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BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

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Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#501

Post by watersb »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #412
PeterStuer wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last 4 cars were BMW. I love the way they drive, but ... I think they are optimized for the EU leasing market. 4 years, 120.000km. If you buy one for long ownership and want more out of them (they can most certainly do 400=500k km reliably), you have to take care of them from day 1. You change the maitainance schedule (which by default is set to lowering fleet lease costs and who cares beyond that), learn about an…

I never considered buying a BMW before they put out an EV (the i4, not the i3). One of the reasons is maintenance, the EV still needs some, but much less than an ICE.

I'm about to change the transmission fluid in my i3.

It's at 100k miles and there's no user-facing documentation for the procedure, as the oil lasts "for the lifetime of the vehicle".

Turns out, this particular procedure is simple.

(Other common wear items, like the suspension damper boots, or the engine mount, or the AC compressor, or a set of tires every 12000 miles ... it adds up.

The i3 was a cheap acquisition. Doesn't drive like a BMW, but apparently it wears like one.)

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#502

Post by slaw »

harrall wrote: post #414
Joker_vD wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But have you ever tried to make something you built to easy to maintain? There is still a difference between e.g. Lada 2104 which, while admittedly having some strange fastening designs, was relatively straight-forward do (partially) disassemble and reassemble, and e.g. modern Fords where you can't to take the lights off of your trunk door without fully disassembling it first. Even better, the exact jigsaw puzzle o…

Ford seems to regularly re-design some sometimes-major part of their vehicles every model year, for better or worse. Some model years are banger and others are just a failed experiment, but you do get newer advancements. Compare that with Toyota’s approach and it’s just small tweaks. It’s reliable, parts are standard, and they’ve had the chance to really dial things in but altogether it feels dated in some ways. And…

> reuse parts down to the ancillary components of a vehicle, from the battery packs to the heat pumps and motors inside the car seats

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-byd-jon-mcneill-chines...

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#503

Post by [deleted] »

CrimsonRain wrote: post #494
jacquesm wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Often the cars fail official inspections because of rotten br[e]ak[e]s - this happens when your drive carefully and the Tesla is using regenerative breaking instead of the real br[e]ak[e]s. That's something that they should have taken into consideration when designing the car.

It is not a big deal. Just burnish it once every few months when it makes high pitched sound during low speed braking. https://service.tesla.com/docs/Public/diy/model3/en_us/GUID-...

[deleted]

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#504

Post by TylerE »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #467
potato3732842 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much every major safety feature is an order of magnitude less meaningful than the last. If you wear a seatbelt and eschew the most risky driving behaviors your chances of getting in a crash where the difference between 2005 and 2025 matters are very, very, very, small.

I wouldn't buy a car without ESC, that's just batshit crazy, esp. if you live where there's a chance of icy roads.

Heck, even vanilla ABS wasn't required in the US market until 2012.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#505

Post by danw1979 »

psd1 wrote: post #218
ahartmetz wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>actually has a larger cargo capacity than the X1 You have just discovered that SUVs are large because some people want their cars to be large. They come with all the downsides of that and not much of the upsides.

They don't come with all the downsides. They externalise the reduced forward visibility for people behind you, the headlights spinning onto other users' cabins, the running over of toddlers, and, my favourite, the driving in the middle of the road rather than risk getting mud on their fucking tyres No tax rate is too high. Rebates for agricultural workers maybe.

In our defence we didn’t buy the car, it was inherited. I’d have sold the thing the day it arrived if it was mine.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#506

Post by seanmcdirmid »

watersb wrote: post #501
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #412

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never considered buying a BMW before they put out an EV (the i4, not the i3). One of the reasons is maintenance, the EV still needs some, but much less than an ICE.

