When will you sell your X5?

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

How do you conclude based on your individual purchases of parts that BMW cares less about quality when based on one gasket, a bumper bracket and a spark plug socket?

I'm citing a few examples of issues with Genuine BMW parts. You can also look to the BMW press releases about changing BMW Classic (which the X5 will soon be subject to) from a heritage support to a profit center. This was the major inflection point.

MFGs don't redesign parts for old models. They use the original design specs and purchase from the same sources or one that meets their quality criteria and specifications.

Buying someone else's low quality parts doesn't require any effort on the manufacturer's part.

Parts are a major profit center for a MFG. Not one MFGs are careless about.

Lower quality, cheaper parts sold at higher prices are very profitable. That's not careless at all.

Did you use the gasket and it failed?

Hell, no, I didn't use that gasket. I declined it. If I wanted a VR gasket in VR packaging, I would not buy it from BMW. And as long as I can buy Elring or Goetze, I sure as hell won't use VR. I've had a bunch of VR parts fail, and when I have directly compared VR to my preferred pieces, it is clearly made worse.

I am far from the only person who has experienced this.

[bcredliner]

IMO, your sample number of one each of a few parts is not large enough to draw any conclusion on whether or not BMW parts quality has declined or not. It's a blanket generalization about all BMW parts from a few one off examples. You still might be right and I agree that some, perhaps many, agree with you. I merely have a different point of view.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

IMO, your sample number of one each of a few parts is not large enough to draw any conclusion on whether or not BMW parts quality has declined or not. It's a blanket generalization about all BMW parts from a few one off examples. You still might be right and I agree that some, perhaps many, agree with you. I merely have a different point of view.

I've literally had pallet loads of parts delivered to me. As in orders so large that they were freighted on a pallet. My sample size is hundreds of orders and many times that more parts. I merely cited a few of the most egregious examples off the top of my head.

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by nick325xit 5spd

I've literally had pallet loads of parts delivered to me. As in orders so large that they were freighted on a pallet. My sample size is hundreds of orders and many times that more parts. I merely cited a few of the most egregious examples off the top of my head.

What are you doing to be ordering so many parts?

[X5only]

Sounds like nick325xit 5spd is a parts reseller - a repair shop or a parts dealer.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

What are you doing to be ordering so many parts?

Well, for one, my E30 M3 cost me (up front) $3,500. I think you can make a guess as to why I bought so many E30 M3 parts. That's where the pallet loads came in.

As for the rest, well, you can see how many cars we have in the signature. Maintenance, engine swaps, etc. I have the bad habit of deciding "this would be better with that engine" a little too much.

[nick325xit 5spd]

Originally Posted by X5only

Sounds like nick325xit 5spd is a parts reseller - a repair shop or a parts dealer.

No, I just have a really expensive and foolish hobby. If I were smart, I'd have a 911. (Yes, we have one, but that's my wife's.)

[Mr.Couch]

I run one of the largest independent repairs shops on the east coast & spend 30+ thousand with BMW OEM, 18+ thousand with OE parts each month. I have not seen any specific decline in BMW OEM parts in the past 7 years at this facility. I can tell you this, with experience I know which aftermarket or OE parts to buy vs BMW OEM. Example, I have had multiple OE valve covers for M54 & N52 fail sub 1,000 miles since install & would only go with BMW OEM valve covers for any car that comes through our shop. This is just one example of hundreds but you get my point. In that same breath, for the GS7D36SG DCT transmission, URO & other OE transmission pans w/ gaskets are on par if not better than BMW OEM. I wouldn't expect most hobbyists to have the similar experience with this as someone who works at a repair facility but OE aftermarket parts should not be thrown to the side as lesser quality / value than BMW OEM.

[bcredliner]

Originally Posted by nick325xit 5spd

Well, for one, my E30 M3 cost me (up front) $3,500. I think you can make a guess as to why I bought so many E30 M3 parts. That's where the pallet loads came in.

As for the rest, well, you can see how many cars we have in the signature. Maintenance, engine swaps, etc. I have the bad habit of deciding "this would be better with that engine" a little too much.

To conclude BMW parts quality has declined with any certainty it would be necessary to do a sampling of some number of parts based on the total worldwide sales of that part.

As an example if BMW sells 100,000 of a part, the sampling generally would be 10% or 10,000 of that one part. The percentage can vary based on the reason(s) for the sampling. So if BMW sells 100,000 of the gasket you mentioned, your purchases would need to be 10,000. The gasket would have to be installed and fail. And confirmed that a comparable gasket didn't fail using the same criteria. The number of failures acceptable out of the 10,000 would be a quality control decision. Using 1% that would be 100 documented failures of the gasket you rejected and less than 100 of the gasket you did use.

[Mr.Couch]

Originally Posted by bcredliner

To conclude BMW parts quality has declined with any certainty it would be necessary to do a sampling of some number of parts based on the total worldwide sales of that part.

As an example if BMW sells 100,000 of a part, the sampling generally would be 10% or 10,000 of that one part. The percentage can vary based on the reason(s) for the sampling. So if BMW sells 100,000 of the gasket you mentioned, your purchases would need to be 10,000. The gasket would have to be installed and fail. And confirmed that a comparable gasket didn't fail using the same criteria. The number of failures acceptable out of the 10,000 would be a quality control decision. Using 1% that would be 100 documented failures of the gasket you rejected and less than 100 of the gasket you did use.

While we don't do 100,000 of a specific part per year, I can say that our amount of warranty repairs due to a part failure under the current BMW parts warranty guidelines is less than 1%.