Your Bangernomics successes

Stoke

Stick to bangernomics guys. I'm going through the mad rollercoaster of terrible warranties with this Bimmer now.....

Uhhh, should have kept that bloody Mazda.

GunJack

Stoke wrote: »

Uhhh, should have kept that bloody Mazda.

Yeah, you should!!! :rotfl:

seriously, though, shame you're having bother, what's up with it?

Stoke

GunJack wrote: »

Yeah, you should!!! :rotfl:

seriously, though, shame you're having bother, what's up with it?

Car drove great for a few months (aka 4000 miles), then one day felt really really rough on the way to work. EML lights up..... Stopped the car and had my mate drive me the rest of the way to work, returned later to find it wouldn't start whatsoever. Scanned it using a proper tool, had a look online and it looked like it was just the crank sensor, which is still a reasonably big job on a BMW E90 (intake has to come out) but nothing major for a solid mechanic... Get it recovered to a garage as it's under warranty, no point in me doing it... Warranty agrees in principal to pay for the work as the car is under warranty and it's an engine fault.... until the garage realise it's actually not the crank sensor at all, the guide rail for the timing chain had collapsed and as good as lunched the engine. Can't be sure how much damage was done, but the mechanic told me a compression test was returning inconsistent results, so I suspect the chain slipped and some valves were bent and some weren't.

All of a sudden the warranty company change their tune and have done everything they can since to be as difficult as possible. They've put up blocks now for going on 3 weeks and were playing smoke and mirrors once again yesterday with regards to photographs. So far, two sets of photographs have not been accepted and while this goes on, the car is obviously on a lift with no work being done. I told them yesterday that I have a second car, so if this is a procrastination tactic then they need to think of another way they can screw me over, to which the lad on the phone seemed surprised..... What the !!!!? How can he be surprised? It took a week for them to clear up whether the head needed to come off for them to authorise the claim, and now they're being difficult over photos. An engine rebuild takes probably a week.... so the only thing that has caused this is TWG and their utterly despicable business practices.

It's now 3 weeks yesterday since the vehicle first broke down and it was recovered the day after, so it gives you some context to how long this has been going on. I am now fully expecting to be stitched up by The Warranty Group. 3 weeks and counting actually, because there's currently no ending in sight. I will phone them again in the afternoon today because another delightful TWG trick is that they can't phone you, apparently. I'm sure if they had over paid a customer for some work they'd have no problem phoning them, but seems that the phone lines are all one-way when it comes to getting them to actually come good on their promises. All we can hope is as people get more savvy, TWG's business atrophies to the point all the staff are made unemployed and end up living on rice cakes everyday and the CEO goes into hiding suffering from monumental amounts of guilt. OK, that's a bit mean, but honestly, I would struggle to live with myself working at a company that seems to enjoy ripping off honest people in their time of need. To pull £1800 out of my !!!! for a new engine isn't that easy and is exactly why I paid £300 for an extended warranty..... My car has a full BMW service history, was sold by an RAC garage for top money and I've done nothing wrong, yet between them, the RAC and TWG are doing everything in their power to make sure they're not to blame.

Stick to private sales people..... you'll save money and you won't be talked into buying pointless warranty packages.

GunJack

That's really !!!!py mate, hope it turns out well in the end....

k6chris

So is the theory of Bangornomics that your (cheap) car is disposable, ie if something major goes wrong you throw 6 and start again and avoid the cost of said major problem? Plus I guess that depreciation is not a huge factor?? Downside is risk of breakdown I guess??? Trying to get my head around whether this is a genius idea or just long term automotive misery

GunJack

k6chris wrote: »

So is the theory of Bangornomics that your (cheap) car is disposable, ie if something major goes wrong you throw 6 and start again and avoid the cost of said major problem? Plus I guess that depreciation is not a huge factor?? Downside is risk of breakdown I guess??? Trying to get my head around whether this is a genius idea or just long term automotive misery

1. yes, the car can be disposable
2. Depreciation is NOT a factor at all
3. Breakdown cover is dirt-cheap, around £40 annually for home & national cover (price comparison sites are your friend)
4. It's genius...unless you're the image-is-all type with money to burn

k6chris

GunJack wrote: »

It's genius...unless you're the image-is-all type with money to burn

I'll have to give it a go once the lease runs out on my Aston..... :rotfl:

fred990

GunJack wrote: »

1. yes, the car can be disposable
2. Depreciation is NOT a factor at all
3. Breakdown cover is dirt-cheap, around £40 annually for home & national cover (price comparison sites are your friend)
4. It's genius...unless you're the image-is-all type with money to burn

Agreed.....
I've been flirting of late over an outrageously fast, expensive audi estate then thought nope waste of money. How about a near new 535d estate instead? Again thought waste of money just to get from a to b.
I'm probably going to stick to old bangers!

Bedhead1157

reddwarf2002 wrote: »

For many people the reason bangernomics doesn't make sense is due to repair costs associated with older cars. Just out of interest, did you carry out the repair yourself; if not then how much did that set you back? I think if people could list the repair costs then it would give a better idea of the actual money savings.[/QUOTEto ]

Discs and pads were sub £40, needed the old disc sliced with a grinderand a crack with a chisel to get off, the subframe bushes were about £50 and a couple of hours work.

The trick is to buy something with as little electrickery and things you can't bodge yourself as possible, do the research into parts prices and you'll save yourself hundreds.

[Deleted User]

Bedhead1157 wrote: »

For many people the reason bangernomics doesn't make sense is due to repair costs associated with older cars. Just out of interest, did you carry out the repair yourself; if not then how much did that set you back? I think if people could list the repair costs then it would give a better idea of the actual money savings.[/QUOTEto ]

Discs and pads were sub £40, needed the old disc sliced with a grinderand a crack with a chisel to get off, the subframe bushes were about £50 and a couple of hours work.

The trick is to buy something with as little electrickery and things you can't bodge yourself as possible, do the research into parts prices and you'll save yourself hundreds.

My car is 10 years old and it has cost me less than £200 in repairs in the 2 years 3 months I've owned it apart from tyres. You can't get a lease/finance/whatever deal for less than that.

Tax is £30 a year and my insurance is cheap with maximum no claims.