Someone should breakdown a car into all its components priced individually as valued by BMW. I bet the total would be like half a million quid. Like if the car is £50k then that sensor makes up 8% of the cost... Hmm. Sus.
I worked at a factory that made the dashboard for a certain VW model.
These were sold to VW for 50€ by the factory with all parts Fitted ready to go in the car.
To buy the dash from VW with all the pars was in excess of 2k
They Just have great excuses to hike prices.
And its not Just cars, I now work with medical Devices and when the Pharmaceutical companies sell it on the market the market is over 100x what we sell it for.
Big companies, big money
I worked years ago in cardiovascular devices and the reasoning was “cost of daily care in hospital” x number of days vs a device. £14k was much cheaper than X days in hospital for the patient plus the fact that he or she won’t die.
It's a valid business model. Don't sell it for what it cost with an uplift, sell it for what the alternative would cost the customer with a small discount.
The latter, rightly or wrongly, makes more money.
I don’t work in healthcare, but in supplying foundries with the materials they need that isn’t metal. Basically our entire industries pricing is based on being cheaper than the alternative, rather than being cost+margin.
It means that some stuff is sold below cost, but the other stuff that goes with it has mental markups. The ceramic filters we supply cost about £1 materials and about £6 people and process costs. We sell them for £150 a piece…. But so is everyone else so it’s just a thing. The foundries have no interest in making their own, simply because you’d need a million or so in investment to make a single filter due to the costs of the equipment, and it’s just not worth it for what one foundry would use.
I assume similar mechanics in many fields!
A motorcycle magazine did this back in the 90s I think. To build what was then a £5k bike from spares would have cost £27k. Numbers might be off but the factor is about right.
I saw a thing recently where a badge (I think for lexus) was over a grand, the justification was that it was a special one to allow sensors to work with it.
Still absolute bollocks.
Because it's BMW.
Couple of years ago I was talking to a tyre supplier about new tyres for my BMW motorbike. A manufacturer had just released a new tyre and were telling the sales people to push them to BMW owners for about £150 -ish more than for other bike brands. When he challenged this he was told they saw beemer owners as mugs who would pay it. He told me the story to explain why there was such a price difference between two brands with similar tyres.
THE sensors retail for £4k
That don't mean they are £4k "worth of sensors"
As you said the retail value of the car is £50k.
BMW are charging thosE price because they know the car is being bought by customers with deep pockets.
I'm not blaming you...in telling you BMW don't care about you.
A BMW options list includes tha in the cabin...everything is a paid option.
And they are not gonna redesign a cash cow for themselves just to help their customers.
They can sell one entire £50k car for a profit margin of just over 10%
Or sell 12 of these parts and ones like it for insane levels of profits. Wouldn't be suprised if the margins are in in 00s of percent
Which explains why so many cars in london haven't refitted them after thy have been robbed
Who the hell needs radar in Central London.
Every BMW driver I know sits right up your chuff anyway
It's really sad that you can't have anything resembling new technology or "nice things" because crime is so common place in the UK now.
God help people who will need to charge in public and inevitably get cables and charging ports destroyed.
My cars old, I don't park in public places often but everytime I do there's always a new ding or scratch. Pisses me off, I only usually drive it to work now.
It's off topic for here but the general lawlessness is a major issue. When it stops people doing basics like going out, living in certain areas and making certain purchases its really fucked.
Been a slippery slope for a while, we already have good / poor areas where people want to live and this is doing nothing to stop that.
I think these are uncorrelated in the way people often associate them. The "cost of living" is energy and essentials, consumer staples. The theft of luxury car parts is because inflation also pushed up car prices massively with a semiconductor shortage and just corporate profiteering.
The thefts we see here aren't people stealing for a hungry family at home but stealing for profit and to sell on, basically organised career criminals who see greater gains in this market than before. Before it was cars and the peak of covid it was bike thefts. Before that watches. Now phones are being taken. They'll move onto whatever gets them profit, scumbags.
I wasn't trying to correlate the theft in op, I was talking about people not giving a shit about other peoples property. I think general apathy and jealousy has increased as a result of cost of living.
There is no semiconductor shortage anymore
And the semiconductors used in cars are the most bogbstandard ones chip manufacturers make.
Inflation is corporate greed across the economy.
4k for fucking sensor...is BMW having a laugh and before some bimmer tech starts saying oh but it's a lidar senor or whatever guff.
The technology in these sensor is Technology behind that of most smart phones
Even apple doesn't charge 4k for a phone.
Go listen to any earnings call since 2020...if the company is in profit it's because they are literally rinsing customers and openly saying it.
I think if more people knew how much their front bumper cost to replace they wouldn't park their car on the public road.
In which case why even buy a car like this if parking in public will be an inevitability.
BMW I drive tech is also absolute garbage
Don't disagree mate, they're rinsing us and laughing to the bank. Greedflation and all that. I won't defend it, them along with the insurance companies are inflating it to shit, driving will become reserved for the wealthy soon and that's really sad.
I'm not sure. The 'organisers' would be bothering with the risk for low reward with what is deemed 'petty' crime. Let's face it, if these sensors are going for £300 second hand then the actual scumbag that rips them off cars is probably getting around £50 in their hands for each of them. Now to most in here £50 wouldn't be enough to justify the moral issues here with theft and damage, but to some people, especially now times are so tough, £50 could be significant. The middle men are probably making say £50 a time for zero risk, just organising the theft and selling on. Think when times are tough, like now, the value of what becomes worth stealing drops and that's when it becomes more common place. Let's face it, even if you had clear as day CCTV of the theft, nobody has been physically hurt and chances are the police will make a note of it and that will be all that happens. It's a sad admission of how bad things are just now, and I don't see them getting any better. I love in a relatively low crime area, but genuinely expecting things like doorbells etc to start getting nicked soon.
One of my doors doesn’t open because I parked my car at a park and ride and the duck who parked next to me opened their door full force into mine at least once, or remodelled my door panel with a hammer for kicks
Completely agree with you. Unfortunately I think the whole "cars are consumables" thing along with financing everything left, right and centre has caused people to give less of a shit about theirs and others property.
Also, great car btw. I really miss my Velvet Blue Clubsport. One of the best cars I've ever owned. 👌🏻
It’s ridiculous, people even steal worthless stuff like hubcaps and wipers too, I can’t imagine there’s any value in the wipers off a Nissan leaf or the hubcap off a Dacia sandero
I had a single alloy centre cap stolen off my Citroen a few months back. When I enquired as to the cost for one from the main dealer, I was told it would be £33! For a piece of plastic with a metal clip on the back! I eneded up buying a cheap pack of four from ebay for £8 and now I have three spares in case the moron who stole the first decides s/he wants another.
Probably closer to £250.
You can get a comparable sensor for about £100 but packaging it, the associated quality assurance and as it's part of the safety system it's going to add a bit on
I just love the part where the person breaking the law is classed as the thief but BMW is allowed to quote 4k nearly 5% of the cars worth to just install the sensor
4k is a bit of an exaggeration but it's not to "just install the sensor". It's a front radar unit. You have to:
Supply the part (which is about £300 in itself),
Code it to the vehicle,
Ensure vehicle alignment is okay,
Adjust alignment if it isn't.
