What's going on at Carma?

Sometimes our customers ask what we've been up to over here at Carma, so here's a summary of some of the more interesting things we've been up to recently...

We've just finished a nice mini-restoration project on a Euro 1981 BMW 320/6 Baur. For those of you that are not familiar with the Baur, it is a T-top convertible modification done on (at the time) E21 3-series BMWs. It's pretty neat to see one of these cars, as they are quite rare these days. Parts were hard to come by, but we've managed to work most of the issues out. The customer had us cover a long list of repairs and rebuilds, including going through and rebuilding the entire brake system, replacing the timing belt, and installing an updated 2-barrel Weber carburateur.

On more recent vehicles, we have just completed a transmission replacement on an '02 BMW 745i, which comes equipped with the 6-speed ZF 6HP26 automatic transmission. This transmission is notable because it does away with almost all mechanical linkages, having only a single cable that disengages the parking pawl, that only being necessary for safety reasons. All shifting is handled internally, and even the electronic control unit is located within the transmission itself! We are seeing a growing trend that is part of a larger picture. BMW (and almost all car manufacturers these days) are building their cars to only last around 100,000 miles. It is expected, on their end, that you will throw the car away and buy a new one at that mileage. This means their components are designed to last no longer than that mile-marker. Since they are expecting the components to fail, they see no reason to recommend adequate maintence that may extend the life of these components -- hence the claim that these transmissions are "Lifetime Fluid Fill" and do not require service. If you do not care to keep the car over 100k, fine, don't service the transmission. Just throw the whole car away when it breaks, or shell out the $7,000 or so that a replacement transmission goes for.

Which sounds better to you? If it were my car, i'd put the $500-$600 into it (less on other BMWs, this one just has extremely expensive fluid) and hopefully get at least 50% more life out of the transmission... but that's just me.

Otherwise, business as usual. Broken water pumps and belts here and there, services and suspension, etc.

Pictures of the Baur will be added soon!