Our cars have 199k, 220k and 125k miles. Fortunately my spouse does almost all of the repairs. (It helps to be married to someone handy when you can only afford used cars).
You can’t expect a 12 year old car over 100k miles to be repair-free for long periods of time.
Just happened to get a new battery from AAA repair (also had a coupon for free oil/filter change) they tried to sell me tires. I buy them at costco, so no thanks.
I think it was a coincidence that your fuel pump went out but I can see how it would make one wonder. I love German cars but hate how there always seems to be something expensive going wrong with them. We switched from German manufactured cars to Toyota and what a difference on what we are spending on repairs. I miss them but don’t miss the down time and costs associated with owning German cars.
I was curious, so I did a quick google search and found this post on a BMW forum:
[quote]
Fuel Pump Failure Epidemic 2012
So I have been around this forum and many of the other BMW forums and what seems to be a reoccurring theme is after about 7 years is most of the E38, E39, E46 and other similar vintage BMW’s not newer than 2006 are have failing fuel pumps at a very high rate. Probably a rate of about 100%, as I say its not if, but when!
/quote
The point being fuel pump failure is very common. I don’t think it is fair to blame your oil change for this problem, which is most likely a coincidence. The only thing I would consider would be to see if there is any site online where this particular shop is reviewed, just to see if others have had a similar experience. It is however important to be able to trust your mechanic. My guy replaced some seals to deal with an oil leak, and I brought the car home and it still leaked. So I took it back and he told me it needed a new oil pan and that would be another $600. I told him to go ahead, but when he was finished and I picked the car up he told me no extra charge because when he went back in he saw it was something he had done with the seal replacement, and the oil pan was not the problem. So I do trust the guy.
That would be crazy overkill for what is likely a coincidence. I’m sure OP has better ways to spend his/her time–like comparison shopping for the cost of the repair, perhaps.
No, its not at all"crazy overkill", though it depends on what she says and how she handles it. If she felt there was something not legit, speaking to the manager is the first step, to see if they would satisfy her (adjust the price of the subsequent repair, offer free upcoming services, should she trust them to touch her car, or what have you). If the Manager is unkind or does not satisfy her, reaching out to corporate would be the next step. There is nothing out of line with any of this. Its standard protocol if she feels she was not treated fairly or correctly of is dissatisfied with the service. Thats where a comment on yelp or their facebook page or what have you can sometimes be effective. Again, not rude or distasteful, but a simple “my vehicle required a large/expensive repair/would not start 5 minutes after leaving the repair shop. Spoke with management who did not treat me with the customer service I expect”, etc. There are employees hired to monitor social media and address these concerns. It can be a very GOOD use of time and very effective. I speak from experience.
Thank you all for such helpful ideas. The manager is female and I didn’t yell and scream but explained the situation. She just said that they are good usually for 60,000 miles so considering the car has 110,000 miles on it the solution was to replace it. I went to them this morning again and she had the day off so I spoke with someone else about my concerns. They refunded me 15% off my bill and told me that if there were any problems I was covered for 24,000miles/2 years. for work done. The labor was about $250 and the part a little under $500. I sure could have used the money for other important things that I had been putting off. I have gone to CarMax in the past as I had purchased the car from them and had an extended warranty up to 90,000 miles. Now that the warranty is over the issue with other repair centers is the length of warranty on the repairs. Right now it is cheaper to maintain this car instead of buying a new one but it is expensive and a hassle to maintain it. When it works it drives beautifully though.(except in snow) The AAA car care center is convenient but paying for expensive repairs makes my heart drop to my stomach. Just spent my holiday shopping money on repairs.
Good job. A civil conversation or 2 led to a 15% refund. $112.50 refund? Good job! Not at all “crazy overkill” (thats hyperbole, IMO) but successful negotiation. Bravo!
@jym626, I agree that the scenario you describe is generally useful for an unsatisfactory experience with a retail business, but in this case I just don’t see how having a part fail on an old car right after an oil change falls in that category. Posters in the know here (I’m not one of them) suggest the two things were unrelated and that OP was lucky not to have had to replace the part much earlier. I’m sure the service center gave the refund, a relatively trivial amount for that kind of business, to avoid a hassle and retain a regular customer, not because it had any responsibility for the problem, and that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean OP was entitled to the money or had any reason to escalate matters if the refund hadn’t been forthcoming. I certainly understand the feeling of suspicion every time one is told that a costly car repair is needed–it’s such a blind item for the consumer (and the reason why my cars are now all three-year leases that end before things start to break)–but that doesn’t mean OP’s particular situation deserved remediation or warranted an escalating series of actions. Merely “feeling” cheated is really not enough.