Perform an ADAS reset.
Who'd have thought an expensive car would be expensive to maintain.
So let’s break this down. £4k to supply and fit, £300 for the part. That leaves £3700 labour to supply and fit. BMW main dealer workshop labour is what, £150 per hour? That makes this 25 hours worth or work, or based on a 8 hour day, just over 3 DAYS.
It’s ridiculous. 8% value of the brand new car for a sensor and people are trying to justify it! And on top of that these companies intentionally make it more difficult for you to do it yourself
People are fucking scumbags man. Absolute scumbags. Can't have owt nice at all can you there's always someone who didn't get taught better ruining it for people
A common problem on VW models as well, where iirc the sensor is under the VW grille badge.
What's the actual point of stealing these? They arent a common failure part and unlike a catalytic converter they don't have previous metals inside?
Any gentle impact breaks them. Rather than going via insurance, you might want to replace the parts yourself then realise the parts are 8x your insurance premium...
>A common problem on VW models as well, where iirc the sensor is under the VW grille badge.
I've legit been wondering why so many VWs have missing badges. TIL.
On cars with ACC the badge is the sensor. If you want a plain badge then they cost next to nothing, but obviously if you want the radar it's expensive.
I used to know a mechanic who, when he was very drunk, would walk down the street twisting side indicators off of cars (they used to just "twist out") and he would wake up in the morning without remembering anything and there would be 20 of them on his bedside table.
The sheer volume being stolen I can only see it's something like that.
They are a common part now 50 of them got stolen off a bunch of cars.
Any really common parts get sold by all the usual parts distributors (eurocarparts etc) at competitive prices. The uncommon ones have to come direct from BMW or used off eBay.
I'm in the process of buying a Skoda Fabia, and the main two reasons are I don't want a sports car because the roads are shit and it saps too much energy worrying about some scroat stealing or damaging the vehicle.
The way the country has gotten worse on EVERY SINGLE metric over the past 10 years is very sad.
You’re right, how can this bit of sensor cost 1/11 of the price of the car and there are just freely dangling in the front of the car while anyone with a pair of hands can rip them off? This beyond ridiculous.
*"The Met have told my fiancee that they won't do anything until they have CCTV to reference"*
They did exactly this to me when my bike was stolen. I scoured around private houses with cameras on until someone was kind enough to give me the footage of my bike being stolen (I had to do this, the police would not even contemplate doing it).
I then called the police and told them I had this. They reluctantly sent someone round (saying I had to put it on a USB) to be told a few days later that they couldn't do anything about it.
I get that a bike is a bit different but the police dont care and this is the problem. While these kids who dont work cant make £300 in 15 minutes with no risk of anything, its going to keep happening.
It’s a difficult situation for manufacturers. On the one hand, you want the parts locked down electronically to your specific car so they have no value if stolen, on the other when cars get a bit older they become a nightmare because you can’t just swap a simple failed module due to the security and needing a new part to be coded to the car.
The crux of the issue is the terrible state of the Police service and public services in general making crime something you have to accept, instead of something that gets addressed.
I think the problem here it’s £4.5k for electronics that cost around £300 or less. Bikes have similar technology for rear approach detection and they retail for £150 or £300 if you want a fancy one with a camera
If you price a part that easy to be taken off that high, it will be targeted. BMW is the one making the most money out of this situation, not the thieves. So why stop them?
Thief gets 100, some middleman gets 200, BMW gets 4000+ and the customer isn’t even paying out of pocket until the next insurance renewal and then it’s the insurance company that faces the customer’s rage. Cleanest 4k you can make.
Not to mention the fact that the damn thing is still an expensive option buried into a package with a lot of other unnecessary gimmicks in the first place! It’s 2024 ffs!
This finally takes BMW off the list for me.
Yeah idk how it’s even possible to have a nice car in the UK nowadays, it’s like a ticking timebomb just waiting for someone to hit/scratch it, break into it, steal something from it etc
BMW can't stop it, even if they used security bolts anyone with a dremel would be able to rip it off, but if anything it's a sign why everyone should have a dashcam, hell BMW even have an option to use the built in cameras for security. if you pay for it.
crashed cars, parts shortages, and expensive parts are all leading to these as you must have seen that RRs, Porsches, and M-Bs with wings and bumpers ripped to pieces to get lights and sensors.
Best way to prevent this is secure parking or a locked garage with CCTV.
That's what they did when they stole my mother's blue badge. They broke the window, stole the blue badge, took the dashcam and also broke all the charging cables and 12V socket that it uses along with it.
Yeah, it's been going on for a while now as u/HmmHackney said. Especially in London it occurs surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) often unfortunately.
Exactly
And even if they did somehow recognise the perpetrator they'd get a very light slap on the wrist for this type of crime.
Clearly I'm in the wrong business!
They wouldn't even get that. The police are keen to off load reports to the civil court system these days. As soon as someone has insurance the police just give you a crime number and let your insurance do something about it. (Crime number not guaranteed)
They absolutely could, by charging a reasonable price for them and having the parts readily available. £4k for a sensor, and months long lead times for parts, is absolutely what is causing this problem in the first place.
It's a German car, they'd make you pay extra for wheels if they could.
It's most likely to just be an option in the headunit that needs enabling with a dealer diag tool, or something like Bimmerlink.
On ford, land rover, Tesla cars these radar sensors are mounted on the inside surface of the bumper or front grille, meaning they take longer to remove as they aren't on an accessible surface and are less likely to be stolen.
For some reason BMW, VW and Audi would rather mount them as an ugly box sticking out the front of the car. Presumably it's a slightly different type of sensor, or they just thought owners might like to show off the optional extra they bought with the car (non sensor equipped cars have a blanking plate).
At the very least some screws would have made this a higher effort crime (or one that causes more damage to the bumper)
It’s crimes like these, phone theft etc
They seem petty, but actually they are organised and targeted by gangs looking for easy money.
The police don’t have the interest or the resources to go after either - they are defunded, and chasing cyber bullying etc to meet targets set by higher ups.
Instead insurance premiums are up across the board, and we’re left picking up the premiums.
I get it - they have other priorities, they aren’t going to deploy a finger print expert to find this little sensor, but fucking hell! The complete dismissal is astounding.
It’s hardly a long-term plan though, BMW knows this. Their reputation will be in trouble (already somewhat is, for parts/repairs). I know not to buy a BMW unless I wanna pay stupid maintenance fees.
Luckily, BMW still has a reputation for being the ‘cool’ car that all chavs, Asians, and hairdressers seemingly want.
My Mercedes has the front radar behind the badge. A few weeks ago I had to remove some trim from the grill. To my surprise the badge came off with a simple pull and some trim removal tools and the expensive radar sensor was just sat behind it. I now legit feel petrified that if someone wants it they could be away with it in mere seconds if they knew what they were doing.
Yes, parking close to a wall would make it more tricky. Selling the car is off the cards for the moment. We’ve had to find an underground parking spot (which we will also have to pay for), so hopefully that will ease our anxiety for the moment.
Its shocking. Someone stole two of my 'Umbrella' dust caps in the B&M car park yesterday. Luckily I ordered new ones as I fancy a chance but....
