Europen car maint cost

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Camprunner

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My sister and I purchased new/used cars several months ago at the same time I bought a 2017 Lincoln MKZ loaded with only 6,000 miles it is a Lincoln CPO car so it comes with a 6 year 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. My sister bought a new/used BMW 5 series 2017 with 8,000 miles it came with the remainder of the factory warranty.

Now for the maintenance costs I bring my Lincoln in to my local Lincoln dealer and it cost me between $24.95 for an oil change or around $45.00 for oil, tire rotation and 15 point inspection. My sister takes her BMW in and it's $145.00 for oil change and tire rotation! They also informed her it would cost $1,700.00 to replace the front brakes when it comes time! Now I don't know what it will cost me to replace my front brakes on my Lincoln MKZ but I know it will not cost even close to that!

Are all Europen cars so much more to fix or is it just the dealers that charge so much?
 
Those are strong numbers... Definitely profit baked in for everyone but the customer.

Parts for the front brakes shouldn't be much more than $750 or so...

It's the dealers that charge more. Specifically, that dealer.

How many miles are on the car? 2017+ BMWs have 3yr/36k mile maintenance baked in.
 
The dealers charge more because it is a BMW and their customers are probably more wealthy than Lincoln's. It's not a Ford/Lincoln dealership it's a rich boy BMW/obscure euro brand (Aprilia?). That's probably a 10000 mile OCI as well, so the materials are much more costly than your 24.99 fast lane special with bulk 5W20/Motorcraft. So it's twice the price but not for the same exact thing.

Brakes.....yeah that's insane. That's owning a euro car and getting it serviced at the dealership. That BMW will also be worth more than a third hand Lincoln MKZ if you sell at the same time/mileage.
 
Go look at the top 10 losers for retained value over three year's
Number one is the 300E followed by a slew of BMW's...

So you may want to rethink residual values.
 
Sounds high for the brakes, but maybe that includes rotors. I've done the brakes on my Mercedes E350 for around $100, that's basically for the pads. If you include rotors, they're a bit more expensive, around $100 each. However Mercedes has a couple other lines, the E550 and the E63 and the brakes get more expensive the further you go up the line. I think they end up having 4 piston and 6 piston calipers so the rotors and pads are more expensive. Oil changes are around $100 if you just want the oil change, but mine takes 8.5 quarts of synthetic and uses a fleece cartridge filters which are typically $15-$20 at the auto parts store, online you can get a Mann which is in the $8 range. Of course if you do it yourself and get the oil on sale like Mobil 1 now with the rebate, it's more like around $30 just for the oil and filter.
 
Originally Posted by Zee09
Go look at the top 10 losers for retained value over three year's
Number one is the 300E followed by a slew of BMW's...

So you may want to rethink residual values.


Oh yeah, residual value on a Mercedes lease is in the 59-62% range after 3 years. So they're great to buy when they're off lease, that residual is usually too high too which is why most people turn them in at the end of the lease.
 
No such thing as Lincoln only dealer it's Ford/Lincoln dealer. So you get charged the Ford price and likely loss leader and have a lubricant tech not a mechanic changing oil.

BMW service is more expensive yep. They are not glorified Fords like Lincoln. I have a similar type of vehicle,Acura a glorified Honda.
 
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got a quote for the starter assembly (whatever that is) for my smart - $800.00 ,its starting to sound a little phart canny so Iasked how much is a muffler assembly?
$700 .00
imports are stupid
 
Originally Posted by honeeagle
got a quote for the starter assembly (whatever that is) for my smart - $800.00 ,its starting to sound a little phart canny so Iasked how much is a muffler assembly?
$700 .00
imports are stupid


Yes aSmart is a stupid car to buy.
 
I
Originally Posted by Camprunner
My sister and I purchased new/used cars several months ago at the same time I bought a 2017 Lincoln MKZ loaded with only 6,000 miles it is a Lincoln CPO car so it comes with a 6 year 100,000 mile bumper to bumper warranty. My sister bought a new/used BMW 5 series 2017 with 8,000 miles it came with the remainder of the factory warranty.

Now for the maintenance costs I bring my Lincoln in to my local Lincoln dealer and it cost me between $24.95 for an oil change or around $45.00 for oil, tire rotation and 15 point inspection. My sister takes her BMW in and it's $145.00 for oil change and tire rotation! They also informed her it would cost $1,700.00 to replace the front brakes when it comes time! Now I don't know what it will cost me to replace my front brakes on my Lincoln MKZ but I know it will not cost even close to that!

Are all Europen cars so much more to fix or is it just the dealers that charge so much?



Why is she paying for oil changes? Should be free for the first four years.
 
Make one hard stop from a hundred or so in both vehicles and you'll understand why BMW brakes are a little more costly to service than Ford brakes.
Not $1700.00, though.
 
People need to stop thinking about Euro cars like they are something special, they are not, they are just another daily driver in the countries they are made in.
Zimmerman rotors are a very good rotor and don't cost a fortune, ATE, Textar, Pagid are all good pads and are commonly used in Europe as standard replacements. Very few garages go to the dealer for these and other standard items eg plugs, wires, kombi valves, shocks/struts, suspension parts, etc.

I treat them like any other car, the make means nothing at all to me its just another car. I do use good parts but the last thing I do is treat them like some sort of tin God.
 
Originally Posted by fdcg27
Make one hard stop from a hundred or so in both vehicles and you'll understand why BMW brakes are a little more costly to service than Ford brakes.
Not $1700.00, though.


My Escape stops just fine thank you very much. And I've done 100-0 in my Crown Vic and it did pretty good. And the best brake pads I can buy are less than $100 at the local auto parts store.
 
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We've had a couple of BMWs as well as a few old Benzes.
One of the distinguishing features of these cars is the very solid pedal feel you get when braking hard from high speeds.
Don't get that with anything American or Asian except for a handful of performance cars that use good brake hoses as well as good calipers.
Pads for most German cars will run under a hundred bucks from various sources as well.
 
Originally Posted by UncleDave
BMW won't turn and re-pad but will only rotor replace.

D


My dealer did not replace the rear rotors on my wife's E83; just pads.
 
I'm reminded of what I once heard a European automotive engineer say:

"The difference between European drivers and American drivers is:
European drivers don't care if the brakes squeal- just as long as they stop the car.
American drivers don't care if the brakes stop the car- just as long as they don't squeal."
 
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