Well, almost. Checking in with update #3, after purchase in September, 2020 at just under 11,000 miles; 39,000 miles in November 2021, and 72,000 miles in December, 2022. We are at 97,353 miles now.
We haven’t had any repairs or problems since the last update, and there was little to report at that time as well. This car has been quite trouble- and repair-free aside from the electric power steering rack being replaced under warranty right after my purchase. So there, I have probably jinxed it now. And as we all know, I am not in the “high risk” age or mileage range yet.
Aside from tires, wiper blades and oil changes, I have not incurred any other out of pocket maintenance or repair costs, besides what we delve into here. Still on the factory brake pads and rotors, which is unusual for a BMW at 100,000 miles in my experience. The regenerative braking of a hybrid figures into that, I’m sure.
If you read Kyree’s recent great post about his 2008 Lexus LS600h, maybe some dark mechanical days lurk around the corner for me if I keep the car long enough.
My car was built November 21, 2017 in Dingolfing, Germany, so the infotainment, hybrid system, air suspension, power seats, power side and rear sunshades, four-zone climate control, massaging front seats, pano roof with two power sunshades, soft close doors, power trunk lid, and other fiddly bits are now over six years old. A lot to go wrong, in other words.
But everything still works as intended, with no strange sounds, lights, leaks, or behaviors. I am well out of the 4-year, 50,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty coverage at this point. The various hybrid components were covered for 8 years or 80,000 miles. That’s over too, so I am on my own.
Being a plug-in hybrid, fuel mileage varies according to whether you are in town, plugging in or not, or on a highway trip where it’s mostly gasoline use. I continue to see a “long term” average of 42 mpg or so. I achieved 52.1 mpg on my last tank of mostly in-town driving. I have a Level 2 charger in my garage and always plug it in, so a lot of my in town miles are all electric, even with the small range this older model has. Although the gas tank barely holds 12 gallons, you don’t have to stop for gas often.
In looking over the Charging History on the BMW app on my phone, I hit about 270 kWh of charging each month by plugging in. The dash readout says I average 2.5 miles per kWh, so about 675 miles of electric driving per month from the grid. In addition to that, I have regenerative charging even when you don’t plug in.
My last oil change was 9/12/23 at 88,658, and I have driven 8,300 miles give or take since then, in three and a half months. So, about 2,300 miles, or 27% have been electric from the grid, and then some regenerative-powered miles on top of that. One-third of all my miles are electric on average, I’d say.
On a recent 200 mile interstate trip from the South Carolina coast back to my house, I filled up with gas at the start, which always automatically resets the “electric miles per tank” trip meter. I had 0% battery charge at the fill up. When I arrived home, I had covered 30 electric miles, to give you an idea of how regeneration still makes quite a contribution.
I usually select “EcoPro” mode every time I start the car (a button conveniently beside the shifter). This makes the gas engine shut off more often, and you start off in 2nd gear like an old Mercedes. Upshifts come quickly, and the car wants to get into 8th gear and stay there (it usually hits 4th gear by the time you cross a large intersection). The undersquare gas engine likes this, as it delivers its maximum torque down at 1,550 rpm. I find I get noticeably more miles per tank using EcoPro consistently.
For the opposite effect, you can pull the gearshift towards you to activate Sport mode, which keeps the gas engine on at all times, even when stopped at a light. You start off in 1st, gear upshifts are held quite a bit longer, and it tops out at 6th gear instead of 8th. The car is surprisingly peppy in this mode. It acts like a “normal” BMW in this setting.
I changed the oil shortly after the December 2022 post, at 77,500 miles. The next change oil message came up at 88,500 miles, and I used the same Castrol Edge Euro ACEA 0w30. The oil level was still snug up against “full” on the dash readout after 11,000 miles. The change interval varies, but is usually 9,500 to 11,500 miles in the time I have owned it. Right now, it is calling for a change at 99,300 or a 10,800 mile interval.
