The most outrageous part price - what's yours?
 

The little rectangular trim plug on the top of the lower portion of the rear hatch (there are 2 of them) - BMW list price $105.89 each!

part no. 51498256842, #10 in the diagram below

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/images/diag_9w00.jpg

Used to be like $4.

It's 2018. When things get NLA, they go up in price.....

Personally, I've replace the HP PS hose and that I was was pricey relative to thing.

I needed #10 and picked it up at the bone yard. Bobby at Strictly German in Braselton, GA gave it to me. :thumbup:

The bloody side view mirrors have always been fu*&@# expensive from bloody day one! And each and everyone I've found in the salvage yard has always been broken somehow, somewhere and somewhat and the motor already kaput - never found a perfect one.

E53 stuff hasn't been that bad for me so far compared to what the e70 parts are.

$380 to $600 for a water pump.

$380 and up for one of the hatch struts.

But $110 for a tiny plastic cover is pretty bad.

Well I need to retract the above somewhat. The $200 and up for the plastic steering angle sensor thing for the E53 is pretty ridiculous. Especially when it just needs $5 brushes replaced but there aren't any part numbers for the brushes.

Ha, yup. Been down that road twice... Outside auto dimming mirror replacements (just the glass) at a minimum of $400-500 new... To retrofit my E53 to auto folding with auto dimming would be $1000 for mechanisms, $200 for covers and $800 for glass.

Brushes are just made from "pencil lead" if you find some that are a little too big just takes a few minutes to sand them down to make fit. I did this recently when I couldn't find just brushes for my alternator. Found some for a domestic alternator with similar mount for the wire and sanded down to fit on a bench (belt) sander.

Brushes only ever go one way as they wear so they don't need micrometer precision. They also are slippery as snot by the nature of being made of lubricant. (Graphite)

BMW reviews parts pricing every month. Some of the increases are reasonable some don't seem to make any sense. I've seen as much as 100% increase from month to month. Part of the reason is the age of our vehicles which decreases the volume demand. Lower volume runs of parts increases the costs substantially. SOP is to increase price of all stock, parts already at the dealers, based on the cost of the short restocking runs.

This makes sense - I imagine this stuff is just run through a pricing model without any human review, and weird results will ensue in various areas. In some of these cases, I can't imagine they'll sell any of the part until the end of time. Not complaining, BMW does a great job supporting older vehicles (ever try to buy a trim piece for a GM car more the 7-8 years past end of production?). I just found this one particular result quite funny (the $105 1 by one-half inch plastic trim plug).