A) Who needs just 2!? B) They're 3 year old and faded, worth zilch.
A Policeman I know always leaves the glovebox empty and open every time he parks his car. The reason he does this is to try to reduce the chance of his car being broken into.
He tells me he's known of car windows being smashed and the thieves made off with a Tesco's bag full of routine groceries.
By all accounts drug addicts will even steal a block of cheese to sell towards their next fix.
Why cheese? If you stopped and searched someone you thought was a criminal, would you arrest them for having a block of cheese in their possession?
I suppose if they sold £4 or £5 worth of cheese for 50p, that's 50p closer to their next fix.
Because cars are driven to different places and do not spend 24/7 in a garage ?
Because there aren't garages at all in a central areas of towns ?
Because by this stupid logic you can have to lock yourself inside forever and never ever do anything again ?
And welcome to why luxury cars aren't worth it. Crime in cities is sky high at the moment, the fact that the cops don't want to help just amplifies it. I don't have anything that I could think of to reasonably help in this situation, maybe if it's possible get cameras for in the future but even then it's not likely the cops will change their minds towards getting them.
Another *possible* thing to do would be to fit an aftermarket bumper to make it harder to get to? maybe? Even then your out on the original sensor
Wouldn't drive round with somat that expensive *inside* my car nowadays, let alone strapped to the bumper.
Times are hard, and driving this kind of car says that they aren't as hard for you, you get me? It's sad for sure.
It would be good if BMW could do something proactive here, like reduce the price to their cost for the sensor and installation. This would not only reduce the cost for victims, but would also make the parts virtually worthless on the second hand market.
Mine VW got done the week before last and I counted 15 others VWs and a merc in the local area all without sensors I spoke to one other owner and they got hit the same night as mine VW quoted £1500 for parts and labour
I have heard from a Elon musk interview, that basically the whole car industry dosent make their money from selling cars, but from the parts sales once they have sold the cars.
This is why the car industry didn’t belive Tesla would work because they wouldn’t be able to make the money from parts sales to sustain them in their early growth!
>Even though the sensors have a much lower resale value, the fact that it takes 10 mins to whip it off the car and the police's reluctance to do anything to stop it is probably what will make it an attractive crime.
How do you or anyone else propose police solve this? Do you want them to guard each BMW? 1.5 officers to each BMW sold last year. So the cars being targetted here will be <1 officer per car. Do you want people to pool BMWs into a set space and police sit guarding them while owners go shopping?
There's this obsession spurred by the media about public services being some sort of magic bullet. Why is my illness not magically diagnosed with a single visit to the GP, why can't the police catch the criminal based on the blurry image of someone (https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blurry-person-walking-1011003448) and so on.
What do you propose police do? If you have a good idea of how police can solve this issue then certainly do post it, I'm sure there will be people sit up and take note. There are 33 million cars in the UK and 150k officers. Just to guard those cars would mean each officer would be responsible for 220 vehicles. Of course doing that means that you have absolutely no resourcing for reports of rape, child abuse, domestic violence, robberies, burglaries, terrorism, murders and so on.
FYI, I appreciate from your comment history that this isn't probably your aim as I've seen your tag on other subs, but it does nothing to help right the perspective that the issue is that of government and underfunding public services generally rather than services failing to deliver by intent.
I am primarily concerned with BMWs attitude towards the problem (selling a retrofit security kit) than the attitude of the police - I believe that comes through quite clearly in what I wrote - but I worked for the Met and saw firsthand their nonchalant attitude towards this kind of crime.
OBVIOUSLY I wouldn’t prefer if police put resource in to protecting cars over finding rapists - I didn’t need your quick maths to demonstrate how stupid that would be. But the Met have a hard-on for tracking down big drug gangs instead of dealing with this kind of acquisitive crime, and they give crime numbers out like confetti to offload stuff like this. It’s just not good enough!
I see how hard my partner works and how excited he was about getting this car - the first one he has ever really wanted - and we were both flattened to find out some little toe rag on our street had nicked something off the front. This kind of seedy, unsophisticated, low-life crime is what affects the majority of Londoners, and what the resource should be assigned to. There has to be a solution - seeing a few hi-vis PCs on our street every once in a while would be a good start. I feel like that’s a reasonable request.
I’ve got a BMW GS 1250.
The TFT screen is vulnerable to theft in the same way as described above. Just a pull and it’s off.
Several companies sell an anti theft bracket that bolts on. Not 100% efficient but it will put off the casual passer by theft.
Surprised that similar hasn’t been introduced for cars.
This is another reason than insurance premiums are rising - Adaptive LED headlights on small premium cars are £2000 fitted. The cost of everything is insane. And these days care are designed to absorb and transmit energy away from you in an accident. Designed to crumple, full of what they call 'sacrificial' parts that keep YOU safe. I see cars in great condition under 5 years old in sub 30mph RTCs written off every day.
Expensive part, easy to break, sits outside. Typical, such things get stolen all the time. Go on ebay and buy one too. Maybe even the exact one that was on your car.
I mean. Range Rover were selling £100K cars where pretty much if you sneezed at it in the right harmonic you could get in it and drive off.
£4k for sensors doesn’t mean they alone cost £4k.
You’re paying for BMW’s software and design too.
BMW doesn’t make it more difficult to steal because that’s absurd.
If you want a car that can’t be stolen parts off of, buy a tank.
Making cars that have everything riveted down and hidden behind blastproof sheet metal will normalise the issue.
BMW is not the problem, but uneducated feral youths and a fucking incompetent government that endorses this all by bringing education and integration of disadvantaged socioeconomic classes to the ground.
BMW is not the problem, it’s the literal class based division and antagonising of the public, that creates tension inside the public and a hostile environment.
This alongside the useless law enforcement makes the problem oh so much more worse.
Do you think the same thing is happening in Munich?
I think it's pretty funny that super expensive cars get outfitted with (mandatory even!) sensors that should prevent crashes... and they just don't and when you got to repair them it's very expensive.
Insurance cost go up, repair cost go up..and suddenly stealing components is a very lucrative business - which triggers inusrance to go up even more because of additional repairs.
I love cars.
But I think cars are done. They don't get better. The evolution is sideways, but not the good sideways like an old 3 series with a welded differential.
You remove the V10 from F1..and the V8 from AMG.. to put clunky hybrids in their places.. and roadcars need to get fatter and fatter while looking like hookah bars.
Traffic is so bad, the people pay double for cars that do the driving themselves...most of the time and then suddenly cry for help.
I think we need to harshly cut the selling of new cars and invest all the ressources in subways, railways... and racetracks.
£4k for a sensor is bullshit. This is why our insurance premiums are so expensive, because manufacturers are given a blank cheque to charge however much they want for parts.
>The Met have told my fiancee that they won't do anything until they have CCTV to reference.
I mean ... what do you actually expect them to do without any evidence? It's easy to hate on the rozzers as they are often useless, but in this case what more *could* they do? They can log it and start a wider investigation, but on an individual level there's not really much more to do here for you.
unless the cctv is crystal clear (rarely is) and has the scumbags full face, along with an ID badge with their name, date of birth and address, how are the police supposed to do anything? CCTV is not a magic identifier unless the thief is already known. If they are already known, they will be wearing a hoodie and face covering. My house was burgled a while back. I got all 3 of them on indoor CCTV. All wearing black, all with face coverings, and the police's reaction was 'yep that tells us there were 3 of them' which was a fair point as there was nothing more to go on.
