Scrutiny... Look twice before buying.

[BMW M]

Hi Guys,

Here's the story, 4 years ago I bought a 2001 325i e46 with then, 122000km on the clock from a private individual. Now this car gave me endless problems, in the two years I owned it I spent over R50k on maintenance.

Now it has to be said that I bought this car on impusle and took the owners word about the FSH etc that he car had. I sold the car 2 years ago with just over 180000km n the clock.

Now for the interesting part:

Yesterday, my 18month old girl gets into the bottom drawer of my filling cabinet at home and she starts to pull apart the file of this particular car (I keep files on all my cars, proof of maintenance, fuel costs etc) So I go into the study and start to put all the papers together when I notice a km reading on the last invoice from BMW - 216451km..., then I look at a previous invoice and the km reading is 198732km... Note that I sold the car with 180000km on the clock...

So I phone BMW this morning and query this, out of curiosity... I get the service history for the car... :shocked: Full service history @ BMW up to 45000km, then nothing for the next 115000km... Making the total 160000km... The services I took the car in for, shows up, but at the said km above. I bought the car with 122000km and definately serviced it twice before it came to 160000km and replaced the gearbox at 132000km + numerous other things...

Now I know its water under the bridge, but why would one NOT take a car with a maintenace plan to BMW? There is no comments or suspensions on the MP. The first time, according to the records that that car saw a BMW dealership was when I bought it... with the wrong KM reading... The key said one thing and the Clocks a different thing. And the dealerships (two) never mentioned anything about the different readings. I now feel that I've been cheated with about 36000km and that I've cheated the next owner...! THis particular car obviously did not have ANY scheduled maintenance other than oil changes in retro spec.

By the way, this car was traded in at a BMW dealership when I sold it... No problems... :slap: The point I'm trying to make, is when you buy ANY car, make sure of the km's and service history - even agent services. Seems like there are loads of room for errors which will end up costing YOU big bucks...

 

[P1000]

Very true! Clocking in SA is a very popular practice...

 

[Twinz]

36 000km is a huge gap in history in the life of any vehicle...damn, What a mystery!!!!
What a story to tell :wave:

 

[BMW M]

36 000km is a huge gap in history in the life of any vehicle...damn, What a mystery!!!!
What a story to tell :wave:

What gets me, is that I only notice this now, :banghead: and both the dealerships I had the car with also failed to notice it! :slap:

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Very true! Clocking in SA is a very popular practice...

P1000, Is there any 'warning' signs that one should look at before buying? Apart from checking service history km's etc?

I dont know of any individuals with key readers. Is it possible to change the km's on the key?

 

[Mamba]

There is another thread going with exactly this question asked about can one trust FSH.

I have promised myself should I ever buy another BMW with motor plan left I will be very demanding to know what was done to my vehicle, I will inspect the vehicle after every service and I will request a fault code print out which was taken after the service.

If you had such a fault code print out you would have seen immediately the discrepancy in kilometers as the kilometers stored are printed on the fault report.

Like I wrote in one of my other threads, according to a certain workshop foreman it is not practice to read fault codes when the car come in for a normal service although my cars service manual states very clearly that fault codes should be read with every service.

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P1000, Is there any 'warning' signs that one should look at before buying? Apart from checking service history km's etc?

I dont know of any individuals with key readers. Is it possible to change the km's on the key?

it is very possible, with the correct tools and determination it is not that difficult to do, unfortunately

 

[rick540]

Your 18 month old is going to be an accountant when she grows up.

 

[BMW M]

Your 18 month old is going to be an accountant when she grows up.

Forensic accountant by the looks of it Rick...

 

[Wick-ed]

Gotta be careful. A buddy that did my motor called me to say that he has a 330 motor for me. Apparently, the gentleman was involve in an accident and broke up the bm for spares and would sell the motor, it only had 43000+ on the clock. When we checked with BMW against his vin number the motor did over 220000k. :thinking: No service history too.

 

[zaleonardz]

R1,500 gets you a re-clock on the black market, does not matter what car.

Dont ask me for details as I will not release it, nor do I condone/support the practice, but my point is, service history means fsck all, but there are a lot of other places where you can inspect miledge.