I'm about to change the transmission fluid in my i3. It's at 100k miles and there's no user-facing documentation for the procedure, as the oil lasts "for the lifetime of the vehicle". Turns out, this particular procedure is simple. (Other common wear items, like the suspension damper boots, or the engine mount, or the AC compressor, or a set of tires every 12000 miles ... it adds up. The i3 was a cheap acquisition. D…

I heard that the i3 has some horror stories if you got the hybrid (basically a diesel engine that can produce electricity to charge your battery) or your battery had issues out of warranty. Not really sure though, everyone I've met who owns one really likes it still in 2025.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#507

Post by magicalhippo »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #506
watersb wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm about to change the transmission fluid in my i3. It's at 100k miles and there's no user-facing documentation for the procedure, as the oil lasts "for the lifetime of the vehicle". Turns out, this particular procedure is simple. (Other common wear items, like the suspension damper boots, or the engine mount, or the AC compressor, or a set of tires every 12000 miles ... it adds up. The i3 was a cheap acquisition. D…

I heard that the i3 has some horror stories if you got the hybrid (basically a diesel engine that can produce electricity to charge your battery) or your battery had issues out of warranty. Not really sure though, everyone I've met who owns one really likes it still in 2025.

I had the i3 with the upgraded headlights. Left blinker stopped working one day. Well, turns out before the upgraded headlights that would have been a quick easy bulb change. After it require replacing the entire headlight unit, a $800 part plus labor.

I decided to wait and see if I could find some other way, and in the meantime the car got hit while I was driving in a round-about. Moved the car several meters, but hardly any visible marks. The repair company wanted to fix the paint and get a new rim for the rear tire, but when I told them the car had been thrown a few meters they had a closer look and found a crack in the carbon fiber frame. And with that the car was totalled.

On the bright side, glad I hadn't just forked out the $1200 or so for a new headlight unit...

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#508

Post by cryo28 »

notjonheyman wrote: post #427
BobaFloutist wrote: post #410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a coincidence that an enormous number of rideshare/delivery drivers drive priuses though. Reliable, not too expensive, low maintenance, and high mpg is kind of exactly what you'd expect them to look for.

The only slight pain in those priuses is removing the windshield wiper assembly to get to the spark plugs closest to the firewall. It's not like they didn't have enough room in the engine bay to the left to better engineer this. But it's something that you rarely have to do. Maybe 2-3 times for the life of the car if it reaches 300k+ miles.

Being a total mechanics noob I watched a youtube video guide and did it myself to my Prius V in roughly 30 minutes. It is actually pretty easy to do. Just unscrew a couple of 10mm and 14mm bolts. I really like my prius V. it requires less maintenance that ICEs. And all the scheduled maintainance is pretty much DIY.

Also, I no longer consider any EU car brands at all. I think they wasted all their prior brand value and now buying them is simply not a smart decision.

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#509

Post by LoganDark »

SR2Z wrote: post #497
LoganDark wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't there even less in a proper BEV? You lose the benefit of being able to pay the gas tax though.

You also lose the ability to pull over virtually anywhere and refill your tank in five minutes, as well as the maintenance benefits that come from a decades-old design versus whatever software horrors are lurking in your car. To top that all off, in parts of CA electricity is now 50c/kWh, which makes it roughly equally expensive to charge an EV as it is to buy a tank of gas. I love electric cars, but there is a gap b…

The only reason to think an ICE vehicle doesn't have software horrors is if the vehicle in question is itself decades old. Practically every software horror of an EV is going to be found in modern ICE vehicles as well. In fact some of them have more horrors than some EVs. Subscription seat warmers anyone?

Re: BMW PHEV: Safety fuse replacement is extremely expensive

#510

Post by cromka »

tw04 wrote: post #488
cromka wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Carrera is not Taycan. Why would you equate both? Different cars with different targets.

> Different cars with different targets. The head of the product disagrees with you. No offense but I think he has a slightly better idea of their target buyer than you. >AW: How much was Tesla on Porsche’s mind when the Taycan was produced? It seems like you’re going right after Model S with this car. >SW: The first target for ourselves was to make sure that the Taycan becomes a Porsche. We needed to make it as clos…

They mean this as a status symbol, not as the competing vehicle? Taycan is a four door car. A daily driver. Not a two-door sports car. It would compete with Panamera, not 911. Equating the two is wrong in the context of mileage driven. See other comments for that.
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