Volvo vs BMW 325 repair costs.

At one time BMW repairs were expensive and Volvo repairs were cheap. The
parts and labor were cheaper for Volvo. Is this still true or has Volvo
succumbed to pie in the sky pricing?

Bill

 

Prices have gone up on the new ones. But the price of the car has become
more reasonable. Our 965 was almost $40K Canadian in 1993, a similarly
equiped V70 with turbo motor is around $45K now, with a nice 10 year
difference... Parts prices are more tho.

 

my bmw was more $ to run and maintain than my volvos...

 

A BMW has never even been considered by anyone in my family, because of the
maintenance issue. Back in 1993 it was between the 960 and a Mercedes
station wagon, the MB lost because it was more to buy, and more to keep
running.

 

Both suck. I have had them both and paid $1000s for what should have been
simple work.

 

This kind of cost is strictly a Dealer issue. Since the manufacturer is
unable to effectively control what the Dealer charges, anything goes!

My friendly Volvo Dealer is also BMW and Porsche. The hourly rate for
service work is the same for all three marques. Before deciding to stay
with Volvo, I looked long and hard at the 330xi, being taken with such
goodies as the computer sampling oil condition and telling you when to
change it. Neat.

In any event, most BMW stand alone stores see Volvo as a competitor and
vice versa. Magically, parts prices to the consumer tend to be level -
in our Reno market, anyway.

bob noble
Reno, NV, USA

 

hummmm...we have had a few bmw's "in the family"...they are nice
cars...esp the brakes (imho)...but...the extra $$ did not seem
justified, once i started checking out the volvos and
driving/owning...volvo seemed to me, to be more car for the $$...i
have never owned a benz...i hear great things about them...i guess
they are like a lot of cars...if you take care of them...they will
take care of you...in a bit more confort...some of the new lease rates
look good for the small 4 door benz sedans...

 

Well BMW just never fit with us very well. They were smaller then Volvo's of
similar money (still are) and we needed something to tow with... The 5
series wagons would do the trick now, but back 10 years ago you just
couldn't get one here (maybe they had them in Europe??? I don't know). The
Benz wagon would have been nice, but it was too rare of a car in North
America, my dad knew this... and the price difference wasn't enough,
especially when we saw how much luxury the 960 included.

I think i'd still go Volvo over BMW unless I wanted a serious driving
machine like the M3 or M5... If I wanted a sporty car i'd probably end up
with a VW GTI tho, i'd be afraid of losing an $70-80K bimmer to an accident
or theft.