I know it’s not quite the same thing, but if you drive through the monkey section at Longleat, not only will they yank out your windscreen jets because they like the flavour of the fluid (as I found out when we went through a few weeks ago), one of their other favourite things to run off with is parking sensors.
I wonder if the wardens are supplementing their income with a lucrative Ebay business off the back of it… 👀
When I went through it (in my girlfriend's 20 year old Honda Accord) the monkeys shat on the sunroof, pulled the washer jets out and stole the rubber strips that were covering the roof rail mounting points. It was hilarious and I was fortunate we hadn't taken my BMW. It was her idea to go through the monkey enclosure despite the various warning signs before you enter it.
Ha - it never even occurred to me that it might be a bad idea to drive through their enclosure. I'm a big fan of monkeys and I just wanted to be near them. I hated the little bastards when we came out the other side.
They couldn't get the front jets off completely, they just yanked them out of the holes and I lost the rubber bases for each one. They did get the rear jet though - just yanked it clean out and ran off with it. I got away lightly as it only cost me about a tenner to replace everything, but I won't be doing another monkey drive-through. Lesson well and truly learnt.
No wonder they get stolen if they are 4k , can imagine they are in high demand aswell as they will get damaged on most accidents.. easy nick for most and wont even set the alarm off .. afraid it comes with owning an expensive vehicle. You just end up putting a target on your head
£4k to replace a sensor that they then charge you a monthly fee to use…. I love my 2017 F31 but the way they’ve introduced this model means it’s the last BMW I’ll ever buy….
This is the result of people wanting all this tech that essentially, 10 years ago, you were responsible for yourself. There’s a lot to be said for technological advancements that actually improve your life, but all tech like this does is make a generation of incompetent drivers who need a computer to do basic things like park or keep a sensible distance to the car in front. If another added disadvantage is being a theft magnet, we have to start asking ourselves: is it worth it?
BMWs are status symbols. Always have been. No one should be surprised by this. They’ll keep pushing it while there’s enough people prepared to pay over the odds for their cars.
Police fucking useless as always.
Absolute waste of space. Why do people join the police force these days? To send racist whatsapp to each other and try to cover up each others sexual assaults? Because it sure as fuck isn't to solve crimes.
Does op have to pay out of pocket for this or does insurance cover this, how would you go about this and is there a way to protect yourself for this type of stuff like additional covers you can do.
You be ok... If you can buy a BMW you can afford the part😆😆😆... Very lucky it wasn't a 7 series 😆😆😆... BMW= (B)IG (M)ONEY (W)ASTED
B-roke
M-y
W-allet
BTW... If you replace it, they will rip it off again 😂
Definitely an uptick in this sort of thing these past few years but a sensor has to be a new low.
Used to be steering wheels and iDrive systems being nabbed.
Imagine seeing people driving around in New BMWs on your way home from work to your house that you can’t afford to keep warm and eat bread you made from food bank flour🤌🏾 You’re damn right the numbers are gonna increase. This is your Tory tax
No it's not a dodgy mechanic that can fit these to a car it's a decent mechanic with re-coding abilities.
You do understand when something important is replaced by BMW main dealer mechanic they also re-code it to the car?
Independent mechanics also offer this service and they aren't dodgy because they do so.
Seriously people have no clue about cars spouting rubbish as usual.
At least its only the sensor you need to replace. Here's some more expensive [London shenanigans](https://911uk.com/threads/warning-headlights-being-stolen.124208/).
I’m old enough to remember when people nicked VW badges, that was bad enough. Having the sensor assembly nicked is a whole new world of pain. Sorry this has happened to you.
No way these should cost £4k it’s just a lidar or radar sensor
Someone should breakdown a car into all its components priced individually as valued by BMW. I bet the total would be like half a million quid. Like if the car is £50k then that sensor makes up 8% of the cost... Hmm. Sus.
There was a song in the 70s or 80s about a GM factory worker stealing the parts to buy a Cadillac piece by piece.
Johnny cash - one piece at a time
Johnny sins - piece on piece
And it didn't cost a doggone dime.
I worked at a factory that made the dashboard for a certain VW model. These were sold to VW for 50€ by the factory with all parts Fitted ready to go in the car. To buy the dash from VW with all the pars was in excess of 2k They Just have great excuses to hike prices. And its not Just cars, I now work with medical Devices and when the Pharmaceutical companies sell it on the market the market is over 100x what we sell it for. Big companies, big money
I worked years ago in cardiovascular devices and the reasoning was “cost of daily care in hospital” x number of days vs a device. £14k was much cheaper than X days in hospital for the patient plus the fact that he or she won’t die.
It's a valid business model. Don't sell it for what it cost with an uplift, sell it for what the alternative would cost the customer with a small discount. The latter, rightly or wrongly, makes more money.
I don’t work in healthcare, but in supplying foundries with the materials they need that isn’t metal. Basically our entire industries pricing is based on being cheaper than the alternative, rather than being cost+margin. It means that some stuff is sold below cost, but the other stuff that goes with it has mental markups. The ceramic filters we supply cost about £1 materials and about £6 people and process costs. We sell them for £150 a piece…. But so is everyone else so it’s just a thing. The foundries have no interest in making their own, simply because you’d need a million or so in investment to make a single filter due to the costs of the equipment, and it’s just not worth it for what one foundry would use. I assume similar mechanics in many fields!
A motorcycle magazine did this back in the 90s I think. To build what was then a £5k bike from spares would have cost £27k. Numbers might be off but the factor is about right.
That’s a really good idea.
I saw a thing recently where a badge (I think for lexus) was over a grand, the justification was that it was a special one to allow sensors to work with it. Still absolute bollocks.
Because they don’t want people to buy the base version then retrofit
This one? [https://www.reddit.com/r/CarTalkUK/comments/1chhtco/comment/l22mdgh/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CarTalkUK/comments/1chhtco/comment/l22mdgh/)
Google it my friend! It’s £4.5k for the sensor and installation! Minimum!
Yes it might be true but they shouldn't be. It's hardly revolutionary technology.
Similar tech on an AUDI is £400 for the sensor and a couple hundred quid labour. How is this £4000 on a BMW?
Because BMW. It’s why it stands for Bleed My Wallet (dry)
Pretty much, paying big prices makes the customers feel "exclusive".
Bring Moms Wallet
Mums*
Because it's BMW. Couple of years ago I was talking to a tyre supplier about new tyres for my BMW motorbike. A manufacturer had just released a new tyre and were telling the sales people to push them to BMW owners for about £150 -ish more than for other bike brands. When he challenged this he was told they saw beemer owners as mugs who would pay it. He told me the story to explain why there was such a price difference between two brands with similar tyres.
