BMW commitment to Classic Group parts

[ghrays]

Since I acquired my 1990 325i in 2017, I have seen an enormous number of parts become NLA from BMW. This includes many trim parts such as the rear windows, rear window seals, carpeting and dash, as well as other critical parts destined to deteriorate over time, such as the engine wiring harness and many more. This is really pissing me off. Fortunately, I ordered most of what i needed to completely restore my car earlier. It is my understanding that MBZ has many more parts available for their cars of similar vintage.

They made over 2 million E30s, why can't they support them with parts?

Rant over.

[ZeKahr]

Vintage BMWs not being as popular as vintage Mercedes with the restoration scene might have something to do with it. Also the E30 isn’t yet as old as something like the 2002 where that kind of thing is much more warranted. Car parts cost quite a bit of money to produce. Give it a few years, I’m sure they’ll remake some of the NLA E30 parts at some point as demand begins to rise.

[15Michaeljoseph]

Because: money. Unfortunately, these companies don't actually care about classic cars. It's a sad fact, but is just something that is driven by demand and progress. Auto culture has changed and in the aggregate, it does them absolutely no harm to discontinue support for classic parts. It costs a lot to tool and produce parts with limited demand and make it worth it for them to do so... Even for something popular like e30 dashboards, which we will probably never see in production again even though they are sought after by many e30 owners and parts resellers. This same concept is why BMW 'purity' and design tradition has all but vanished from later models, along with manual transmission offerings. That being said, we have fortunately seen an INCREDIBLE increase in aftermarket/ 'boutique' replacement-replica-upgrade parts to fill at least some of that void. Maybe not yet for glass and trim, but I don't think it's out of the realm of eventually happening. An example: for the longest time, it was impossible to find body patch panels for rust prone areas on these cars. Yet within the past two-ish years, more than one company has stepped up and begun making a variety of e30 body patch panels--- and they seem to be doing quite well. Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

[roguetoaster]

Let's be a bit more pragmatic about it. BMW reproduces or sources many parts, so long as the tooling/expertise/human safety rules exist/allow them to do so, and it is a low loss proposition. In the last year they have likely skipped new parts runs for obvious reasons. There have also been some changes in corporate, with some people who worked on E30s now in higher positions.

That said, these are 3ers, not M3s, or fancier models, so there is less reason to reproduce for reasons of cachet. Also, they understand that 99% of the market will not pay $4000 for a dashboard like in MB land.

Finally, there's reliability, 3s happen to have been well supported, and have just recently started to experience aftermarket parts fall off, so it is likely that BMW had noted low demand over time. This is unlike MB, where no one in the aftermarket made mission critical parts for decades, and the cars were largely unreliable.

[ghrays]

If its only money, why not charge what it costs to produce them? For example, if it would currently cost $750 to make and sell an engine wiring harness, why not sell it for that instead of giving up and selling none? OR, take deposits on orders until there are enough to make production feasible.

[roguetoaster]

If its only money, why not charge what it costs to produce them? For example, if it would currently cost $750 to make and sell an engine wiring harness, why not sell it for that instead of giving up and selling none? OR, take deposits on orders until there are enough to make production feasible.

In theory they take deposits before reproducing some parts. However, a company generally cannot simply hold a prepayment for more than a short time without creating a tax headache, and since we never know exactly how many orders there just before production it's hard to come up with a real number of preorders needed.

The scenario to avoid for BMW would be overproduction of an overpriced part that does not move, and then sits in a warehouse, which isn't free or unlimited in availability.

The bottom line is that companies exist to make money, not to help consumers, not to make the world a better place, and certainly not to go through the trouble of selling something at zero margin, especially if the company is otherwise occupied/profitable. FYI, zero margin is probably impossible to achieve, as anything near to zero would likely be a net negative for the entire company when unassigned overhead is considered.

[ghrays]

I did not mean to imply that BMW should sell parts for zero margin, that is why I said "..if it would currently cost $750 to make and sell", the sell part including profit for the company and its resellers.

[roguetoaster]

That I could not say, maybe they wish to disassociate their brand from dirty combustion engine models, or perhaps repro parts are so far beyond their normal procurement protocols that management deems them unnecessary.

[ghrays]

... perhaps repro parts are so far beyond their normal procurement protocols that management deems them unnecessary.

This is exactly my point, in the title of this thread:
BMW commitment to Classic Group parts

[2mAn]

In certain other marques the aftermarket has stepped in. For example, in the Porsche 914 world there’s a guy who reproduces the wiring harnesses. 914 rubber has started reproducing seals, etc. 914 restoration stepped in with replacement metal. Basically it’s all about a supply / demand. Same thing with the Datsun Roadster world, these are both models that have very little support.

Im sure the E30 and BMWs in general have much better support than those “black sheep’s” ... just be happy you’re not trying to get parts for an E21, the E30 is an icon. I’m sure they will do another run soon. Just keep bugging the dealership.

[Vincenze]

Here they say that BMW is looking for a carpet manufacturer.
But they are most likely looking for a manufacturer from Hungary or Poland as German products are very expensive.

There is a thread where people are trying to find door weather seals because they consider authentic ones to be too expensive.

[roguetoaster]

If you think BMW NLA issues are bad you should check out the world of VW beyond air cooled models. So, in many ways it is impressive that BMW had fairly comprehensive support for E30s for as long as they did.

[89_325i]

I'm still fairly impressed with what you can get for the E30, coming from the VW and Kawasaki motorcycle world. The dealer has been more than willing to bring in anything that is available, and give me a deal on them to boot.

I'm trying to gather up a few of what I consider critical interior parts that are about to go NLA.

[Vincenze]

I'm trying to gather up a few of what I consider critical interior parts that are about to go NLA.

What are those?

Most interior parts are not available anyway.

[89_325i]

What are those?

Most interior parts are not available anyway.

I got a rear center console and the lower dash panel from the dealer. Saving up for a sedan carpet, hoping I can still get one when I'm ready. I dont know what I'll do if I cant get one. I'm in an isolated area and good parts cars are non-existent.