I also tackled a few other jobs, which were a little more involved than I planned. The work underneath the car was made possible (or less terrible) with the lift at the GOAL garage I wrote about.
I changed the transfer case fluid, in a way. This is a “lifetime” fluid, and there is just a fill plug. If you want to change it, you have to siphon it out as best you can.
This lets you reach up behind the crossmember to the transfer case fill plug.
I had to buy a special tool to reach the 14mm hex fill plug (about $35 from FCP Euro), as there is a support crossmember in the way, preventing a regular socket and wrench from accessing the plug.
Here you can see the exhaust blocks removal of a bolt about 12 inches long, that goes through the crossmember, the transfer case, and into the transmission housing.
The “official” way to access the fill plug is to remove the crossmember, but that involves first dropping the exhaust, so I wasn’t about to get into all that on my own.
Various online videos from reputable sources (such as FCP Euro, which posts great DIY videos) stated because of the design of the transfer case, you probably can only remove about half of the 1L capacity at a time. Still, better than doing nothing at all. I got that out of it, maybe a bit more. Filling is pretty easy, just pump in the correct DTF1 fluid until it starts running back out.
Now that I have the correct “cheat” tool, I’ll do the partial change every now and then. The fluid that came out was solid black; the new Ravenol DTF1 is clear, with a slight yellow tint.
A ZF filter/pan kit, with new bolts, 8 liters of ATF and a fill plug included, was about half the cost of just a BMW filter/pan kit.
I changed the transmission fluid and filter, finally, after a couple of false starts. I gathered the needed replacement pan (the filter is an integral part of the plastic pan) and fluid. However, the fill plug is on the side of the transmission, very close to the transmission tunnel wall of the car. There is no room to use an 8mm hex socket wrench, or a traditional hex key either.
This same ZF 8 speed transmission is used in countless other cars, and in most instances (including the BMW 3 and 5 series), online videos shown you have more room to access the fill plug. I don’t know if this is because of the floorpan design of the 7 Series, or because I have the hybrid version of the transmission. The 111 horsepower electric motor is inside the transmission housing, and my filter pan is a different part number than a nonhybrid 7 Series with the ZF.
This lets you reach up between the floor pan and transmission to the fill plug. There is a hole at the bottom for a 3/8″ drive socket wrench for extra leverage.
After a lot of online searching, I finally found an aftermarket tool to reach this fill plug, for “all makes using ZF 8 speed hybrid transmissions”. Maybe it is an issue in other cars with this hybrid transmission as well, such as the 4xe Jeeps. About $50 plus shipping from baumtools.com, but the job is impossible without it.
With a 3/8 drive wrench attached for leverage.
BMW says the transmission fluid is “lifetime”, but ZF recommends fluid and filter changes every 60,000 miles. I felt OK with waiting until 88,500 miles with the mostly highway use my car sees, but I might lean towards doing it again in 70,000 miles or so, if I still have the car.
The old transmission fluid was dark like coffee, but not black, and it still smelled fine too. The new ZF-approved Liqui Moly transmission fluid (1/2 the price of the BMW labeled transmission fluid), like the DTF-1, was clear with a slight yellow tint. There was no debris or “slime” in the old pan. The plastic drain plug is one-time use; you have to replace the filter/pan if you drain the transmission.
You pump the fluid back in, until it runs out. You then run the car on a lift and shift slowly through the gears until the fluid reaches 90 degrees Celsius or so. I have a code reader which gives live data, including transmission temperature. After that, you remove the fill plug again (which is very close to the now hot exhaust). If fluid comes out, let the excess drain and then you’re done. If no fluid comes out, pump a little more in until it overflows. My car took about another half liter.
BMW/Mini low profile on top, Mercedes-Benz low profile on bottom.
