Some car parts we expect to be expensive. Catalytic converters, obscure sensors, and infotainment systems can all cost a hefty sum to replace. When it comes to a small plastic flap, though, you might expect to score a replacement cheap. As one BMW owner found out, though, this one part actually sells for a much heftier price.
The video below comes to us from menace_of_winnipeg on Instagram. It shows them holding a broken piece of plastic next to their convertible BMW. “You take your car to BMW thinking this little piece of plastic will be $50 max,” they muse in the video – only to then show a quote from Birchwood BMW for $889.
The piece in question looks like little more than a random piece of trim. The video shows us that it covers up a small area on the rear quarter. I figured surely this was an outlier, that this part could surely be had for much less than $889 US dollars. It turns out I was quite wrong.
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If we freeze-frame the video, we can read the part number from the quote: 54-37-5-A19-AB1. Most parts sites list this simply as “BMW Flap.” More specifically, it’s a flap that covers part of the convertible top mechanism on the F33 series BMW models. If you’re unfamiliar with your BMW codes, that’s basically the 4 Series convertibles built from 2013 to 2020.
Now, the part that menace_of_winnipeg is replacing is actually a small piece of the larger flap assembly designated by the part number above. However, that tiny little part isn’t available on its own. BMW only sells the linkage flap as a whole, and it’s expensive wherever you look.
I started my search at third-party parts houses. ECS Tuning and Turner Motorsport both had genuine versions of the part. Each site charged $877.99, discounted compared to a reported MSRP of $903.99. BMW of South Atlanta has it for $821.85, which is a little better. The best price I could find was OEM Parts Online, currently selling it for $725.75—a lot cheaper, but still a brutal ask for a simple bit of plastic.
Looking at photos, it’s not a particularly complicated component. It looks to be made of two or three pieces of injection-molded plastic, with a shaft, spring, and flat metal bar attached. On a commodity car like a Toyota, you’d expect a trim piece like this to be maybe $50; certainly less than $200. None of the components are expensive to make or have particularly high tolerances, nor is it some complicated assembly that takes a lot of fine work to put together. In any case, BMW has set the sticker price at $903.99, and you have to shop around to get it cheaper anywhere else.
So why is it so expensive? We can only speculate. It could be due to rarity. During the run of the F32-generation 4 Series, BMW was selling anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 units a year. However, only a small proportion of those were convertible models wearing the F33 designation. Thus, this is a part that only applies to a very limited proportion of cars, and BMW may not have made a lot of spares. This can drive prices up significantly. For example, in Australia, there aren’t that many original MX-5s left on the road. Cam angle sensors fail with age, but Mazda decided long ago it would stop replenishing its stocks of spare parts. With precious few available, prices skyrocketed, with dealers often charging over $1,000 for a part you’d normally expect to score for less than $250.
That’s ultimately just a theory—BMW may have its own reasons for charging such a high price for a simple plastic flap. Ultimately, this should spur owners to seek alternative solutions. 3D printing may be a viable route forward, or simply scoring the necessary parts from a pull-a-part wrecker. The latter route, of course, presumes you can find a 4 Series convertible in such a yard. If you could, though, it’s hard to imagine them charging you more than a few bucks for what looks like an innocuous piece of interior trim.
In any case, put it down to the good ol’ Euro tax. Sometimes, if you wanna own a BMW, you gotta pay the toll.
Images: menace_of_winnipeg via Instagram screenshot, BMW, ECS Tuning
Things like this are why 3D printers saw an explosion in popularity. It’s cheaper to buy a brand new printer, some high quality PLA filament, and either commission someone or get a slicer file off of Thingiverse than it is to buy the actual part.
$870 for this, versus about $550 for a brand new printer with 0.05mm tolerances and a hundred feet of filament or two and a half pounds of resin.
It has been really promising to see an emerging cottage industry of enterprising folks who will 3D print just about anything. I suspect we’ll start seeing more and more people going outside the typical supply chain for 3D printed parts that cost significantly less.
BMW wasn’t only one. Cadillac XLR taillamps are unobtainium with some spare costing $2,000 each.
Same with T84/T85 export headlamps on jellybean Chevrolet Caprice: they are worth much more than the car so some Europeans buy the Caprices on the cheap and part out the ECE headlamps.
This seems like a story where BMW should have been asked for comment. I would have loved to watch them bend over backwards to justify this.
“I Can’t Figure Out Why BMW Charges Over $800 For This Tiny Plastic Flap”
Because BMW watched the training video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z0UdKbGJs0o
I recently bought a used TLX. The cabin air filter and its door had been removed. Everywhere I looked the door was $50 to $60. A friend found one on Amazon for $11. It came from China in an absurdly nice box, almost like a presentation. And there were two in the box. How they make money at that price, I don’t know.
One of the reliable Volvos had an electrical failure point, and I think faulty factory spares were long gone.
I had come up with a modification that worked out better than the original approach, but was a little fiddly.
I was talking to the biggest aftermarket distributor, and pointed out that they had enough customers to have a replacement manufactured.
