Mercedes could loose 10% of their parts supply a year and after 50 years, would still offer 500% greater support than BMW does right now.
Good riddance to inept baffoons
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Mercedes could loose 10% of their parts supply a year and after 50 years, would still offer 500% greater support than BMW does right now.
No doubts about it. But even they (and Porsche) are not really fully devoted to provide full spectrum of spare parts for all the cars they have produced.
The most funny thinks will start to happen for electronics as most of the components (like processors, memories but also other) are not produced for years.
All in all I prefer to struggle with E9 set of parts rather than for cars becomes classic, produced in 90's and beyond 2000.
Agree. I'm talking pure classics. Early cars. Porsche, Jaguar, Mercedes... All of them provide 20-30x the support BMW does.
BMW Ag & NA have never been attentive to supporting vintage models, although 2002 owners enjoy a certain status.
EDIT: That's odd, posted before I completed it...
EDIT: That's odd, posted before I completed it...
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Agree. Simply because the market opportunity... Not from any love of their heritage or responsibility to their patrons. Money grubbers...
@Ohmess is absolutely right.
BMW AG & NA have never been attentive to supporting vintage models, although 2002 owners enjoy a certain status. Owning, driving and servicing old German cars has always been a bit of a challenge... but parts availability for Porsche and VW are excellent. Both have large faithful marketplaces with generous stocks both vintage and reproduction, which bolsters ownership and as we have witnessed, drives vehicle values. And there are networks and similar parts houses for cars like Mercedes' W111 and 113, so generally, no worries.
On the other hand, everything from E3 to E24 stuff is getting thin; I can't imagine what it will be like in another decade. Good luck finding 1800tiLux trim.
BMW AG & NA have never been attentive to supporting vintage models, although 2002 owners enjoy a certain status. Owning, driving and servicing old German cars has always been a bit of a challenge... but parts availability for Porsche and VW are excellent. Both have large faithful marketplaces with generous stocks both vintage and reproduction, which bolsters ownership and as we have witnessed, drives vehicle values. And there are networks and similar parts houses for cars like Mercedes' W111 and 113, so generally, no worries.
On the other hand, everything from E3 to E24 stuff is getting thin; I can't imagine what it will be like in another decade. Good luck finding 1800tiLux trim.
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I got an E30 325i for my retirement gift to myself but was considering an 850 (E34?) but was afraid of driving a 20+ year old computer
Stan, I have lusted after an 850 for years but will not consider one for the reason you state. Jeff Brown in RI had a beautiful one for sale, everything redone, you may have seen it as it was voted Best of Show by the attendees at Larz a few years back (Jeff had left so they gave the award to someone else though). This was the one to buy and I did not think twice about saying no!
BMW's lack of support for their classics is a big reason why I bought a Cayenne for my DD.
From time to time I wonder if there is a market for refurbishing circuit boards from higher end old cars. When I had my analog three gun CRT for video, there were a series of standard fixes we would do - primarily replacing "leaky" capacitors with good quality Japanese capacitors, and reflowing oxidized solder joints on printed circuit boards. The resistors and ICs generally held up well. Of course, testing was extremely time consuming because you often had to remove components from the PCB to test, and once you made a repair, you were using your video projector to test. For capacitors, it was more efficient to just replace them all.
To be efficient on automotive circuit boards, you would need either detailed information of the failure points, or better yet, schematics. And you would have to develop testing procedures to test boards outside of the cars. That said, I could teach a teenager to do the work once the procedures were set up.
I have heard that there is a guy who does the e31 circuit boards, so there may be an opportunity...
The 8 is a great car for complete IC to EV conversion. Keep the looks and replace the drive. Get a nice set of speakers to play V12 music.
And where the heck would you park it?
Since we recently added an '85 M635 to the garage (newest car we've ever owned!) I sure hope so! It would seem likely since an awful lot of '80s-'90s modern classics will need them, the aforementioned 850 for example. But will EV conversions and restomods utilizing more contemporary engines with all their attendant software be more dominant? Excluding builders like Singer, Mechatronic and Icon who's products are strictly for the moneyed set, the tech is increasingly attainable by hobbyists. The future will be interesting.
I like E31 a lot! But the most I dislake to service it. I know how this car complicated is.
Good in a bad still some of the parts can be repaired which will not work for post 2010 cars.
Most of cars from 90's (not only German) like to have a ghosts and gremlins which are appearing unexpectedly. I would not like to stop in the middle of the road or during speeding. It can be lethal.
Even for E31 suspension or engine parts are facing extiction. So far there is nooone making any copies or retrofits for e.g. electronic throttle. This car is as nice as a ticking bomb. She can be held in oxygen tent under voltage.
Chris, I'm repairing electronics in BMW from 80's for years for friends. I can tell it is still for repair and can be copied or replaced.
I'm making some boards by myslf.
Wires are not the right way to repair.
All never BMW electronics (including E30) is protected with isolation lack which is nothing more than just PITA.