I also changed the spark plugs, which was easy once I bought the right socket. I had a “low profile” spark plug socket from working on former Mercedes-Benzes, but it would not go down the spark plug tube. I needed an “even lower” profile socket for recent BMW’s and Mini’s. It was a pretty slick tool with a strong magnet to hold the spark plug, about $11 on Amazon.
The old plugs looked pretty meh after 88,500 miles. The factory plugs were NGK’s from Japan, and the new BMW packaged plugs I bought from a BMW dealer were Champions from France. They are both iridium plugs, and BMW recommends changing them every sixth oil change, or about 60,000 miles. That seemed a little excessive to me, but now that I see the difference compared to new, maybe not.
New on the left, after 88,500 miles on the right.
I noticed the strap as well as the electrodes on the NGK’s were quite a but shorter than the Champions, which I assume is from wear? Anyone know if straps wear like that?
After removing the plastic engine cover, and the top sound blanket. As you can see, the small four cylinder engine is almost under the cowl, leaving a lot of room in the bay.
Access was very easy with the inline four cylinder engine, and they came out fine despite being past the recommended lifespan. The gas engine indeed seems to start quicker and quieter with the new plugs (it goes on and off a lot with the hybrid setup), though that may also be in my head.
I was surprised to see the coils were made by “Eldor”, an Italian brand (Elettronica d’Orsenigo) I was not familiar with. A BMW tuning article I found says BMW used Bosch when they went to coil-on-plug ignitions in 2003, but then changed to Delphi (which my 2007 S550 had), and then Eldor in 2015. They are all pretty interchangeable but the Eldors put out more voltage, last longer, and are a popular replacement for the older coils.
The last two items were the engine air filter, and the cabin filters. The engine air filter was very difficult to find. After consulting a number of online sources, I finally ordered from a BMW dealer online……and THEY had to special order it from BMW. It is different from the other 7 Series, and also different from the 330e and 530e which use generally the same drivetrain.
I forgot to take pictures of this, but installing it required removing the plastic shroud above the radiator support, so that you could remove a metal reinforcement bracket, just to get the air cleaner open. It is a shame BMW (and other makes) don’t make their cars more serviceable.
The cabin filters (there are two) are easily available, and rockauto.com has many to choose from. I did order them from the dealer when I was ordering the engine air filter, and they were not much more than a name brand from rockauto.com.
As cabin filters go, they are pretty easy to access. Like many cars, they are on the passenger side, behind the glovebox. The trim panel on the underside of the passenger dash drops down with a twist of two tabs, then the filter door has two torx screws. I am at the stage of life where I could not see what I was doing well, with or without reading glasses. It’s the perfect distance for blurriness either way.
The direction of the air seems counterintuitive; glad I paid attention to how the old ones came out. The airflow is towards the firewall, as opposed to towards the interior of the car. There are arrows printed on the filters, but I also took note of which side the debris was on for confirmation.
One indispensable thing for DIY servicing has been this box of replacement clips, about $20 for the whole box from Amazon. There are plastic clips and panels seemingly everywhere you have to remove for routine servicing and even checking the brake fluid. The BMW clips seem weak even though they are intended to be reusable, so having some substitutes on hand is a must.
The Pirelli Cinturato P7 tires (a “grand touring” tire) I put on at about 59,000 miles lasted longer than the prior Pirelli PZero (an Ultra High Performance or UHP tire) all season tires that were used up after 31,000 miles. At 97,000 miles, or after 38,000 miles of wear, they weren’t quite to the wear bars but I replaced them with the Yokohama ADVAN Sport A/S+, another “UHP” tire.
I’ve never had Yokohamas before, but there are good reviews on this particular tire, and I got a Black Friday online deal on them at Discount Tire, about $700 for a set of four out the door.
The other options bouncing around in my mind were the Kumho Majesty 9 Solus for about $600 out the door (a BMW driving friend at the garage likes his), or another set of Pirellis for $1200, so the Yokohamas seemed like a good compromise worth trying. So far, I like the way they ride and handle but they seem to be slightly noisier than the Pirellis.
