seattle area said they have never had an N54 open. They've never seen engine damage on one and doubted the diagnosis. BMW Seattle was the only place that said they had seen this "several times". I think they just use this as a way to make a quick buck or their mechanics are so incompetent that they routinely grenade engines by installing spark plugs and cleaning intakes incorrectly.
What I do know is that the people responsible should be nowhere near a car and probably not allowed outside without close adult supervision.
-- I had the same thought. I haven't changed the gap on a spark plug in decades. Oh, I check them before they go in, but they're always spot on.
My only theory is that the dealer failed to torque the plug, and engine compression blew the plug out of the head, taking the threads with it. Because at the very worst, if the plug gap is way too big, the electrode might touch the top of the piston. Even then, the piston would just mash it down. I cannot think of a way to ruin a head by improperly gapping a spark plug.
But I digress way away from parent's original point...
I don't drive any more, but when I owned a couple of cars. The first time it happened the dealer told me I needed new brake rotors. I thought it was kind of strange, but was too preoccupied with my 80 hour a week job to think about it. When I picked up the car, I said, "Just put the rotors in the trunk." because I naively thought that it would be my responsibility to dispose of them. All of a sudden they turned on me and started demanding why I didn't trust them -- which, of course, made me suspicious. I eventually got the rotors after threatening the manager with calling the police and took them to an independent mechanic. Of course they were perfectly fine.
Latest was my wife's car a couple of years ago. My wife took her car to the dealership to change the oil. When she got her car back they told her, "We were looking at your car because your a car inspection is coming up" (In Japan you have to have an inspection every few years and fix whatever the inspector says). They told her it would cost more than $5000 to fix everything, and suggested that they had a wonderful used car that they could do a nice deal on in a trade. That way she could avoid the cost of the inspection (wonderful chaps).
So she said she would think about it. When she got home, I noticed an small oil leak and told her to get them to fix it. She drove back and they refused. "It's an old car", they said. "There is nothing we can do. You should trade it in because it will save you lots of money. But anyway, it's only a small leak, so just top it up every week."
My wife is Japanese and trusts people... sigh... Anyway, about a month later, no surprise, the engine light went on. She took it in to the dealership: "Oh the battery is dead. You have to buy a new one. Also, there is a serious problem with the electrical system. It will cost $2000. Why don't you just trade in your car for this younger model?"
Luckily, down the street from us there was a young guy who was just getting started setting up his own shop (he was working out of his home garage until he could raise enough money to rent a building). I asked him to take a look. Sure enough: the oil pan was over tightened, which cracked the gasket. Oil leaked on the battery lead, which corroded the insulation. This caused a short. It needed a new battery lead and a new oil pan gasket. He also did the car inspection and fixed everything up... all for $800.
TL;DR: Never do your repair work at the dealership. It should be obvious, really. It is run by the same people who sold you the car -- they are out to screw you over no matter how they can do it.
If I ever buy a new BMW I will consider it as-is unless I can find an independent shop to do warranty work because the dealer can't be trusted. I will also do European delivery to prevent my local dealer from touching the car. This likely makes it impossible to buy another one.
I'm tempted to go back to an older car that I can just fix myself. New cars are apparently intended to be leased for a few years, abused and destroyed at the hands of inept dealers and then thrown into a shredder.
Sure you might still need to threaten them with the law, mechanics being how they are.
You can enforce the right to repair through legislation without dealers.
> What takes time is building the facilities and technology to create reliable and serviceable electric vehicles.
The battery supply chain is the hardest part, but EV powertrains are so much more simple than an internal combustion powertrain. There is very little maintenance required on an EV drivetrain as well. That's why Tesla is warrantying their Semi drivetrains for a million miles.
There are benefits to the electric drive train but that's not the limitation. The rest of the car isn't really any different and because the battery is so expensive (as you point out) the rest of the electric car really suffers.
This appears to be what BMW is saying.
100k miles isn't “well beyond any warranty period” for non-EV powertrains; a number of car brands have a base (not extended) 10yr/100k mile powertrains warranty.
With that said I don't think it's the reason BMW is not ready to mass produce electric, and I take them at their word in the article. If you're going to break into the electric market it's going to take a lot of money to shoulder past the three marques that got there first (Tesla, Nissan, Toyota).
The secret sauce is the community, the supercharger network, the ability to seamlessly plan a trip with every charge stop pre-populated and supercharger availability right there on the screen and updated on the fly. IMO, it makes everything else feel janky and outdated. An electric BMW looks like an existing car with electric bits bolted on, and good luck figuring out where to charge.
The biggest issue with BMWs is overcomplicated electronics and software leading to bugs or eventual weird glitches. I stopped buying them because of this, and IMO the Teslas looks even worse. I see a lot of used cars in my future.
As to the network stuff, and charger availability on the screen: isn't that purely an early-adopter problem? Why wouldn't chargers be as prevalent as gas stations?
Tesla charging infrastructure "just works", and charges quickly, at generally-known rates.
I've perused other charging station maps and they're all hit-or-miss. You'll get 220v but not high amperage. You'll find the charger does't work. You'll find the chargers are full and cars are just parked there not going anywhere (Tesla works around this by charging people money for leaving their cars on a charger after they're full). You'll find the charger is private -- can only be used by employees of the office building you drove to, relying on finding a charger there.
That said, this system works fine for 99.9% of daily driving where you charge in known places -- every day at home, or every day at work, or whatever. But the more I've looked into the charging infrastructure for non-Tesla vehicles, the LESS impressed I've been. At many of these public chargers you'll have to be parked for 4+ hours to get even 20-30 miles' worth of charge.
(Well, that and undercarriage coatings...)
With EV's breaking down less often and less routine maintenance because they just have fewer moving parts, that's going to destroy the dealer business model.
Most new ICE cars don't have massive power train problems either. The reliability issues are in auxiliary systems.
The non-powertrain components are irrelevant for this comparison.
As far as ICE powertrains being fairly reliable, that is a triumph of engineering and due to literally trillions of dollars of investments. And yet regular maintenance on the powertrain is required even today, whereas electric powertrains do not have such requirements.