In general, many nicer feeling materials are not as durable. People who buy a cashmere shirt do so because of the way it feels and looks. If they wanted a durable material that would resist stains and wrinkles they could get a very cheap material that would accomplish this. Just because something lasts longer doesn't mean they are necessarily 'better'. BMW uses very good materials and SOMETIMES that translates to less durability.

Semi-related to this, BMW is a driver's car. You don't buy a Lexus because of the road feel or the way you can carve out mountain roads. They are for 2 different people.

 

Just remember, whether it is the car you are driving or the airplane you are flying on, the parts are supplied by the lowest bidder.

 

metal is infinitely times more recyclable than plastic. and cheaper and simpler to recycle too.

 

+1 on the Planned Obsolescence.

Yet, all of my Glocks are "polymer". While the bulk of the receiver on Glock handguns is made of polymer (earning them the nickname "Combat Tupperware"), the slide is totally composed of steel. Thus, there is no way it can sneak through metal detectors.

The gun has been critically acclaimed for durabity, among other things. These "plastic" guns will outlive me. I believe it was a quantum design improvment to go to polymer rather than planned obsolescence.

 

Your "investor" side would also be very pissed off if companies did not achieve the millions of car sales they achieve year after year due in large part to "plannned obsolescence." In case people say, "well, I'm not an investor," I'd like to remind them that if they own a 401K or IRA plan, they are definitely investors. Our well being unfortunately has become reliant on consumerism. If we all bought a car only every 20-25 years, life as we know it would cease to exist. Too many industries are closely tied to cars, the plastic and metal vendors, the parts makers, the glass companies, the electronics companies, the leather companies, the carpeting companies and so on.... Our cars are mostly bullet proof where it really matters; the engine. Unless the car has been grossly neglected, rare are the cases when a BMW is stranded due to a pure mechanical failure in the engine. The car's engine will last for an extremely long time with good maintenance. Some other items might fail, some I might repair some I might not. If the rear window regulator fails, after the warranty expires, I will not get it repaired since it gets very little use. If the plastic cup-holders fail, I might just glue them into the dashboard since I never use them. Etc. Am I fairly confident that if I wanted to keep my car for 15 years the car will still be running fairly good? Yes I am.

 

Thats all good, I do not mind helping out the economy by purchasing a car. It just hurts "my economy" when I have to replace something. What do you say to the guy with an 04 thats out of warranty with 45K miles and a bad SMG transmission? You can't go from park to drive when your SMG hydraulic pump fails so ignoring it is not an option. Fixing it costs about $7500. All this cost is due to the $50 hydraulic pump failure ( very common ) in the SMG transmission. My point is that I would rather help the economy by purchasing performance parts rather than fixing stock parts.

 

I don't think they intentionally do this, just find out after xx years / yy miles that one of their components does not last as long as the rest.

Include Diesel engine starter motors on the list...

 

The first to break was the right side rear window regulator. Six months later the rear left side rear window regulator, same failure point.

I am currently replacing both the left and right side rear door handle carriers, the left side failed three months after the right.

Inspecting the failure point it would be reasonable to believe that the part was designed to fail. Considering that the left and right side have the same failure the previous failure of the window regulators with the same failure the conclusion of intentional design flaws in my opinion well supported.

 

There may not be an intent for failure but when the materials are selected with too much emphasis on cost then the longevity and durability is reduced.
I don't know that the oil leaks that are all too common are altogether bad materials. The too long oil change interval introduces a far higher amount of contaminants (fuel residuals being an ugly one) that take their toll on the rubber material.