I don’t know if the all wheel drive contributes to even tire wear, but the tires on this car wear very evenly, more so than about any other car I have had (both inside to outside across the tread face, and overall tread depth). At almost 100,000 miles, I have not had it aligned a single time, either.
After a couple of no-shows by other companies, I had a paintless dent removal person work on the dent in the hood. I wrote last year about some debris on the interstate causing this shallow dent, about 4 inches long, near the hood emblem. It wasn’t super noticeable to the casual observer, but it bugged the heck out of me.
I would post side by side “before and after” shots, but the dent was really hard to capture in a photo. The results were pretty amazing, though. $200, a lot of light hammering, and 45 minutes later, the aluminum hood positively looked like new.
That’s what 30 more years of age will do! Someone’s 1987 BMW L7 project car, behind the GOAL garage.
I’m keeping a close eye on three common BMW problems. First, the valve cover gasket is a common leak point (easy enough to fix).
Second, the water to oil intercooler which is part of the oil filter assembly on the driver side of the engine, will (a) hairline crack and result in an oil leak, or coolant leak, or both, or (b) the gasket between the housing and the engine will leak. Fortunately, they don’t typically fail in a way that causes a mixing of oil and coolant.
Third up is a difficult to see engine coolant hose connector under the intake manifold, which tends to leak.
So far, all three areas are bone dry on my car, and these issues tend to surface by 60,000 miles, if they happen at all. Extreme heat seems to be a contributing factor. Also, overtightening the oil filter over time can cause the housing to hairline crack (another reason to avoid quick oil change places).
The Singapur Grey (Singapore Grey) paint, an “M” package only color, gets a lot of compliments from strangers, this view shows how it looks more silver-blue in direct sunlight.
I’m pretty relaxed in my driving style (Yacht Rock on SiriusXM is one of my favorite stations if that tells you anything) and probably reach lower underhood temps than a lot of BMW’s with four cylinder turbos. Perhaps the extra dead space under the hood of a four cylinder G11/G12 7 Series, which has room for a turbo V12 (as in the 760i, talk about some heat!), helps keep temperatures down.
I’m watching the new 2024 750e plug in hybrid with great interest. No way I would pay for one new ($115,000+), but if I can find a low mileage off-lease example in a few years at half (or less) of new MSRP, like I did with the 740e, it would be tempting. The 750e has an all electric range of 34 miles, twice the range of mine, out of a 14.4 kw battery (about 60% larger than the 740e).
The 750e weighs almost 1,000 pounds more than the already Rubenesque 740e (5,635 versus 4,740), however. Seems like the 750e might be past the point of diminishing returns, increasing the appetite for tires, as well as somewhat defeat the economy gains of the improved PHEV drivetrain.
That’s all to report for now, we’ll check back in another year!
These modern German cars are an absolute tour-de-force of engineering, and must be amazing to own for the first three warrantied years of their life, but everything about this article screams of the danger of long-term ownership. I respect and admire you for putting in the effort to keep this car in tip-top condition, and I’m sure it’s very rewarding to drive and own. But depreciation is the killer here.
Keeping one of these in good fettle is clearly an expensive business, and while the car is worth $30,000 that’s not a problem, but once it’s down to $5000 and those bills keep on coming, it gets harder and harder to justify, which is why these will be a very rare car in 20 years time.
I think it’s very likely that you’ve found the sweet spot of this car, and your plan of looking at a 750e as they come off lease may be the best way to go – keep this one for just long enough to cash in a some meaningful value and then rinse and repeat with a newer similar model.
I guess you don’t buy a big luxurious BMW if you’re looking for cheap motoring, so you have to take the rough with the smooth.