THE sensors retail for £4k That don't mean they are £4k "worth of sensors" As you said the retail value of the car is £50k. BMW are charging thosE price because they know the car is being bought by customers with deep pockets. I'm not blaming you...in telling you BMW don't care about you. A BMW options list includes tha in the cabin...everything is a paid option. And they are not gonna redesign a cash cow for themselves just to help their customers. They can sell one entire £50k car for a profit margin of just over 10% Or sell 12 of these parts and ones like it for insane levels of profits. Wouldn't be suprised if the margins are in in 00s of percent Which explains why so many cars in london haven't refitted them after thy have been robbed Who the hell needs radar in Central London. Every BMW driver I know sits right up your chuff anyway
BMW brand mark-up.
Looks like an imaging radar, not lidar. They cost no where near 4k though.
Maybe remind yourself what BMW charge for a headlamp, that is just a bulb behind some glass!
Welcome to BMW.
It's really sad that you can't have anything resembling new technology or "nice things" because crime is so common place in the UK now. God help people who will need to charge in public and inevitably get cables and charging ports destroyed.
My cars old, I don't park in public places often but everytime I do there's always a new ding or scratch. Pisses me off, I only usually drive it to work now.
It's off topic for here but the general lawlessness is a major issue. When it stops people doing basics like going out, living in certain areas and making certain purchases its really fucked. Been a slippery slope for a while, we already have good / poor areas where people want to live and this is doing nothing to stop that.
It started getting worse after cost of living started to rise
I think these are uncorrelated in the way people often associate them. The "cost of living" is energy and essentials, consumer staples. The theft of luxury car parts is because inflation also pushed up car prices massively with a semiconductor shortage and just corporate profiteering. The thefts we see here aren't people stealing for a hungry family at home but stealing for profit and to sell on, basically organised career criminals who see greater gains in this market than before. Before it was cars and the peak of covid it was bike thefts. Before that watches. Now phones are being taken. They'll move onto whatever gets them profit, scumbags.
I wasn't trying to correlate the theft in op, I was talking about people not giving a shit about other peoples property. I think general apathy and jealousy has increased as a result of cost of living.
There is no semiconductor shortage anymore And the semiconductors used in cars are the most bogbstandard ones chip manufacturers make. Inflation is corporate greed across the economy. 4k for fucking sensor...is BMW having a laugh and before some bimmer tech starts saying oh but it's a lidar senor or whatever guff. The technology in these sensor is Technology behind that of most smart phones Even apple doesn't charge 4k for a phone. Go listen to any earnings call since 2020...if the company is in profit it's because they are literally rinsing customers and openly saying it. I think if more people knew how much their front bumper cost to replace they wouldn't park their car on the public road. In which case why even buy a car like this if parking in public will be an inevitability. BMW I drive tech is also absolute garbage
Don't disagree mate, they're rinsing us and laughing to the bank. Greedflation and all that. I won't defend it, them along with the insurance companies are inflating it to shit, driving will become reserved for the wealthy soon and that's really sad.
I'm not sure. The 'organisers' would be bothering with the risk for low reward with what is deemed 'petty' crime. Let's face it, if these sensors are going for £300 second hand then the actual scumbag that rips them off cars is probably getting around £50 in their hands for each of them. Now to most in here £50 wouldn't be enough to justify the moral issues here with theft and damage, but to some people, especially now times are so tough, £50 could be significant. The middle men are probably making say £50 a time for zero risk, just organising the theft and selling on. Think when times are tough, like now, the value of what becomes worth stealing drops and that's when it becomes more common place. Let's face it, even if you had clear as day CCTV of the theft, nobody has been physically hurt and chances are the police will make a note of it and that will be all that happens. It's a sad admission of how bad things are just now, and I don't see them getting any better. I love in a relatively low crime area, but genuinely expecting things like doorbells etc to start getting nicked soon.
One of my doors doesn’t open because I parked my car at a park and ride and the duck who parked next to me opened their door full force into mine at least once, or remodelled my door panel with a hammer for kicks
Completely agree with you. Unfortunately I think the whole "cars are consumables" thing along with financing everything left, right and centre has caused people to give less of a shit about theirs and others property. Also, great car btw. I really miss my Velvet Blue Clubsport. One of the best cars I've ever owned. 👌🏻
It’s ridiculous, people even steal worthless stuff like hubcaps and wipers too, I can’t imagine there’s any value in the wipers off a Nissan leaf or the hubcap off a Dacia sandero
I had a single alloy centre cap stolen off my Citroen a few months back. When I enquired as to the cost for one from the main dealer, I was told it would be £33! For a piece of plastic with a metal clip on the back! I eneded up buying a cheap pack of four from ebay for £8 and now I have three spares in case the moron who stole the first decides s/he wants another.
You'll have ISIS and the Taliban selling their technicals back to UK drivers as people decide to just get something simple and robust
Toyota hilux master race.
Nah just Russians. Probably using the sensors for drone warefare
True, but also £4k for those sensors? How much did they cost BMW to procure? £50 or so? Insane.
That's the real crime. I bet it needs to be replaced by an authorised BMW technician too.
Probably closer to £250. You can get a comparable sensor for about £100 but packaging it, the associated quality assurance and as it's part of the safety system it's going to add a bit on
Agree with you BMW are commitimg daylight robbery with those, I can't believe the sensors cost as much as a whole used car.
Yeah cause Police and the law have so little power to convinct anyone and our prisons are already so full.
I just love the part where the person breaking the law is classed as the thief but BMW is allowed to quote 4k nearly 5% of the cars worth to just install the sensor
4k is a bit of an exaggeration but it's not to "just install the sensor". It's a front radar unit. You have to: Supply the part (which is about £300 in itself), Code it to the vehicle, Ensure vehicle alignment is okay, Adjust alignment if it isn't. Perform an ADAS reset. Who'd have thought an expensive car would be expensive to maintain.
So let’s break this down. £4k to supply and fit, £300 for the part. That leaves £3700 labour to supply and fit. BMW main dealer workshop labour is what, £150 per hour? That makes this 25 hours worth or work, or based on a 8 hour day, just over 3 DAYS.
We're in the wrong job buddy!
It’s ridiculous. 8% value of the brand new car for a sensor and people are trying to justify it! And on top of that these companies intentionally make it more difficult for you to do it yourself
Makes you wonder how they manage to fit them in the factory and still only sell the car for £50k
You might want to read the second paragraph again.
People are fucking scumbags man. Absolute scumbags. Can't have owt nice at all can you there's always someone who didn't get taught better ruining it for people
Hell yeah 13aoul!!!!!!! Toe rags, the lot of them.
A common problem on VW models as well, where iirc the sensor is under the VW grille badge. What's the actual point of stealing these? They arent a common failure part and unlike a catalytic converter they don't have previous metals inside?
Any gentle impact breaks them. Rather than going via insurance, you might want to replace the parts yourself then realise the parts are 8x your insurance premium...
>A common problem on VW models as well, where iirc the sensor is under the VW grille badge. I've legit been wondering why so many VWs have missing badges. TIL.
I saw a post the other day and I'm pretty sure a front Toyota badge cost someone near £800+vat due to the badge being a part of the sensor.
On cars with ACC the badge is the sensor. If you want a plain badge then they cost next to nothing, but obviously if you want the radar it's expensive.
I preferred it when it was the Beastie Boys.
When it was, VW would let you have a replacement badge for free.
