- BMW resale values make it very clear: these cars are actively hostile (in many many ways) to their owners the second they go out of warranty. Pity, their interiors are lovely. In the long term, is this strategy going to work out for them? I won't buy another one. I know... anecdata :)
- Reminded me of the "shim" discussion about BMW motorcycles and part authenticity from the 1974 classic "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance": http://www.hilarygallo.com/the-zen-shim-question/
by general1465
2 subcomments
- Correct bit for screwdriver available on AliExpress 5 minutes after the bolt is available for public.
- Think we can get it with existing SP10 bit or “clutch” shaped bits?
Fiber optics bit
https://www.qocese.com/product-p-381399.html
Magnetic Spanner bit
https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Security-Screwdriver-Electro...
Clutch bit
https://www.amazon.com/Clutch-Vintage-American-Steel-Sizes/d...
by vintermann
1 subcomments
- The "screw you" jokes just write themselves.
- I have heard about these screws, but it isn't a reach to hand make a bit that would turn these all day, that said, I am done with screens and capacitive switches in cars
and will be doing retro mods to a few nice clasics for my own use, one that only beeps when you push the giant button just for that.
- Reminds me of the 2-hole "snake eye" or "pig nose" screw heads you sometimes see in bathrooms or elevators. I have several of the bits for these since they come with every one of those n>20 -piece screwdriver bit sets, but I've never actually had to undo one. I guess that goes for most of the oddball bits those sets come with.
If they really wanted to screw (pun, sorry) with repairability (and at significant cost to themselves), I guess they could start making their own taps and dies for nonstandard threads you can't buy anywhere else. Wouldn't stop them from being unscrewed, though.
by schuppentier
3 subcomments
- This feels like they want to use trademark law to prevent third-party products. You can't legally produce the screws without baiscally copying the BMW logo onto it. I don't know if a similar argument would hold water for the drivers though.
by voidUpdate
7 subcomments
- I'd be interested to know how BMW manufactures those screws. The patterns in the metal in the image suggest the entire hole was drilled out? The deepest part has circular marks inside that looks like the marks left by a facing tool on a lathe or similar. Then I guess the two wedges were inserted and the whole screw faced?
- If it's metric thread you only need to unbolt them once, and then you replace them with TORX.
- Seems to be in line with BMW's enshitification moves they've made regarding Home Assistant. I actually have an X5 that was affected by this & it will be the last BMW I ever own.
https://alerts.home-assistant.io/alerts/bmw_connected_drive/
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/1n8tidg/bmw_...
by conartist6
0 subcomment
- Every time I see that now to me it will represent stupidity and greedy waste
- Looks like Adafruit took down the page about 3D printing a working driver bit. Wonder who made that happen :/
- I think this is misunderstood - everybody points out that how evil BMW is for trying to be proprietary, then immediately points out any Chinese factory can produce a compatible tool for pennies - which one is it?
I think this is a pretty good mechanical design in general because:
- large contact surface (like hex or torx)
- no chance of slide-out (like flathead) or torque-out (like Philips)
- you can use a different size screw bit than the screw, and it wont slide around, or destroy your nut like torx does with hex
- Wouldn't circumventing trademark lockouts like this be fair use under "Sega v. Accolade"[1]?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade
- Who cares about bmw except gangsters and narcissistic psychopaths these days anyway?
The quicker they bury themselves the better for everyone, more market space will remain for good car manufacturers
- You will be able to buy a "BMW screwdriver" from China in a couple of weeks. This prevents nothing, it's just annoying and goes to show that BMW is run by dickheads (in case you didn't know yet).
Apple's "pentalobe" screws tell you the same about that company.
- This patent came from the design department. Some dude looked at the logo and said, “Huh, we could make a screw from this.” The legal team then took it and made a design patent.
If you guys want, I can message him and ask about the grand conspiracy behind it but you might be disappointed.
- I rent cars 300 days a year, for work. Generally I don’t have high expectations.
Right now I’m driving a BMW IX2 and it’s the stupidest fucking car I ever drove.
I had booked a Polestar 2, which Hertz unfortunately didn’t have available. Great car, that one.
by burnt-resistor
2 subcomments
- BMW: The Ultimate Asshole Machine.. now with more assholery to assholes too!
(Their motorcycles had a better rep until now.)
- Now I’m curious, are there any manufacturers still making repairable cars?
by reactordev
0 subcomment
- Yet another reason to never own a BMW
- [dead]
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