redz8
January 16th 2006, 06:08
I am having a hard time understanding how a car like the Z8 would readily sustain frame damage due to an encounter with a pothole or the like ...
Don't cars go through stress testing during the design process? You would think that someone at BMW put this car, along with heavy instrumentation, on a simulator and drove it for 100K miles.
Based on the pole on this site, I see very few cases of true shock tower damage. The few that report shock tower damage don’t seem to be entirely sure. (The body panel gap test seems to be a less accurate gauge of damage, as even cars with delivery miles exhibit some variation, as reported.)
So, could it be that the damaged cars are (1) abused, or (2) part of a small batch of cars with an assembly/manufacturing flaw, or (3) there is some age-related deterioration taking place?
Regardless, I think BMW will stand by its product. They will either acknowledge this as a flaw and fix it or reassure us that the cars are as good as advertised. In both cases, they will probably give us an extended 100K mile warranty. Just as they did with the M3 (engine rod problem).
Don't cars go through stress testing during the design process? You would think that someone at BMW put this car, along with heavy instrumentation, on a simulator and drove it for 100K miles.
Based on the pole on this site, I see very few cases of true shock tower damage. The few that report shock tower damage don’t seem to be entirely sure. (The body panel gap test seems to be a less accurate gauge of damage, as even cars with delivery miles exhibit some variation, as reported.)
So, could it be that the damaged cars are (1) abused, or (2) part of a small batch of cars with an assembly/manufacturing flaw, or (3) there is some age-related deterioration taking place?
Regardless, I think BMW will stand by its product. They will either acknowledge this as a flaw and fix it or reassure us that the cars are as good as advertised. In both cases, they will probably give us an extended 100K mile warranty. Just as they did with the M3 (engine rod problem).