7 year old BMW is a right-off due to normal wear and tear?!

[momo2]

I wonder what your thoughts are on this. Our 7 year old BMW hybrid started having problems about a year ago. We paid £1800 to replace one of the battery cells. A few months later more problems started and now after extensive diagnosis we are told ALL the cells need replacing. The dealer wants £6700 to fix it and BMW is not willing to offer any good will to reduce the cost. That is about the market value of the car if it was in working order. The mileage is around 90K.

I think it's unreasonable for a BMW to be a written-off due to wear and tear at this age. The full price when new was around £45K and it is a well kept car with all the services done on time. What on earth do you think we should do? Having been BMW fans and owners we feel really let down. What do you think we should do?

80k is nothing, still running about in a car which is at 100k.

I've heard that BMW nowadays often uses parts which are likely to wear out after about 4 years - enough for the first PCP buyer and warranty period, not enough for a car you want to keep for years.

Thats the problem with electric and hybrid cars. They’re worthless once the battery wears out because the batteries are so damn expensive.

The average life of a battery is about 100,000 miles or so depending on how well the battery is looked after, so it sounds about right. The battery is the battery too - doesn’t matter if it’s in an expensive car or a cheaper one.

Gosh that is so disappointing. I have a Honda hybrid and it is running for 11 years. It has 185,000kms on the clock and is still going strong. I have a few friends with a Prius and other Japanese hybrids and none have not given any trouble.

My DH drives a diesel BMW and was thinking about trading in for a hybrid. I will be having a word.

I hope you can find an affordable solution.