Definitely agree on all points! I bought this car for $53,990.00 and webuyanycar (who I have had good luck with, by the way) recently offered me $24,500.00. That works out to $0.34 per mile depreciation for the 86,000 miles I have driven, which is pretty good for this type of vehicle, and of course way better than new. If I put 200,000 miles on it and assuming it is worth $3,500.00 in another five years, that’s about 25 cents per mile depreciation. There are cheaper cars out there, but I’m happy with that. If it makes it.
“That’s all to report for now.” Pretty funny.
I’m new to the thread, GOAL? What does that mean?
All I could think reading through this comprehensive report is imagine driving a car of this type, vintage and mileage for probably less than a Toyota Camry of similar vintage and mileage. Simply amazing.
Good luck on the road ahead, I hope you haven’t jinxed yourself.
Sorry, GOAL = Garage of a Lifetime. It’s a prior article I wrote here. I participate in a group rental garage, for $75.00 a month I can use the lift, tools, indoor and outdoor work spaces, etc.
Thank you for the response. A very informative and entertaining read.
Wow, is this some sort of German propaganda? I mean, we all know that a 6 year old 100K German vehicle, especially a fancy 7 series BMW will absolutely self-destruct the day after the warranty expires, causing the hapless owner to lose tens of thousands of dollars in expensive repairs, and yet here we have a fantastic (fantasy?) story about a trouble-free large German sedan that averages 42 mpg with only routine maintenance and still looks like new. This does not compute.
It’s more that it’s kind of like roulette, which is also similar to owning an American car but the parts are a lot more expensive. I know a couple of people who put big miles on 5 series BMW’s with little trouble, but I also know of people who had a dealer serviced 3 series and engine failure at less than 60k miles (N20). Same story with Audi, some times fine some times not. My favorite was a guy that had the climate control system on his A8 die at 75k miles and tried to blame it on a fender bender under insurance when he saw the 6k bill to fix it.
Roulette is an apt word! The N20 4 cylinder has some issues, particularly the timing chain and guides. The N20 really wants regular oil changes and using 0w30 or 0w40, instead of the 0w20 BMW started recommending with the 2016 model year. Our 2015 328i GT COAL has that engine, and we have had no issues coming up on 80,000 miles, being driven by my two boys through high school and college. So, some pretty rough miles. I have changed it about every 7,000 miles using only 0w30 or 0w40.
My wife drives an X5 plug-in hybrid, which is our main family car for long-distance driving. It is an absolute dream on the highway, and it performed very well while still under warrantee. Since then, we’ve had 2 major, very expensive repairs. The second one came after a complete loss of power in one of the worst places imaginable: The Eisenhower Expressway on the west side of Chicago. I think our next car will be a Toyota.
Would you care to briefly identify/describe the two major repairs out of warranty? Might help me know what to look out for if nothing else!
76VDubber – My 750Li drove far better (livelier) than either of my Lexus LSs, but you simply cannot beat Toyota reliability and lack of hassle. I didn’t use the word QUALITY because the “quality” of the Bavarian Wonders I have owned (and currently own) is exceptional. But they WILL eventually hurt you deeply in a way the Toyota products simply never do. For many folks, that wonderful way they drive is worth that.
Durability and reliability are just different (and imo more important) measures not quality. I could care less about leather, wood and gizmos.
As the owner of a ’22 X5 PHEV, I would also like to know. Thankfully, it’s under warranty.
Thanks for the update! I’m glad to hear that things are going well with the 740e. It’s more car than I’d want, but that’s solely a matter of personal preference. It’s quite an attractive vehicle and it’s good to hear that it’s been treating you well. It’s also good to hear that you’re handling your own maintenance. That’s the secret to keeping one of these cars past warranty. That shouldn’t be a secret, and yet it seems to be to the general public.
In that regard, it also sounds like you’re on the right path for wringing out as much life as you wish from this car. As long as (as you obviously know) change the “lifetime” fluids on a schedule that equates to what you’d do on a car that the manufacturer doesn’t declare to have “lifetime” fluids, you’ll keep stuff like the transmission in good order. Your oil and plug changes seem in line with what one would do on any other car (particularly a hybrid or any car with continual starts and stops of the engine). I think that 4cyl engine is pretty tried and true technology for BMW by now, so that shouldn’t give you any problems for a good long while.
