WOULD YOU BUY A CAR WITH A GEARBOX THAT CAN’T BE REPAIRED!
Because BMW will sell you one!
Sounds extreme, but the fact is BMW and MINI both sell cars fitted with a six speed manual gearbox. Now, when this gearbox fails, as some of them inevitably do, then you get in touch with a transmission specialist to have the gearbox repaired, right? Wrong!
BMW have made a decision not to release any transmission components for either of these two gearboxes (or indeed for several differential types available on their vehicles). So although we are more than capable of striping the gearboxes down, replacing any defective parts and rebuilding the gearbox, we are blocked from offering this service because no internal components are available.
As an example lets take the six speed in-line gearbox fitted to a range of BMW cars from the 1 series upwards. This gearbox has been known to develop a fault “jumping” or “popping” out of first gear. Obviously if your driving one of these vehicles and are moving away from traffic lights or a busy junction, this fault can be at best very frustrating and at worst possibly dangerous. Now if the vehicle was a similarly priced Audi, Mercedes or even a performance Porsche, the parts needed to repair the gearbox are available through the manufacturers parts departments in the dealerships. This means company’s like ours can offer great savings to customers who want to repair their gearboxes.
The average cost of repairing a six speed manual gearbox that is jumping out of one gear would be between £350 – £500. This would cover around £150 in labour and would allow between £200 – £350 for parts, namely a gear and a hub assembly. (not including fitting charges)
BMW’s answer is to offer you a new gearbox at a cost of £2593.05 (based on 2007 320i as of 21/03/14), plus fitting charges! Plus VAT!
Lets put this into perspective, if the parts where available and priced around similar manufacturers parts then this repair would be possible for between £720 – £960 including vat and fitting. After buying a gearbox from BMW and getting an independent garage to fit it, the cost would be around £3400 including vat and fitting! Over £2400 more expensive!
So as an owner of one of these vehicles what are your options should you require a transmission repair? Well, currently you have two options.
Option 1. buy a gearbox from BMW and pay someone to fit it. Ouch!
Option 2. search and buy a used gearbox from a breakers yard and pay someone to fit it. Great! If the box you buy is any good. Unfortunately there are many examples of people buying a used gearbox and fitting it only to find it is as bad if not worse than the one they removed.
We would like to offer you an option 3. At this moment in time we are willing, but unable to help.
Come on BMW, think of your customers and sell us the parts to offer the service people deserve!
TTFN