My newest BMW I would like to stay for years is E30. Simple, durable and handy. Older BMW are fully repairable in 98% of cases as they've been done in different technologies.
Today even aluminum casting is widely used for car restoration. Just a question of cost and potential market demand.
I'm sure this private production will be growing mostly for forums and clubs to protect themselves and still have a great fun with these cars.
I have no doubts BMW will not change the course of leaving us alone with spare parts problems. But we have so many experienced people here on the forum.
my perspective is perhaps slightly different. first - porsche classic rebuilds / restores early porsche sports cars (356 / 911) as well as race cars ... and they even do it in atlanta at the PCNA headquarters. its quite cool. i was hopeful that BMW Classic would have continued to build the classic program and support us. yes, they supported more of the 2002's simply due to the production quantity. but @Ohmess is correct, M5bb worked like hell to get a new right grille and they kept giving him new dates and never delivered ... they did offer to source / sell him a high quality used part.
what our friends in the lower half of the globe notice on pricing from BMW likely has a lot to do with the function of freight costs ... something that we notice in the states vs. the prices from W+N. secondly, we don't pay the VAT that the EU members pay ... that is substantial. I have priced a lot of things for my coupe from W+N vs. through online BMW dealers parts departments. i bought from both. sometimes the parts from W+N are not from BMW ... and i tried to buy as much as i could that was correct ... even asking Albrecht if the particular part was a repop or from BMW. luckily he answered.
i am quite aware that BMW NA has been a thorn in enthusiasts sides. for instance they have fought like hell to keep e30 M3 owners from being able to buy evo 2 + evo 3 parts, since those models weren't sold in USA. just like they make it difficult to buy a CSi or CSL badge here ... they also made it hard to buy parts for grey market cars imported by individuals. they made a business decision to not support cars that they didn't ever make money selling.
the question is, how firm of a stance will BMW make to fight against 3rd party items. this will identify their true colors. i am reminded of their lawyers telling @Markos to take down the 3d print models of items they haven't sold for 30 years.
what our friends in the lower half of the globe notice on pricing from BMW likely has a lot to do with the function of freight costs ... something that we notice in the states vs. the prices from W+N. secondly, we don't pay the VAT that the EU members pay ... that is substantial. I have priced a lot of things for my coupe from W+N vs. through online BMW dealers parts departments. i bought from both. sometimes the parts from W+N are not from BMW ... and i tried to buy as much as i could that was correct ... even asking Albrecht if the particular part was a repop or from BMW. luckily he answered.
i am quite aware that BMW NA has been a thorn in enthusiasts sides. for instance they have fought like hell to keep e30 M3 owners from being able to buy evo 2 + evo 3 parts, since those models weren't sold in USA. just like they make it difficult to buy a CSi or CSL badge here ... they also made it hard to buy parts for grey market cars imported by individuals. they made a business decision to not support cars that they didn't ever make money selling.
the question is, how firm of a stance will BMW make to fight against 3rd party items. this will identify their true colors. i am reminded of their lawyers telling @Markos to take down the 3d print models of items they haven't sold for 30 years.
When I bought a 67 Mustang and noticed some dented belt time I thought, crap, that's gonna be hard to find. I found about 4 brands and tons of places to purchase. Was really suprised.
Now I am worried because I have 2 E24's that I bought a while ago. I rebuilt everything but what will be when they need parts again? I can tell you the E24 board has lots of WTB for parts NLA that just 5 years ago, were abundant and cheap.
Now I am worried because I have 2 E24's that I bought a while ago. I rebuilt everything but what will be when they need parts again? I can tell you the E24 board has lots of WTB for parts NLA that just 5 years ago, were abundant and cheap.
I'm pretty sure that beltline Mustang trim is not available from Ford. Car makers are generally only going to stock replacement parts for the time period required by law...7-10 years in most countries. The manufacturer would have to see a profit potential (or some sort of PR potential) by stocking parts for longer than that.
The aftermarket will reproduce parts for cars if there were enough of them made AND if they are popular collector cars. Cars like the 67 Mustang are candidates for reproduced parts since there were 472,000 made in that year and they are desirable cars today.
There were only 86,000 E24s made over 14 years...that's 6,100/year. Not all parts (especially trim parts) fit all years. Someone considering reproducing parts that would fit even several years of the E24 production would have to think long and hard before doing it. And if they did it, the parts would not be cheap in order to cover design, tooling and profit considerations.
The parts market for these old BMWs is what it is. Frustrating (and expensive), but in some ways it makes the hobby more interesting, and in some ways more fun.
I have one E31 850 5.4 liter it is not so bad you can fined a part easy I think E9 that I have 2 E9 it is harder to keep up than E31
Why don't we form a syndicate and approach BMW for a licence to manufacture non-OEM parts for the E9? They get a commission and don't have to chase us for IP issues. We get to drive our cars! Others see problems, I see opportunity.