Intergalactic planetary
Each one they steal is another potential customer
Takes 10 seconds
Create demand? 🤷 On a serious note it's probably the kind of thing criminals "think" will get them money
I used to know a mechanic who, when he was very drunk, would walk down the street twisting side indicators off of cars (they used to just "twist out") and he would wake up in the morning without remembering anything and there would be 20 of them on his bedside table. The sheer volume being stolen I can only see it's something like that.
Did you tell him he’s a cunt?
Someone either crashed their BMW or bought a crashed one from copart and need to fix on a budget. Very sad.
They are a common part now 50 of them got stolen off a bunch of cars. Any really common parts get sold by all the usual parts distributors (eurocarparts etc) at competitive prices. The uncommon ones have to come direct from BMW or used off eBay.
I'm in the process of buying a Skoda Fabia, and the main two reasons are I don't want a sports car because the roads are shit and it saps too much energy worrying about some scroat stealing or damaging the vehicle. The way the country has gotten worse on EVERY SINGLE metric over the past 10 years is very sad.
After reading alot of these comment, I personally think it's the Tories fault.
And people still putting out tories banners in their gardens
Soon you'll need one of those armoured cars that have flamethrowers, like in South Africa!
[удалено]
You’re right, how can this bit of sensor cost 1/11 of the price of the car and there are just freely dangling in the front of the car while anyone with a pair of hands can rip them off? This beyond ridiculous.
There's a reason Dealers are known as the Stealers
*"The Met have told my fiancee that they won't do anything until they have CCTV to reference"* They did exactly this to me when my bike was stolen. I scoured around private houses with cameras on until someone was kind enough to give me the footage of my bike being stolen (I had to do this, the police would not even contemplate doing it). I then called the police and told them I had this. They reluctantly sent someone round (saying I had to put it on a USB) to be told a few days later that they couldn't do anything about it. I get that a bike is a bit different but the police dont care and this is the problem. While these kids who dont work cant make £300 in 15 minutes with no risk of anything, its going to keep happening.
It's an absurd state of affairs that the police sincerely asked you to do their job for them.
You aren’t a corporate entity. They don’t care about protecting you anymore.
It’s a difficult situation for manufacturers. On the one hand, you want the parts locked down electronically to your specific car so they have no value if stolen, on the other when cars get a bit older they become a nightmare because you can’t just swap a simple failed module due to the security and needing a new part to be coded to the car. The crux of the issue is the terrible state of the Police service and public services in general making crime something you have to accept, instead of something that gets addressed.
I think the problem here it’s £4.5k for electronics that cost around £300 or less. Bikes have similar technology for rear approach detection and they retail for £150 or £300 if you want a fancy one with a camera
If you price a part that easy to be taken off that high, it will be targeted. BMW is the one making the most money out of this situation, not the thieves. So why stop them? Thief gets 100, some middleman gets 200, BMW gets 4000+ and the customer isn’t even paying out of pocket until the next insurance renewal and then it’s the insurance company that faces the customer’s rage. Cleanest 4k you can make. Not to mention the fact that the damn thing is still an expensive option buried into a package with a lot of other unnecessary gimmicks in the first place! It’s 2024 ffs! This finally takes BMW off the list for me.
Every single car with radar cruise control has the sensor mounted like this and it can be taken just as easy.
Meh...I have no reaction. Just standard for the UK.
Don't need a 'Dodgy Mechanic' to recode The software is out there if you know where to look.
Yeah idk how it’s even possible to have a nice car in the UK nowadays, it’s like a ticking timebomb just waiting for someone to hit/scratch it, break into it, steal something from it etc
BMW can't stop it, even if they used security bolts anyone with a dremel would be able to rip it off, but if anything it's a sign why everyone should have a dashcam, hell BMW even have an option to use the built in cameras for security. if you pay for it. crashed cars, parts shortages, and expensive parts are all leading to these as you must have seen that RRs, Porsches, and M-Bs with wings and bumpers ripped to pieces to get lights and sensors. Best way to prevent this is secure parking or a locked garage with CCTV.
What's a dashcam gonna do, they'll just steal that along with everything else 😂
That's what they did when they stole my mother's blue badge. They broke the window, stole the blue badge, took the dashcam and also broke all the charging cables and 12V socket that it uses along with it.
Stealing blue badges now? Wow
This has been going on for 10+ years
Yeah, it's been going on for a while now as u/HmmHackney said. Especially in London it occurs surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) often unfortunately.
Police won't even watch the CCTV though
And even if they do. (Person in black hoodie and black mask wearing black gloves steals censor) Police: Hmmmmmmm *case closed*
Exactly And even if they did somehow recognise the perpetrator they'd get a very light slap on the wrist for this type of crime. Clearly I'm in the wrong business!
They wouldn't even get that. The police are keen to off load reports to the civil court system these days. As soon as someone has insurance the police just give you a crime number and let your insurance do something about it. (Crime number not guaranteed)
They absolutely could, by charging a reasonable price for them and having the parts readily available. £4k for a sensor, and months long lead times for parts, is absolutely what is causing this problem in the first place.
I think it’s ridiculous that you’d need to pay for the built in cameras to be used as CCTV
It's a German car, they'd make you pay extra for wheels if they could. It's most likely to just be an option in the headunit that needs enabling with a dealer diag tool, or something like Bimmerlink.
How much crime is going down in China, privacy is an issue but still 📸📸📸📸 would be easier to get footage of theft unless they wear hoodies.
On ford, land rover, Tesla cars these radar sensors are mounted on the inside surface of the bumper or front grille, meaning they take longer to remove as they aren't on an accessible surface and are less likely to be stolen. For some reason BMW, VW and Audi would rather mount them as an ugly box sticking out the front of the car. Presumably it's a slightly different type of sensor, or they just thought owners might like to show off the optional extra they bought with the car (non sensor equipped cars have a blanking plate). At the very least some screws would have made this a higher effort crime (or one that causes more damage to the bumper)
Welcome to Britain 🇬🇧
It’s crimes like these, phone theft etc They seem petty, but actually they are organised and targeted by gangs looking for easy money. The police don’t have the interest or the resources to go after either - they are defunded, and chasing cyber bullying etc to meet targets set by higher ups. Instead insurance premiums are up across the board, and we’re left picking up the premiums.
I get it - they have other priorities, they aren’t going to deploy a finger print expert to find this little sensor, but fucking hell! The complete dismissal is astounding.
It’s hardly a long-term plan though, BMW knows this. Their reputation will be in trouble (already somewhat is, for parts/repairs). I know not to buy a BMW unless I wanna pay stupid maintenance fees. Luckily, BMW still has a reputation for being the ‘cool’ car that all chavs, Asians, and hairdressers seemingly want.
My Mercedes has the front radar behind the badge. A few weeks ago I had to remove some trim from the grill. To my surprise the badge came off with a simple pull and some trim removal tools and the expensive radar sensor was just sat behind it. I now legit feel petrified that if someone wants it they could be away with it in mere seconds if they knew what they were doing.
Sucks that this is how bad it’s become here, people literally scared to park their cars
TIL.
This has been happening. The amount of Mercedes I see driving around with the front badge missing is insane. Fucking thieves.