And for those who want to use your description of special wrenches and such to do things like changing the fluids and plugs to launch on “complex” German machines…I say BAH! (ok, I will admit to some bias 😉 ) ALL modern cars require specialized tools, diagnostic equipment (computers), and such. And as we know, packaging on modern cars forces a lot of compromises as far as access. I have a Toyota that requires me to remove the intake manifold in order to change 1/2 of the spark plugs. Compared to that, having to have a thin-walled socket to change the plugs on my BMW is a piece of cake.
Great article, Happy Motoring! 🙂
The lifetime-oil thing, says I drily, appears to corelate with that of the average person who has about a warranty left to live, or four years, whichever is less.
Great story! Back in my younger years, I used to do all my own maintenance on my cars. Now that I’m old, all I do is check the air in the tires!
Putting a lot of miles on the car. Tires are a funny thing when I have gone out of my way to buy “better” tires I’m usually disappointed. Whereas I have often bought Kumho, Yokohama, and General tires based on price and come away much happier. At this point it’s happened so many times that I think midpriced tires are often better than the more expensive ones.
I agree. I usually buy the best tire I can find at a price I am comfortable with, which is usually $800 a set or less. The last set of Pirellis, I only had because I found them online at a really good discount. I have been the most happy overall with Toyos I have used on other cars. Toyos seem to perform above their price point, but looking forward to seeing if the Yokohamas do as well.
The LS 600h L you mentioned continues to be an issue, not because of the battery pack (which has been replaced), but rather because of the finicky suspension, which has a thirst for OEM parts. It’s not a cheap car to own, and really, no fourth-gen LS is. More importantly, the reason the LS 600h Ls all seem to need battery replacements is that they don’t get driven enough. It’s less of a problem for people who buy a Prius or ES 300h or RX 450h and actually drive the dang thing. My car is ten years older than your 740e and only has 20K more miles. I suspect that if you keep piling the miles on yours, it’ll last. But even so, the battery chemistry is different than what’s in your 740e.
This is also encouraging, because I still have the 2022 X5 xDrive45e. It’s now two years old (bought new in November 2021) and has 30,000 miles. It uses an I6 instead of an I4 and is more an analog to the 745e that came later…but the same principles apply. I’m averaging 40 MPG in aggregate at this point and getting an honest 30 miles of EV range between recharges, which is really good for a 5,600-lb crossover. Brake wear is minimal. I will definitely change the transfer case and transmission fluids around 50K miles, just to be on the safe side. But I’m happy your BMW PHEV experience has been so good; I’m hoping mine is, too.
Oh, and I am not putting the OEM run-flats back on mine, which will likely need to be replaced at around the 40K-mile mark. They’re too noisy. I’ll be looking for a tire that’s quiet and long-wearing. I don’t care if I don’t have a spare tire well because of the battery; I’ll risk it.
If you go with the non run flats (as I have), you can get a BMW “mobility kit” for about $150 on Amazon et al. A 12v pump with a tire sealant built in, to get you to a tire shop. I have one in the trunk.
That is a good point. I’ll do that.
I’m one of those old guys that grumble about all the “technology” in newer cars. I had a lot of old fashioned cars in my youth. The problem is, that just about every new car, at almost every price level is full of tech. All that tech makes them better cars, more fuel efficient, more comfortable, safer and more convenient. And this goes back more than ten years. If you want something with minimal electronics you have to go back pretty far, further back then most people would be comfortable with. I’ve had “stone ax” type vehicles and they won’t make many people happy when used as a daily driver.
