Crazy BMW parts pricing

[Nicad]

The internet just saved me about $1000. My 2003 Wagon has an intermittent blower motor. Seeing how unseasonably cold it is, I have no choice but to deal with it. The internet has coughed up some great information on a BMW part option. It seems the Blower motor from a much newer X3 is a direct bolt on and plug in. In the US it costs $115 from Tisher, and other online dealers. In Canada at a BMW dealer they want $220, but for my old E46 they want over $1000 with taxes for basically the same part. SICK!

There is a lot of flimsy plastic in the way I came very close to breaking while getting it in, but it is now working. If I had the California version of the E46 (S56), I have read that you should drop the engine and sub frame to get to the Blower motor. I'd bet the new BMW's are even worse.

Canadians are so ripped off when it comes to buying stuff.

 

[kasbatts]

Canadians are so ripped off when it comes to buying stuff.[/QUOTE]

I'm rolling around the floor laughing
my ar#% off!

You think you got it bad, try buying here in NZ.

But yes, thank god for Internet parts shopping, don't know about Canada, but the only bum thing for us though is the freight, this can be frighteningly expensive sometimes

 

[Nicad]

Canadians are so ripped off when it comes to buying stuff.

I'm rolling around the floor laughing
my ar#% off!

You think you got it bad, try buying here in NZ.

But yes, thank god for Internet parts shopping, don't know about Canada, but the only bum thing for us though is the freight, this can be frighteningly expensive sometimes[/QUOTE]

Are your dealers as out of line with US dealer pricing? More than double the price on most items seems unjustifiable when it took the same boat ride over from Germany or China.

 

[lazytv]

Hey Nicad,

My experience with owning a few bmw's is you can ALWAYS find an equal or better price online (shipping/duty included).

The usual:
https://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/
http://ebay.com

Also try (warehouse is in Mississauga):
http://autopartsway.ca (in most cases next day delivery)

Jay

 

[kasbatts]

Are your dealers as out of line with US dealer pricing? More than double the price on most items seems unjustifiable when it took the same boat ride over from Germany or China.[/QUOTE]

Yes, sorry Nicad, I see your point, You are both next door to each other so I guess you would expect some equality in the pricing.
Perhaps it comes down to Government taxes, import duties etc etc?

Down here in NZ we have very open boarders when it comes to things like import duties, but we get whacked across the face with freight and a goods and services tax of 15%

Example is the windscreen I'm trying to sort out

US price is $500 ($606 NZ dollars)
Euro price from WN is €229 ($383 NZ dollars) (admittedly not a genuine part, although the one from BMW is not either, as you may well know, the one they supplied me was made in Turkey and didn't even fit)
NZ dealer price $1400

So I feel your pain!

 

[Nicad]

The pain started last week with a $300 Xenon lightbulb.

 

[kasbatts]

The pain started last week with a $300 Xenon lightbulb.

Wow!! $300, man, there is something to be said for old school tech that doesnt cost the moon

 

[Nicad]

Add $500 if it is the ballast and probably another $300 if the ignitor is shot…Oh yeah, it has a leveller. All this on BMW's simplest, cheapest (at the time model).

 

[kasbatts]

Tough place to be, Call me old fashioned, but what was wrong with good old Halogen lamps, sometimes I just think they go too far with some of this tech.



PS

Was just sitting here mentally composing my reply when it dawned on me that the wife's 06 Mini Cooper S has, you guessed it.......

Xenon lamps and self levelers, and to boot, head lamp washers that pop out and squirt the head lights when you wash your windscreen, basically a whole lot of crap that can and will go wrong

 

[Nicad]

My headlight washers were broken when I bought the car 4 years ago and still are. Imagine what is on a 7 series or Big Audi. Yuk.

I'm gonna get the headlight washers on my Coupe to work though. Bought a new pump and some hose for $50

 

[kasbatts]

My headlight washers were broken when I bought the car 4 years ago and still are. Imagine what is on a 7 series or Big Audi. Yuk.

I'm gonna get the headlight washers on my Coupe to work though. Bought a new pump and some hose for $50

If its on the coupe, it will be easy. I think these washers on late model cars would almost be throw away when the stop working

 

[bavbob]

I remember my father buying a new Cadillac when I was about 10. The dealer told my father about the electric side mirror option. My father said "I am not growing, I will adjust it once for the life of the car, it will cost me a hundred bucks now, break and cost another hundred and when I sell the car, it will increase the value by 5 bucks". I live by this and feel we have so many toys on cars now that are just perched, waiting to break and barely ever used.

 

[kasbatts]

Yep, I tend to agree, remember when you had to wind the windows by hand, fast, easy, and seldom broke!

 

[Nicad]

Yep, I tend to agree, remember when you had to wind the windows by hand, fast, easy, and seldom broke!

A friend had a Chrysler minivan with manual windows circa 1990 and a local 14 year old got a ride and had to ask "Excuse me, How do these windows work??"

 

[bavbob]

Flip side, older gas attendant just smiling and going right for the license plate to pull down to gas up my Bavaria.