370 BMWs Damaged at the Port

[poolboyz02]

Jersey City

A cargo ship carrying BMWs heading to our dealerships tipped a bit and caused damage to 370 BMWs. All were either E92 M3s, 1-series, 3-series. Of the 370, 70 were written off to the crusher, and the others will be fixed at the BMW receiving facility and sold as new. The shipping company's insurance has the tab.

Over 370 BMWs bound for New Jersey port damaged in shipping - Autoblog

[bergie_318is]

ohhh damn thats a major problem!

but how can they sell them as new? they wont be new, thats a bit dodgey

[RacerJames666]

No kidding! Thatsa hell of an asshole move by bmw......tout up your cars, then sell somone a "refurbished new" car for (I sure hope not) sticker price...SHAME ON BMW

[nondescript]

Sure hope someone at the junk yard doesn't really have any scruples and takes out those engines and trannies...

[RacerJames666]

I was thinkin the same thing.......my m3 needs a v8 too.......

[GERMAN]

that sucks man. glad i am not in the market for a new bmw.

[4 door 330]

So sad...

[///M3Driver]

WTF? Sell as NEW? F that.

[ZahirAbr]

its hart saw to think of all that babies hurt and going to be destroyed, imagine how you would feel if you waiting for your E92 M3 and it was on that ship , i hope fixing them and selling them is just a story as that will stink up BMW rep...

[Neel]

LOL its funny to see everyone get bent out of shape over it. They are new, chances are the car your passing on the highway may have had it happen to it. Even as an inventory manager for toyota i see it happen. I even had a meeting at the port and ive seen the facility its happened to. If the damage isnt terribly bad they will fix it and sell it as new. The cars shown in the pics most likely wont be sold and will most likely be trashed.

Bottom line is that its nothing new and it happens... it was kind of funny to read everyones reaction.

[CraigMakDaddy]

The problem is that most people are ignorant of the fact that a refurbished item is as good as a new one. It simply means that some parts have been replaced with equally good new parts. If the manufacturer is the one doing the replacing then it will be equally as good assuming that there was no damage to anything besides the actual parts replaced. Case and point, people cry like babies when they find out thier phone, laptop whatever they bought on eBay was refurbished. It's just a foolish assumption based on prejiduce towards that word "refurbished". In order to be built wasn't it assembled from parts in the first place anyways?? Poeple should think logically for a change instead of being afraid of the hype of a buzzword such as "refurbished". It's a meaningless word if the parts used were new and put on by a licensed professional. Assuming there was absolutely no other damage.

[otjuggs]

ill take em!

[RacerJames666]

But still! I know they put the refurbished models through tolerance tests for fitting of sheet metal and such, but if I was shelling out 65k for a car.....I mean damn!

[caracas_e30]

Originally Posted by CraigMakDaddy

The problem is that most people are ignorant of the fact that a refurbished item is as good as a new one. It simply means that some parts have been replaced with equally good new parts. If the manufacturer is the one doing the replacing then it will be equally as good assuming that there was no damage to anything besides the actual parts replaced. Case and point, people cry like babies when they find out thier phone, laptop whatever they bought on eBay was refurbished. It's just a foolish assumption based on prejiduce towards that word "refurbished". In order to be built wasn't it assembled from parts in the first place anyways?? Poeple should think logically for a change instead of being afraid of the hype of a buzzword such as "refurbished". It's a meaningless word if the parts used were new and put on by a licensed professional. Assuming there was absolutely no other damage.

Completely and wholesomely disagree with you. If I was dishing out over $30,000 for a BMW I would be disgusted to find out my new vehicle was damaged prior to being delivered. The reason I would buy a BMW in the first place would have to be the build quality of a factory job in German facilities by professionals in the field (exclude American/Mexican facilities). I rest comfortably knowing that but would lose sleep facing the fact that my brand new car was in fact damaged significantly during shipping. The damage I see to the E90's on the photos are extensive, not to mention panels being replaced that are not original VIN# matching but "factory replacements"....imagine that when someone is buying your car down the road? How do you explain it?

At an average price of $45,000 by the 70 perceived to be total losses would roughly equal around $3,150,000 lost, not at cost prices but at potential revenue. BMW would surely be insured against such losses and I would hope they claim this instead of reselling as "new".

[CraigMakDaddy]

Originally Posted by caracas_e30

Completely and wholesomely disagree with you. If I was dishing out over $30,000 for a BMW I would be disgusted to find out my new vehicle was damaged prior to being delivered. The reason I would buy a BMW in the first place would have to be the build quality of a factory job in German facilities by professionals in the field (exclude American/Mexican facilities). I rest comfortably knowing that but would lose sleep facing the fact that my brand new car was in fact damaged significantly during shipping. The damage I see to the E90's on the photos are extensive, not to mention panels being replaced that are not original VIN# matching but "factory replacements"....imagine that when someone is buying your car down the road? How do you explain it?

At an average price of $45,000 by the 70 perceived to be total losses would roughly equal around $3,150,000 lost, not at cost prices but at potential revenue. BMW would surely be insured against such losses and I would hope they claim this instead of reselling as "new".

I am quite sure that any car that sustained significant damage was simply written off. You are only seeing the worst cars of the bunch. The ones that were "refurbished" most likely just had a couple panels replaced and such. A door panel or any other individual part has no relevant significance. Logically it's no different than if they put a new door on a new car at the factory and then for some reason decided to put a different new door on. And they will probably brand all replaced parts with the proper VIN#, theyre not stupid. A factory is a factory regaurdless of whether it is in Germany, the USA, Zimbabwe, China or the Moon. These cars are made by robots not people, so the location is completely irrelevant. The workers maintain the machines that build the cars, not the cars themselves. It's not the workers or the location that makes these cars great. It's the engineers who designed them and the research behind them. They are a pile of metal and plastic so it doesn't matter if you replace any part. They are not alive, replacing parts is 100% irrelevant. Especially when they have no mileage on them. The parts are a blank slate at this point.