Hi there. I’m Saul Reisman here at Saul’s Autotek, and today we’re going to answer a really common question we get asked from all of you BMW owners.
BMW owners often ask, “Why is the labor so intensive, so expensive, and so time-consuming with my motor vehicle?” Well, the reality is, German engineered motor vehicles were designed around the center of mass being as low and close to the center of the body as possible. This provides equal weight distribution, proper handling, steering, and suspension wear, and keeps you safe in the event of a collision by keeping that center of gravity as low to the ground as possible.
As a result, the systems in the vehicle from the motor, transmission, transfer case, drive shafts, the exhaust is literally layered on top of each other to keep the weight all in that one same spot. The downside of this is, if there are major failures and a component is buried, we literally have to peel it back like an onion of every layer of components to get access.
Today, I’m standing underneath a 2013 BMW X5M. This vehicle is equipped with a twin turbo, 4.4 liter V8 that literally had six layers of components to get access to the motor. So while we’ve removed the engine, which is sitting over on what used to be the cradle, we had to get access by removing the motor, transmission, steering, and suspension from the front of the vehicle, the entire exhaust system, pulling the engine apart, disassembling the engine from the actual oil pan, all to get to our block so that we can build and assemble the new engine.
As a result, this means the entire vehicle has been torn down to the point of which it was literally built on the assembly line. This is why it’s such a time-consuming repair. If you’d brought me a Chevy pickup truck and said, “Put a motor in it,” 10-hour job. BMW X5M, almost a 45-hour job. The answer is in engineering. If you want the best-engineered product, unfortunately, the labor times are going to match that engineering.
However, this vehicle is worth the cost of the repairs, is going to last on the road another 10 years with this engine and is a substantially less cost expensive repair than replacing the motor vehicle would be based on the incredible value that these actually retain.
As a result, the owner has opted to repair it, and while it will take a technician a solid week to perform the repair, we’ll be able to guarantee it’s going to stay on the road for another decade. It’s going to have perfect service, and we’ll be able to say it was literally built from the frame up, right here.
If you’ve got concerns about your BMW, come and see us at Saul’s Autotek. We’ve got the best techs for the job, and we can take it down all the way to bare bones if we need to, seven days a week at 303-919-7769.
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