Perhaps the 2 incidents were coincidental, and perhaps something happened accidentally during the repair. Probably the former but the OP didn’t know and was understandibly concerned. She’s not a mechanic. Neither are you or I. She expressed her concern in her OP and asked what people would or what she should do. She did the right thing to speak with the manager about her concerns. Perhaps you can’t identify because you lease cars every 3 years, but the OP’s concern for the coincidental experience was understandible and she handled it appropriately and successfully. The suggestion to talk to the manager is reasonable, and if the manager had not been reasonable or appropriate, expressing her concern to higher ups or on social media is also not unreasonable. I had concerns about how something was handled with our former natural gas provider. I knew I was right and I was frustrated with what happened. Ended up posting a polite post expressing my disappointment on their facebook page. Immediately got a response and was able to talk to someone and explain the series of their errors to someone who looked into it, agreed that I was right, and rectified it immediately. It wasn’t “crazy overkill”. It was successful problem resolution. And if the person had not agreed that I was right, there was still satisfaction giving honest feedback on line and expressing my disappointment with their customer service folks. So its all good. You seem to have leaped to an erroneous conclusion that someone said she should have escalated matters if a refund wasn’t forthcoming. No one said that. She could have esclalated matters if she felt she was not treated well or fairly. Most management/owners want to know that.
Speaking from experience, when you have old/high mileage cars, you have to be aware that unexpected repairs can happen thus it would be wise to budget for that so you don’t have to go without holiday gifts.
60,000 miles for a fuel pump seems so low to me. We have an '00 Tacoma with a little over 300k miles that still has the original pump in it! Toyota overengineers the crap out of their trucks. It’s great though.
20 min. labor and $160 for the part. People won’t like to hear that, but facts are facts.
Of course, blackmail attempts are much less likely to get traction at honest businesses.
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@JustoneDad Thanks for your advice. They did charge me a lot for labor and parts. How do you get around that? I would think the bmw dealer would have charged a lot more. What questions would you ask on a future repair to save money? @fractalmstr You have a car with 300,000 miles?
Is there a reason you’ve kept it that long? I didn’t think any car was built to last that long.
I am going to have to do some research and see how much I can sell this car for. I would like to get something affordable with good mileage. Perhaps I should look into leasing. Nothing fancy. I have had a Camry and a Honda civic before but I can’t spend a lot of money. So I need to look for an affordable option. It seems Toyotas and Honda’s have been having quite a bit of recalls lately.
When I originally posted it was after having spent all day at the shop and I was drained. That and having spent all that money for a car repair just had my head spinning. I am feeling better now and praying I don’t have to go to the repair shop anytime soon. This past year I have spent about $5000 on this cars maintenance. Most of it was wear and tear.
“60,000 miles for a fuel pump seems so low to me. We have an '00 Tacoma with a little over 300k miles that still has the original pump in it! Toyota overengineers the crap out of their trucks. It’s great though.”
The original water pump in that 3-series had a plastic impeller which would sometimes disintegrate or explode. I believe it was later replaced with a metal impeller so replacement is a good thing. That generation of 3-series (the E46) is really special and despite the repairs I hope the OP is enjoying her car. When taken care of it’s way nicer than anything else available on the used market in the same price range.
Back to the OP, I think I paid around $400-$500 to my local BMW specialist to replace my fuel pump back in 2010, so $700 is on the steep side.
Requires some knowledge and basic tools.
It’s hard to imagine that the company dealership could mark it up any more than your shop did, but maybe “fuel pump replacement” sounds complicated.
@raclut We just haven’t had a need to get rid of it. It’s paid off and has been very, very low maintenance. Mostly, it works great for picking up lumber etc. for the house, and towing.
In the 15 years we’ve owned it, only had to replace a rear wheel bearing and oxygen sensor!
Toyota, Honda, or Subaru would be best if you want low maintenance costs and reliability. Even with the recalls, they all make great cars.