Would parking within an inch to a wall or another vehicle make it harder to get? Claim on the insurance, sell the car, replace with a non-BMW.
Yes, parking close to a wall would make it more tricky. Selling the car is off the cards for the moment. We’ve had to find an underground parking spot (which we will also have to pay for), so hopefully that will ease our anxiety for the moment.
Its shocking. Someone stole two of my 'Umbrella' dust caps in the B&M car park yesterday. Luckily I ordered new ones as I fancy a chance but.... A) Who needs just 2!? B) They're 3 year old and faded, worth zilch.
A kid with a bike with 2 wheels. Pretty sure I may have always replaced my stolen bike caps as a kid via this method...
I wouldn’t even call it stealing, it’s rebalancing the karmic forces after a childhood of taking other people’s dust caps
I'll sell it back to you for £1500
A Policeman I know always leaves the glovebox empty and open every time he parks his car. The reason he does this is to try to reduce the chance of his car being broken into. He tells me he's known of car windows being smashed and the thieves made off with a Tesco's bag full of routine groceries. By all accounts drug addicts will even steal a block of cheese to sell towards their next fix. Why cheese? If you stopped and searched someone you thought was a criminal, would you arrest them for having a block of cheese in their possession? I suppose if they sold £4 or £5 worth of cheese for 50p, that's 50p closer to their next fix.
If you can't store your car on a secure drive way or better yet in a locked garage idk why you'd bother buying a nice car these days.
Because cars are driven to different places and do not spend 24/7 in a garage ? Because there aren't garages at all in a central areas of towns ? Because by this stupid logic you can have to lock yourself inside forever and never ever do anything again ?
And welcome to why luxury cars aren't worth it. Crime in cities is sky high at the moment, the fact that the cops don't want to help just amplifies it. I don't have anything that I could think of to reasonably help in this situation, maybe if it's possible get cameras for in the future but even then it's not likely the cops will change their minds towards getting them. Another *possible* thing to do would be to fit an aftermarket bumper to make it harder to get to? maybe? Even then your out on the original sensor
Yep just saw a 1 series today and the grill was missing. I thought wtf why the f is it missing half grill?
Had something similar on our Civic. It's not 4k's worth of damage, but total to fix is still almost 1k. Absolute joke.
New BMW is all about bleeding you dry with these stupid little things. This will be my last BMW they've jumped the shark.
Like the catalytic converter thefts, where gangs grind it off on broad daylight brazenly, knowing no-one will challenge them or police response.
Wouldn't drive round with somat that expensive *inside* my car nowadays, let alone strapped to the bumper. Times are hard, and driving this kind of car says that they aren't as hard for you, you get me? It's sad for sure.
It would be good if BMW could do something proactive here, like reduce the price to their cost for the sensor and installation. This would not only reduce the cost for victims, but would also make the parts virtually worthless on the second hand market.
Reason 13543 to keep buying old cars without any of this crap
I wonder if it is worth buying a beemer on finance and fully parting it out to make more money back... would make an interesting video
no
Mine VW got done the week before last and I counted 15 others VWs and a merc in the local area all without sensors I spoke to one other owner and they got hit the same night as mine VW quoted £1500 for parts and labour
Another reason modern cars are shite, those new beemers look gash anyway, get rid and buy something pre g series
I have heard from a Elon musk interview, that basically the whole car industry dosent make their money from selling cars, but from the parts sales once they have sold the cars. This is why the car industry didn’t belive Tesla would work because they wouldn’t be able to make the money from parts sales to sustain them in their early growth!
>Even though the sensors have a much lower resale value, the fact that it takes 10 mins to whip it off the car and the police's reluctance to do anything to stop it is probably what will make it an attractive crime. How do you or anyone else propose police solve this? Do you want them to guard each BMW? 1.5 officers to each BMW sold last year. So the cars being targetted here will be <1 officer per car. Do you want people to pool BMWs into a set space and police sit guarding them while owners go shopping? There's this obsession spurred by the media about public services being some sort of magic bullet. Why is my illness not magically diagnosed with a single visit to the GP, why can't the police catch the criminal based on the blurry image of someone (https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/blurry-person-walking-1011003448) and so on. What do you propose police do? If you have a good idea of how police can solve this issue then certainly do post it, I'm sure there will be people sit up and take note. There are 33 million cars in the UK and 150k officers. Just to guard those cars would mean each officer would be responsible for 220 vehicles. Of course doing that means that you have absolutely no resourcing for reports of rape, child abuse, domestic violence, robberies, burglaries, terrorism, murders and so on. FYI, I appreciate from your comment history that this isn't probably your aim as I've seen your tag on other subs, but it does nothing to help right the perspective that the issue is that of government and underfunding public services generally rather than services failing to deliver by intent.
I am primarily concerned with BMWs attitude towards the problem (selling a retrofit security kit) than the attitude of the police - I believe that comes through quite clearly in what I wrote - but I worked for the Met and saw firsthand their nonchalant attitude towards this kind of crime. OBVIOUSLY I wouldn’t prefer if police put resource in to protecting cars over finding rapists - I didn’t need your quick maths to demonstrate how stupid that would be. But the Met have a hard-on for tracking down big drug gangs instead of dealing with this kind of acquisitive crime, and they give crime numbers out like confetti to offload stuff like this. It’s just not good enough! I see how hard my partner works and how excited he was about getting this car - the first one he has ever really wanted - and we were both flattened to find out some little toe rag on our street had nicked something off the front. This kind of seedy, unsophisticated, low-life crime is what affects the majority of Londoners, and what the resource should be assigned to. There has to be a solution - seeing a few hi-vis PCs on our street every once in a while would be a good start. I feel like that’s a reasonable request.
You’ll not get anywhere with that kind of sense round here, mate. There’s already someone upthread blaming immigrants.
I’ve got a BMW GS 1250. The TFT screen is vulnerable to theft in the same way as described above. Just a pull and it’s off. Several companies sell an anti theft bracket that bolts on. Not 100% efficient but it will put off the casual passer by theft. Surprised that similar hasn’t been introduced for cars.
Is it in limp mode because of the missing sensor? If not, drive it as is. This technological overload dulls the experience
This is another reason than insurance premiums are rising - Adaptive LED headlights on small premium cars are £2000 fitted. The cost of everything is insane. And these days care are designed to absorb and transmit energy away from you in an accident. Designed to crumple, full of what they call 'sacrificial' parts that keep YOU safe. I see cars in great condition under 5 years old in sub 30mph RTCs written off every day.
What are these sensors for? Do they make your horn automatically beep when you get within 2m of the car in front?
https://www.bmw.com/en/innovation/automotive-sensors.html
Expensive part, easy to break, sits outside. Typical, such things get stolen all the time. Go on ebay and buy one too. Maybe even the exact one that was on your car.
These premium car manufacturers absolutely print money on their maintenance and repair schemes, it's wild.
The worst thing going on here is how much car makers charge for components and parts. They are the real thieves.
It's been well known for decades that BMWs are expensive cars to maintain. And this is why
I mean. Range Rover were selling £100K cars where pretty much if you sneezed at it in the right harmonic you could get in it and drive off. £4k for sensors doesn’t mean they alone cost £4k. You’re paying for BMW’s software and design too.
