Bav Auto Closing

[agent]

Pagid pads are OE to a plethora of BMWs. You should be able to find them any number of places.

[ainadude]

Wow, big surprise but, in retrospect, not so surprising after all. Let's face it, BMW (and the mainstream auto industry in general) have become so far removed from the enthusiast market (folks like ourselves who enjoy working on our own vehicles and incrementally upgrading them .n our own garages or driveways) that the writing was on the wall for BavAuto -- which is likely to be the first of similar companies faced with a disappearing enthusiast market.


Don't get me wrong, automakers are producing some wicked great cars. But new vehicles are getting so sophisticated, with computerized systems so tightly integrated with one another, that it's become significantly more difficult for driveway wrenchers like ourselves. Meanwhile, the supply of enthusiast-worthy (i.e. analog) vehicles diminishes daily. To add insult to injury, the typical Gen-Zer is more interested in social media and immersive online gaming than getting their hands dirty tweaking a suspension setup or swapping brake pads (not to mention stomping on it and burning through a corner in the non-digital world).


It's hard to stay in business if your core market isn't being replaced.



Like face it, guys, young or old, we're all dinosaurs ... probably the last generation of automobile enthusiasts.



It's been a good ride ... let's enjoy the miles we have left.

[jrobie79]

Totally sucks! I love those guys. They shipped fast, had great customer service and were honest. Great prices too.

As one last testament to their good ethics, I ordered over $225 worth of stuff from them in the past week and the last of it is in transit to me right now.

I’ll be interested to hear why they went out. I suspect that excess parcel costs were a contributor, they often sent orders to me in three or more shipments. Super inefficient and costly.

from what I heard it was because google wasn't picking up their new website, so web traffic significantly decreased. Not sure if it's due to lack of SEO or something else regarding their script. Either way it fucking sucks

[TheB1G Lebowski]

Man I better check with these guys. I've got a valve cover gasket and a trunk gasket on order.

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[Aleman]

To add insult to injury, the typical Gen-Zer is more interested in social media and immersive online gaming than getting their hands dirty tweaking a suspension setup or swapping brake pads (not to mention stomping on it and burning through a corner in the non-digital world).

No joke! My teenage sons are very 'meh' about cars. It's like pulling teeth to get my 16yo to practice driving for his license. When I was a kid, I hounded the holy living shit out of my folks to take me out to practice, and then I got my license on my 16th bday. A friend of mine pays for his kid to get Uber'd everywhere instead of getting him a license and a beater car, per the kid's preference. WTF, guys?

The writing was on the wall for Bav Auto. They're prices were not competitive, and they spent too much $$ on mailing out paper catalogs. Griot's sends out too much paper, too, but their prices are insane enough to keep them profitable I suppose.

[Powling]

No joke! My teenage sons are very 'meh' about cars. It's like pulling teeth to get my 16yo to practice driving for his license. When I was a kid, I hounded the holy living shit out of my folks to take me out to practice, and then I got my license on my 16th bday. A friend of mine pays for his kid to get Uber'd everywhere instead of getting him a license and a beater car, per the kid's preference. WTF, guys?

The writing was on the wall for Bav Auto. They're prices were not competitive, and they spent too much $$ on mailing out paper catalogs. Griot's sends out too much paper, too, but their prices are insane enough to keep them profitable I suppose.

To be honest, I was the exact same way. Later on I realized it wasn't a lack of interest in cars, but more of a "I don't want to drive with my parents, even if I have to for practice sake".

Once I passed my "G2" and could drive by myself without a guardian in the car with me, you couldn't keep me out of the car. Even till this day at 31 years old with a 160km commute everyday for work. I still spend my weekends driving, a lot.

[15Michaeljoseph]

I did use their Pagid brake pads and liked them. Anyone know what pads would be comparable?

Same here, I have the Pagid Red/ Meyle HD kits on both the e30 and e36. Good pads, although pretty dusty. Those rotors are really nice though. When it's time for replacement I'll probably go with either Hawk HPS or StopTech Street Performance. Both seem to be really good based on forum research and will probably be a bit cleaner too.

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[e30RS]

Really sad news. A fantastic site for all things bmw/mini. Always had excellent customer service in my experience.

[MR 325]

https://www.ecstuning.com/Page/bavauto_update/

[Sean S.]

Like face it, guys, young or old, we're all dinosaurs ... probably the last generation of automobile enthusiasts.

It's been a good ride ... let's enjoy the miles we have left.

Greater truth has never been told .... So sorry to see BavAuto go out, I've been buying from them for 30 years and always had a great experience despite living on the opposite coast. Best of luck to everyone at BavAuto!

[Andrew325is]

I just found out now that they closed. I guess that shows I don’t order parts from them often enough to notice, and I guess not enough others were either. My top 3 now are a local supplier (Halsey Import), an actual BMW dealer, and RockAuto. I remember BavAuto from way back in the day. They were to BMWs like Rovers North is to Land Rovers. I liked getting their mailings. The PO of my new E30 included a lot of parts from BavAuto so some of them are on there now.

[Jordan]

I grew up in New Hampshire not far from Bavarian Autosport and regularly went by on the weekend to buy odds and ends for the BMW I had at the time, a 1980 320i.

Once I moved away from NH in 2001 to the west coast I continued to mail order items from them for my first E30 through likely 2002 or so. Order after order I got boxes full of backorder slips with incomplete quantities of hardware requested and often cheap brands when I specifically ordered the premium options.

This became such an often occurrence I simply terminated doing business with a company I grew up with through my early years of this old BMW disease. Their website was not kept up, was slow and cumbersome. Pricing wasn't cheap enough to match the big dogs and hasn't been for years. I am genuinely surprised it took them this long to fold in todays online commerce price driven market.

I moved on to working with Patrick over at BMA to finish out my first E30 build until I moved from Oregon to Houston. Hell I did so much business with him I made stopping in at BMA to meet him and shake his hand part of my planned trip route.

[itsonlygeorge]

Blunttech it is then...


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