The problem with factory “lifetime” fluids is that many people would like a longer lifespan! The automakers consider the “lifespan” to be the duration of the original buyer’s tenure. Like lubed for life suspension components, “dex cool extended life coolant,” lifetime transmission fluid, long life spark plugs, and excessively long oil change periods, it means less time in the shop for the original buyer, but it might not be the best thing for the long term health of the vehicle.
My newest vehicle is a ’17 model with low mileage. I spent an hour and a half at the Lincoln dealer checking out the range last week. While I think that the cars are nice, they have so much complicated stuff I find it hard to believe that they will be intact and running 15-20 years from now. Actually I would wonder about the functioning of all the electrical goodies.
My son bought a Tesla last year, and I thought that it might be best to lease such a complicated vehicle. That might be the best route, this way you will never have to deal with an older high tech vehicle.
I wonder if “Lifetime” is actually defined anywhere in the manufacturer’s literature. It would seem that someone could take them at their word, never change it, and then when the component failed due to the wearing out of that fluid, potentially file a claim against the manufacturer based on their own verbiage. Likely to be potentially “profitable” only if one was a lawyer themselves. The fact that in this case ZF calls for fluid changes but the manufacturer says “Lifetime” would seem to indicate some sort of potential avenue for that. But I’m no lawyer and it likely does clearly say somewhere what a “lifetime” is.
The flipside to the overall “tech” argument though is that there is a whole generation perfectly comfortable with the tech with no desire to go backward. There are MANY people, not all actually young’uns, that are perfectly comfortable with plugging a laptop into their car and modifying/fixing/troubleshooting things, many (most?) of whom would have no idea where to start if faced with a carburetor rebuild. I have no idea how much it would cost to have a carburetor rebuilt by someone who knows what they are doing, reinstall it, make sure it’s working properly, and then perhaps troubleshoot whatever else may be wrong. The stone ax goes blunt too, if one grew up with stone axes you’d know what to do, if you grew up with Ceramic blades and carbon fiber handles or chainsaws one would perhaps be more skilled in the maintenance of that tech instead…
The junkyards are full of cars that have not been crashed but something likely made them uneconomical to repair. MOST of those cars these days have significantly over 100k miles on the clock, usually closer to 200k, whereas the conventional wisdom used to be not that long ago that 100k miles meant a car was pretty much done. Electronic boxes may go bad and whatnot yet often it’s as simple as diagnosing which went bad, spending some time in an online forum with a list of symptoms, and finding another component (often in the junkyard from an identical car that still has theirs) and plugging that one in, if it doesn’t work use the 30day warranty and find another. It’s far more likely that cars in the junkyard had their engines break due to timing belts (or timing chains and their tensioners) breaking or that the transmission died, both repairs often well beyond the ability of the average owner to source a replacement or perform the repair themselves, and often an exorbitant charge at a dealer or mechanic, never mind whatever else may really need fixing as well at whatever age the car is at. And those are the “normal” things such as engine and transmission that for the most part haven’t materially changed in decades. Yes there are CVTs and there are other fancy transmissions, yet normal Dodge minivan transmissions still go out regularly well before the end of the rest of the van or even within the warranty period, BMW and Audi automatics often had serious issues getting to 100k miles two decades ago when behind a V8, etc., the “old tech” wasn’t much better if at all.
That said, it does border on ridiculous that something like an air filter is not easily replaceable by an owner without a myriad of tools and some dexterity, that doesn’t just go for BMW, plenty of more pedestrian vehicles are not as simple as they could be either in that regard as well as many other aspects.
The picture is of a junked 1997 BMW 740iL with its ZF transmission in the backseat. The car was otherwise fairly complete. A fancy transmission in its day, stone age today, and still not cheap to fix. The extra legroom likely came in handy when manhandling that thing into the backseat for its last ride in comfort.
Your son’s Tesla has a 4yr 50k miles bumper to bumper warranty, and most things EV related are at least 8/120 and I believe the battery is covered for 10/150 if the car is in California. No non-EV/battery car that I am aware of has a better warranty. I doubt he’ll have it that long even if he did buy it so minimal worries there and a lease doesn’t change anything beyond not having to trade it or sell if yourself instead of just handing it back at the end of a defined term.