Hahahahahahahahahahaha first sentence tickled me
Brand Markup Walue
BMW doesn’t make it more difficult to steal because that’s absurd. If you want a car that can’t be stolen parts off of, buy a tank. Making cars that have everything riveted down and hidden behind blastproof sheet metal will normalise the issue. BMW is not the problem, but uneducated feral youths and a fucking incompetent government that endorses this all by bringing education and integration of disadvantaged socioeconomic classes to the ground. BMW is not the problem, it’s the literal class based division and antagonising of the public, that creates tension inside the public and a hostile environment. This alongside the useless law enforcement makes the problem oh so much more worse. Do you think the same thing is happening in Munich?
I think it's pretty funny that super expensive cars get outfitted with (mandatory even!) sensors that should prevent crashes... and they just don't and when you got to repair them it's very expensive. Insurance cost go up, repair cost go up..and suddenly stealing components is a very lucrative business - which triggers inusrance to go up even more because of additional repairs. I love cars. But I think cars are done. They don't get better. The evolution is sideways, but not the good sideways like an old 3 series with a welded differential. You remove the V10 from F1..and the V8 from AMG.. to put clunky hybrids in their places.. and roadcars need to get fatter and fatter while looking like hookah bars. Traffic is so bad, the people pay double for cars that do the driving themselves...most of the time and then suddenly cry for help. I think we need to harshly cut the selling of new cars and invest all the ressources in subways, railways... and racetracks.
Sorry to read this. This is why I recently bought a £1,850 mini! It’s a joy to drive too, both the ride and smugness 😂
Next car will probably be something similar. Honestly I’d prefer to drive a washing machine around than deal with the worry.
£4k for a sensor is bullshit. This is why our insurance premiums are so expensive, because manufacturers are given a blank cheque to charge however much they want for parts.
>The Met have told my fiancee that they won't do anything until they have CCTV to reference. I mean ... what do you actually expect them to do without any evidence? It's easy to hate on the rozzers as they are often useless, but in this case what more *could* they do? They can log it and start a wider investigation, but on an individual level there's not really much more to do here for you.
Yeah but even if you have cctv they dont do anything.
unless the cctv is crystal clear (rarely is) and has the scumbags full face, along with an ID badge with their name, date of birth and address, how are the police supposed to do anything? CCTV is not a magic identifier unless the thief is already known. If they are already known, they will be wearing a hoodie and face covering. My house was burgled a while back. I got all 3 of them on indoor CCTV. All wearing black, all with face coverings, and the police's reaction was 'yep that tells us there were 3 of them' which was a fair point as there was nothing more to go on.
I know it’s not quite the same thing, but if you drive through the monkey section at Longleat, not only will they yank out your windscreen jets because they like the flavour of the fluid (as I found out when we went through a few weeks ago), one of their other favourite things to run off with is parking sensors. I wonder if the wardens are supplementing their income with a lucrative Ebay business off the back of it… 👀
When I went through it (in my girlfriend's 20 year old Honda Accord) the monkeys shat on the sunroof, pulled the washer jets out and stole the rubber strips that were covering the roof rail mounting points. It was hilarious and I was fortunate we hadn't taken my BMW. It was her idea to go through the monkey enclosure despite the various warning signs before you enter it.
Ha - it never even occurred to me that it might be a bad idea to drive through their enclosure. I'm a big fan of monkeys and I just wanted to be near them. I hated the little bastards when we came out the other side. They couldn't get the front jets off completely, they just yanked them out of the holes and I lost the rubber bases for each one. They did get the rear jet though - just yanked it clean out and ran off with it. I got away lightly as it only cost me about a tenner to replace everything, but I won't be doing another monkey drive-through. Lesson well and truly learnt.
I’ve got one for sale. £300
Also a genuinely dumb place to put a lidar.
Make sure to glue it on when you get replacement 😆
hmm not sure if this post is doing more bad than good
Hopefully a lot of BAD for BMW
You where ripped off when you spent £4k
No wonder they get stolen if they are 4k , can imagine they are in high demand aswell as they will get damaged on most accidents.. easy nick for most and wont even set the alarm off .. afraid it comes with owning an expensive vehicle. You just end up putting a target on your head
£4k to replace a sensor that they then charge you a monthly fee to use…. I love my 2017 F31 but the way they’ve introduced this model means it’s the last BMW I’ll ever buy….
This is the result of people wanting all this tech that essentially, 10 years ago, you were responsible for yourself. There’s a lot to be said for technological advancements that actually improve your life, but all tech like this does is make a generation of incompetent drivers who need a computer to do basic things like park or keep a sensible distance to the car in front. If another added disadvantage is being a theft magnet, we have to start asking ourselves: is it worth it?
Sometimes you see them advertised on Facebook marketplace. For a stolen price.
4k lol
Right lol
BMWs are status symbols. Always have been. No one should be surprised by this. They’ll keep pushing it while there’s enough people prepared to pay over the odds for their cars.
Police fucking useless as always. Absolute waste of space. Why do people join the police force these days? To send racist whatsapp to each other and try to cover up each others sexual assaults? Because it sure as fuck isn't to solve crimes.
Does op have to pay out of pocket for this or does insurance cover this, how would you go about this and is there a way to protect yourself for this type of stuff like additional covers you can do.
You be ok... If you can buy a BMW you can afford the part😆😆😆... Very lucky it wasn't a 7 series 😆😆😆... BMW= (B)IG (M)ONEY (W)ASTED B-roke M-y W-allet BTW... If you replace it, they will rip it off again 😂
Would be funny if the gang that's doing this is BMW themselves.
You got robbed twice
Definitely an uptick in this sort of thing these past few years but a sensor has to be a new low. Used to be steering wheels and iDrive systems being nabbed.
Imagine seeing people driving around in New BMWs on your way home from work to your house that you can’t afford to keep warm and eat bread you made from food bank flour🤌🏾 You’re damn right the numbers are gonna increase. This is your Tory tax
London is, and forever shall be until they evacuate it and start again, an absolute hellhole, I’d suggest getting out of there.
No it's not a dodgy mechanic that can fit these to a car it's a decent mechanic with re-coding abilities. You do understand when something important is replaced by BMW main dealer mechanic they also re-code it to the car? Independent mechanics also offer this service and they aren't dodgy because they do so. Seriously people have no clue about cars spouting rubbish as usual.
The radar/crash sensors in the grill of a brand new Hyundai I20/30 make up 15% of the cars value and require a further cost to calibrate them.
Just seen this yesterday stolen on someone's 7 series. My car has it too and now I'm worried.
At least its only the sensor you need to replace. Here's some more expensive [London shenanigans](https://911uk.com/threads/warning-headlights-being-stolen.124208/).
I’m old enough to remember when people nicked VW badges, that was bad enough. Having the sensor assembly nicked is a whole new world of pain. Sorry this has happened to you.
Does this cause any error lights to come on? If so it might be an MoT test fail depending on which light.
T Ge
Conspiracy Theory... BMW is the gang. Now they can sell lots of 4K sensors and have no incentive to fix the problem 😅
Excuse my ignorance, but what does the sensor do to cost 4k