Go look in the boot, look at the seats, look if the sump plug has chissel marks on it because its stripped, stuff like that...

 

[Adi]

FSH means nothing.......hahaha think that bother thread has just become pointless, however think the signs are there to check if milage is correct, registration number good indication, check with BMW, and just look at the vehicle.....and if it is to good to be true, well normally it is........

 

[BMW M]

FSH means nothing.......hahaha think that bother thread has just become pointless, however think the signs are there to check if milage is correct, registration number good indication, check with BMW, and just look at the vehicle.....and if it is to good to be true, well normally it is........

+1 Adi,

Definately from now on buying as new as possible so I"M aware of the km's and services done and will in future not just sign an Invoice without scrutinizing and asking for proof and comparing KM readings between car & key.

Another question:

Lets say you have two keys, and you only use one.. Then on the day of service, without using the spare to drive to BMW or who ever (so the key doesnt update) and you hand in the spare key... Would they notice the diffrence in KM's? Is there a date stamp attached to the saved km' or not?

 

[MikeR]

:wave: as Ive mentioned before BMW are not angels and they let things through the system also - one point was my 330d had repairs at Sandton Auto repairs and they released the car through Motor plan again and - I took the car elsewhere to get checked and they only did a few things on the repair list - so be careful guys...they are all thieves out there trying to put their hands in your pockets.

 

[George Smooth]

Do you remember if there was a dot on your instrument cluster next to the mileage that was permenantly on?
It seems the guys who jippoed the mileage probably didnt align the mileage stored on the key or the other four places but you would normally get this dot as a warning.

You offer sound advice.

 

[BMW M]

Do you remember if there was a dot on your instrument cluster next to the mileage that was permenantly on?
It seems the guys who jippoed the mileage probably didnt align the mileage stored on the key or the other four places but you would normally get this dot as a warning.

You offer sound advice.

George,

I cant remember anything to the like of a dot being on permanently... :thinking: Would that be an indication of tampering?

 

[P1000]

Do you remember if there was a dot on your instrument cluster next to the mileage that was permenantly on?
It seems the guys who jippoed the mileage probably didnt align the mileage stored on the key or the other four places but you would normally get this dot as a warning.

You offer sound advice.

It only checks if the cluster mileage is within 255 of [one other unit that will not be mentioned in pulbic] and the VIN with the same unit. So you have to recode 2 units and the tamper dot is gone...

 

[BMW M]

[It only checks if the cluster mileage is within 255 of [one other unit that will not be mentioned in pulbic] and the VIN with the same unit. So you have to recode 2 units and the tamper dot is gone...

And here I thought Digital ODO's are tamper proof... :slap: Obviously not. I had a hard time resetting my restored '76 Merc's mechanical odo to 0 after her engine rebuild, that took me 4 days to do. (The reset that is, not the rebuild)

Guess its like my Dad always says: A lock is only to keep a honest guy out, someone that wants in, will get in.

 

[Hellas]

Lift the one rear wheel and let her run in 6th gear for a week. Should make the ODO clock over?

 

[Luis Malhou]

when i bought my 335i from A BMW dealership with M/plan I asked for a key read and a full detail of the cars service history with all work reflected and km of each visit . They provided it with no problem and also that the specific car had no Comments. 2 months later while doing a very thorough clean of the car I noticed a slight buff mark on the C-pillar. I started really inspecting and found small paint flecks on the footplate and after lifting a rubber noticed small amount of overspray. I brought this to the attention of the dealership- how can a car thats had a 200+ point check for motorplan and to be classified as an approved car pass like this.

I did manage to get hold of the previous owner who told me he had a small scrape with his garage entrance on the door. No major damage and no major parts replacement and repairs done at BMW .But still dissapointed with BMW quality checking

BMW reply was ..it slipped through but it has no detremental effect on value or the cars performance.!!!

 

[Clownshoe]

I heard of cars that were complete rebuilds, complete with two different body numbers passing BMW motorplan scutineering with flying colours.

Since reclocking is a criminal offence maybe they should institute a km reading when a car is re-registered or registration renewed and a redflag on the system if a car is below the km of its last license renewal!!!