I’m hoping that a smart lawyer will one day bring the manufacturers to account for the blatant scam of “sealed for life”. Absolutely any transmission repairer of repute will tell you to change such oils on a fairly regular, use-dependent basis, amounting for most folk to not more than about 30 or 40K miles. The black stuff extracted by importamation here tells the same tale.
The car industry never seems to learn that if you don’t do the right thing, some committed consumer WILL eventually take action, and from that action, regulation will follow to enforce it into the future (regulation they’ll then complain about and spend boatloads lobbying against).
Bah, who am I kidding? VW dieselgate, and the rest who followed: the industry doesn’t WANT to learn. They employ actuaries. The fix – by which I mean the cold calculations of risk and reward – are already in on the day the car is released.
Your comment got me thinking about cars from say the dawn of cars until say through the 1970s…and THOSE cars for the most part weren’t expected to be on the road 15 – 20 years from when they were new. That has come up before here on CC where folks have marveled at junkyard photos from the (e.g.) 1960s and where the majority of the cars shown were only about 10 – 12 years old.
High regular maintenance requirements (lube jobs, tuneups, etc. that needed to be done once a year or more often in some cases) plus a lack of rustproofing and sometimes less than stellar build quality all conspired to take cars out of service earlier than the average car last nowadays.
So I guess my point is that that Tesla may not last more than a dozen years…but that’s hardly unusual in the grand scheme of automotive durability. It’s just that different stuff breaks now.
This is a 2 liter, right? So shouldn’t it be a 720? Seriously, I’m glad it has treated you well and the actual fuel economy is damn impressive. As a retired mechanical design engineer who had to at least think about serviceability and tool access in some of my work, the examples you show are pretty depressing. Even if the engineers don’t care about owners, they should have some regard for dealer techs.
It is a 2.0 liter, 1998 cc. I don’t know why they don’t call it a 720e. It is also an “L”, and everywhere but North America it is a 740Le on the trunk lid. But here, it is a 740e. Go figure.
BMW dropped the “L” moniker when they began exclusively selling the LWB 7 Series here. The 750d I had in Germany was an honest SWB model, and I thought it was odd and not much more useful than the 5er in terms of rear space.
Volvo did something similar. For 2017 only, we received the SWB S90, assembled in Sweden. In 2018, we began getting what is technically the LWB Chinese-built S90L, but it’s still just called the S90.
Thanks for the explanation!
Oh, dman, BMW employed some guru Egyptologist many years ago, who has had a demonic control of their nomenclature ever since. And since that ever since, no-one there who has read the Emperor’s New Clothes has been game to point out to this prognosticator that driving a car with a model i.d. so long that a careless application of the letters and symbols at Dingolfing has it running around to finish on the side of the car near the rear-door shut, does not convey prestige to any casual follower.
A 740e might well have anything from a 14 litre V22 to 2.2V.
In the doctor’s car park one day was a BMW X-somethingorother which had an amazingly long model-descriptor. {If it’s just random letters you can’t say out loud (in polite company), it’s not really a name, is it? But I digress. I’m good at that.}
I forget specifically which variety of Dingolfing’s alphabet-soup this model was. There was an M and a D in there somewhere, but the descriptor seemed to occupy about a third the width of the tailgate. But I hopped onto a well-educated FB group to ask whether this one was a real thing, or whether someone had gone overboard with the chrome letters from K-mart. Turned out it was real, and rare.
Admiration again for your guts in buying a used one of these big Euro technofests, and also for keeping them going with your own hands (by and large). And, of course, for your detailed report.
You’ve driven this Beemer a very decent distance in quite a short time, given that most folk don’t easily pile up miles like this: I wonder if the constant-use factor has helped with the lack of trouble?