Bad news news from the mechanic - $1,200

After Hawk took our BMW to the dealer for service on Thursday for some engine trouble we got bad news. The engine problem we thought would be covered under warranty was not. We'd need to spend $1,200 out of pocket.

"Wait," you may say, "Haven't you had this car for a long time? Isn't it way beyond the warranty period?"



Yes, "Hawkgirl" has been around a while. She's a 2008 model we've owned since 2012 and has nearly 150,000 miles. That's all waaay beyond the normal warranty. But in the auto industry, manufacturers occasionally put out things called Technical Service Bulletins or Service Information Bulletins. They're like mini recalls. They're not filed with the government, and the company doesn't contact you proactively or fix it proactively, but if your develops the problem that matches the TSB/SIB, the manufacturer pays for it. Our independent mechanic found an SIB that matched the engine trouble codes Hawkgirl was displaying and recommended we go to the dealer. We were right under the line on eligibility, too— this specific, unadvertised warranty is good for up to 15 years or 150k miles.

The dealer, unfortunately, disagreed with the independent shop's reading of the SIB. They said it didn't apply to our car. We had a copy of the bulletin so we argued back and forth a few times with the dealer's service department. No dice. I even called BMW USA's national customer support number to ask if the SIB covered our car. Also no dice.

Well, we're not not going to fix it. Yeah, spending another $1,200 to keep this car running is a pisser, but we can afford it. And it's cheaper than buying a new car. We're thinking we can get another 2 years out of this car. Heck, maybe we can drive it to 200k miles!

WORSE news from the mechanic!

Thursday we got bad news from the mechanic: a repair we thought would be covered under a part-specific special warranty was not covered. We had to pay the $1,200 to fix it. Friday afternoon the mechanic called us back with worse news. Way worse news. Our engine was still having trouble even after the $1,200 repair (replacement of intake solenoids) prescribed in the service bulletin— and would be extremely expensive to fix.

"We're going to have to take the engine apart to fix this," he warned. "It'll cost over $3,000 just to diagnose it. The full repair could be double that, or more. As old as this car is it may not be worth spending that much. You need to decide how much you love this car."

Decide how much you love this car. Those words stung like having to make the decision to pull the plug on a loved one.

To be clear, the decision at hand is whether to repair the car or replace it. The cost of repair looks to be high enough that it would total more than the car— even in good shape— is worth. The real question, though, is not whether fixing it costs more than the car is worth but whether fixing it is cheaper or more expensive than owning a newer car.

Either way, this has totally taken the wind out of my sails tonight.