
Originally Posted by
DinanM3atl
Most automakers have "lifetime" tranny fluid and diff fluid. "Lifetime" is the life of the car. Not your lifetime. If you drive your car and never change your auto tranny fluid it will break prematurely. Funny how a 1988 535i with automatic and 300,000 miles still works great.(BMW used to say change ever 30,000 miles) 2002 540i the automatic will fail between 100,000 and 120,000 miles. Only thing changed is the fluid is "lifetime" and the dealer wont even change it.
BMW uses plastic end caps on radiators. They have for 30 years. They break every 80,000 miles. They know they break. Why not make them out of aluminum? Then they won't break.
All the rubber bushings. You could use Urethane(70a) and it is only marginally stiffer(most people would never notice) and then never replace rubber bushings. Why don't they do this?
How come my 1989 325i all the interior plastic is perfect. Nothing chipped or broken or damaged. My Mom's 2001 e430 Sport Mercedes breaks interior pieces all the time.
You go to a dealer and a brand new lexus/bmw/nissan/benz all have cheaper and cheaper plastics yet the cars price inflates. Why? Because they are putting electonics in and extra bullshit. He is right. My e30 runs on 1 o2 sensor and got 34 mpg on the highway. 2.5L I-6. My m3 has FOUR of them and gets 26 if it is lucky. It has 2 cats, 2 resonators and a huge muffler. All new cars do this. It is more stuff to fail and means instead of one 100 dollar 02 I need 4 of them.
My old boss was an engineer for Mercedes Benz in Germany. Engines/trans etc they want to last. That in the mind of "most" customers is the biggest thing. Will it start and run. Past that they made parts to last a certain length of time and to a certain point. BMW and Benz used to make parts 2x where the value of X was the strength the part needed to be. Now BMW and Benz make it 1x. Thus more failures.
Sorry pal but this is just how it is. Even on a camry and accord. New ones have more stupid pointless failures then any of the old ones did. The cars that are simply cars "built to last" they put in more and more bullshit.