Folks,

Thanks for sharing your experience on that re: my earlier post. Indeed, the whole unit needs to be replaced. Part $90, labor about 1.5 hrs. Access is really tricky, not much room to manuever but definitely a DIY job. A comment on parts. The original part was made in Germany in 1997, the replacement unit made in the Czech Republic. I am curious to see which one will last longer. It's as if these parts are deliberately design to have a short MTTF (mean time to failure). It be quite simple to have metal sliders and parts not the flimsy plastics that break. The whole mechanism went due to a tiny plastic fragment breaking off.

For years not, I have been struggling with the low quality of these cars - just as the I am with 2 BMWs that have many small problems as well. Frankly, if you look at the resale value, it's simply abyssmal. After 5 years my meticulously maintaned S70 T5 is worth no more than $12-$14K depending on the market. Of course I am keeping it for I cannot simply get a comparable car for $14 :-).

Sorry about venting but not 3 months go by with out some minor subcomponent breaking.

-JR

I had two door latches and the tailgate latch replaced in the first year under the original warranty.

Interesting that BMW sales are up a significantly and their QC seems significantly worse. Not only has Consumer Reports wihdrawn recommendations on all but the 5-series but there's this gem:

http://www.autoweek.com/search/search_display.mv?port_code=autoweek&cat_code=carnews&content_code=05803276&Search_Type=STD&Search_ID=825962&record=1

Seems there is a product cycle at work here. The poor QC leads sales to fall off, which slows down production, so QC picks up again.

Currently Consumer Reports recommends the S60 and V70, since the reliability is now up.

We usually keep our cars until they're "fully depreciated". If the value is then $1800 (Volvo) or $2000 (BMW) it really doesn't matter too much.

I've been impressed with the reliability of my wife's Honda Oddity. Apparently Fjord and BMW could learn something.

-bill d cat

Bill,

Thanks for the comments. Over the last several years, manufacturers appear to get a lot of parts from suppliers where labor costs are cheap. I am unsure if this has an impact on QC (but privately I hear a lot of comments from BMW folks that many parts are substandard; I spend a lot of time in Munich and have professinal ties to a large supplier for BMW).

I am almost under the impression that the high end cars are sort of "supposed" to be leased, 3-4 years are over, "next one, please." So for folks who wanna hang on to a car for 10 years or so, we just keep replacing small things, I guess.

Regards

-JR