Remarkable no one else had done this already, since the parts were identical worldwide, as was demand.
Good question why the factory never bothered.
In short order, they offered new parts.
Maybe attempt to place an order for one BMW style flap online, then count the days till they appear on Amazon?
Possibly in metal?
Why do they charge so much? Because they CAN. You can’t get it anywhere else, and unlike a lot of German car parts, you can’t buy it in the actual OEM’s box instead of that VERY expensive BMW box.
If you have the pieces, seems like the sort of thing you can MacGyver back together.
Dental casting material can be used to make molds that many materials could be cast in.
Some sound shops have done simple custom plastics to match fit vehicles.
Even they might replicate such parts.
I would think you could have it hand built for under a thousand in USA by a metal worker.
This is the sort of thing that 3d printers are great for – if you have the skills to create the file to print it.
And then hopefully BMW doesn’t sue you. But this is certainly one of those just egregiously priced parts that every car seems to have. Not that complicated, yet insanely expensive.
I have nothing against printers.
I think many forget there are options though.
Would it be possible to purchase a decent 3D printer and just print this at home for less money?
t would be possible to buy a nice d printer and print this at home for less money
Buy a printer
Print $900
Get part
Absolutely. IF you have, or know somebody with, the skills to create the file needed to tell the printer what to do. I am learning, but I am not there yet to make something this complicated.
I’m in a similar boat. Bought a 3D printer for fun, still learning, but need to find more time to focus on it for other projects.
I have a resin printer that I use quite a lot for model railroad projects. But it’s useless for this sort of thing. Investigating filament printers – I have a BUNCH of things I want to print for my new garage. Creating your own stuff has a pretty big learning cliff I am finding, but I will get there.
As an F33 owner, I can tell you, whatever price you think something is, go ahead and add a digit.
And, whatever is broken, you can assume it can’t be serviced if the roof is in whichever position it is currently in, and will refuse to change position while said part is broken. And if you take it to a dealer, to manually move the roof will require a special order tool shipped from Germany. Ask me how I know….
Crazy – the roof for my e88 isn’t exactly simple, but there are a couple of releases and an allen key latch that let you manually operate it no matter what.
At 15 the fabric is getting to the end of it’s life, not really looking forward to that bill.
Sounds like an opportunity for someone with a 3D printer…
Probably part of the reason why car insurance has gotten so expensive. With parts costs like this, it’s not hard to imagine a small fender bender being very expensive to repair.
And this is why I’ve give up on European cars. I can’t afford new so I can’t afford used. My Miata and Odyssey may not impress at the valet but I can pretty much rebuild the entire car off Amazon, Ebay and RockAuto.
Now THAT is a candidate for real-life 3-dimensional piracy via 3D printing!
Luxury cars are Veblen goods. It is expensive because it needs to be. You know, Economics, Price Elasticity of Demand.
A luxury good needs to be expensive through its entire life-cycle, otherwise it will lose a good part of what makes it a luxury good in first place: being expensive.
That’s why no matter how old a luxury car is, it will not be cheaper to maintain it, because parts needs to be expensive. Also, as they get old, they lose another important aspect of what make them a luxury item: status.
This is why they depreciate so much (usually), but the parts not.
It’s a BMW, not a gulfstream.
BMW and Mercedes can be considered luxury goods more because of their past and some of the status symbol they are then the current built quality and materials.
The tech, quality and design gap is narrowing with general brands. Specially for some of the competetion. In US, you guys don’t get in touch with chinese cars, say BYD, for example. Other day I was in a BYD dealer, and they have there an electric sedan, the Han. Not that far from a 7er in terms of size, tech, fit and finish.
Not that far does not mean on par, but still incredible that it costs way less then half what an i7 does for being almost there. And it is not even their “luxury” brand.
The traditional luxury car automakers need to rethink a lot of things in order to stay relevant. It seems to me they are becoming like Apple: they may have a good product, but not so superior from what you can get from a cheaper alternative, the premium is more about the brand per se then quality or engineering excess.
A friend’s father had a middle eastern model Hyundai he liked.
He was shocked nothing similar was available here when he looked
Duct tape. If you can’t fix it with duct tape…., you’re not using enough duct tape.
If duct tape won’t fix it, try hot glue.
Why do they do it? For the same reason dogs lick their junk and cops park on the sidewalk.
Because they can!!!
“Why does radio shack ask for your phone # when you buy batteries?
I don’t know!”
-Kramer
Jesus. You could buy a 3d printer for less than that and make your own.
If you have the skill to do it. Or a 3D scanner. That still require some tweaks.
In my personal experience, if the eye will not see, it is expensive enough to justify the resin and matches my 3D modelling skill level, I will try to print myself.
But often I will look at some junkyards, will be easier, quicker and cheaper.
Ten thousand? We could almost buy our own ship for that!
But who’s going to fly it, kid! You?
You bet I could. I’m not such a bad pilot myself! We don’t have to sit here and listen..
The comparable part on my Mercedes-Benz is painted metal.
How pathetic that BMW cheaped out.
(So to speak)