Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Waning enthusiasm

I guess gas prices (in the San Francisco Bay Area) is just going to stay in the five dollars per gallon threshold? We’re never going to see the number 3 again in front of the decimal point are we? Unless of course we move to other parts of the country where not only do they have cheaper gas than California, but they also have higher octane! (93 versus 91.) If I’m getting reamed in the butt on petrol price, at least give me the best gasoline possible.

It’s a good thing then that I’ve only driven 4,000 miles since the previous September. Paying over $70 to fill up the BMW M2 is so not the business. As much as I like driving, the cost of gas adds up very quickly. At least that is something I can control. The higher insurance premiums that we all received in our last renewals? Nothing I can do about that.

Perhaps my car enthusiasm is waning? I don’t know. I took the M2 in to the dealership for service last week, and I keep thinking what a hassle it is. Even though I’m not removing a single bolt myself, it’s still time out of my day to drive it to the dealership (on the other side of the city). Imagine if I didn’t own a car at all - how much simpler it would be. No gas price shocks, no insurance premiums, no maintenance costs, no worries about parking it somewhere and risking some asshole damaging the car.

Of course, it’s not tenable to not have a car. I rely too much on Costco trips to fight the ongoing inflation. But I’m thinking maybe I don’t need to own a high-strung sports car. It would be cheaper and less stressful to instead own a car an old man would drive. Something boring, something dead nuts reliable. That can only mean one thing: a Toyota.

Change is the only constant, right? I’ve like cars since I was a kid. Who knows, maybe that enthusiasm does come to an end.

Afford to maintain

My BMW M2 is due for its annual service in September. Good news for me, I already prepaid for this last year. $800 for two annual services seems like a fantastic deal to me, especially so with all the inflation going on.

It would be naive to think the inflation hammer missed the automotive maintenance and repair industry. Apparently, there’s a shortage of skilled mechanics. You know what that means: labor cost is higher to keep the few good ones. Even if parts and material costs remains flat (I see the five quart jug of motor oil I bought back in 2022 is only $3 dearer), the price for an oil change would have certainly increased due to the higher shop rate. Can Jiffy Lube even do $20 oil changes anymore?

It feels like $100 is the new $20.

The average transaction price of a new car is $48,000. Auto insurance premiums have increased about 20% for everybody. Gasoline prices (for 91 octane) have stayed consistently above the five dollar mark this entire year (San Francisco Bay Area). The math of car ownership is quickly becoming a painful one. It’s no wonder people skimp out on vehicle maintenance. A car only needs periodic oils changes, and nothing else, am I right?

Japanese cars have a reliable reputation because they can survive on oil changes alone. German cars have an unreliable reputation because they absolutely cannot. For example: the M2 calls for spark plug changes every three years. Go see how long the engine will last if an owner ignores the book and just changes the oil every year.

I think German cars can be equally reliable as the Japanese, so long as you follow the maintenance manual to the letter. Obviously, that’s going to cost a hearty chunk of money annually. This is why I would hesitate to buy a used German car that doesn’t have a full stack of maintenance invoices matching the book. The only used car I ever bought - the 911 GT3 - had full dealership service records.

I am definitely saving up for future maintenance spend for the M2. It most certainly is going to get more and more expensive.

I want to DIY

Speaking of routine maintenance on my BMW M2. For now, I still take the car to the dealership for servicing. The first three years of that was free - every new BMW sold in America has that perk. Then I prepaid for the following two years of maintenance for about $800.

That may read super expensive to you, the person who takes your car to the local Jiffy Lube for $35 oil changes (perhaps it is much higher these days, what with the rampant inflation going on). But that $800 is for more than just two oil changes. Plus, I get a free rental car from the dealership. It would be nice if they give me one of those sharp-looking BMW X1 SUVs for a test drive…

But I will be in a conundrum after year five of owning the M2. Do I continue to pay dealership prices? Once you start changing out spark plugs and the rear differential fluid (every three years), the invoice gets mighty high. If I remember correctly, it’s about $3,000 to change out a full set of four brake pads and rotors! Good thing I don’t put that many miles on the car…

The dream is to have a small warehouse space when I can do all the servicing myself. A space completely dedicated to the car. Obviously, that doesn’t solve the cost problem that I was just rambling about the paragraph before. In fact, paying rent for a warehouse would surely be more expensive than paying for servicing at the dealership. But at least I can be sure the job is done correctly. The old adage goes: “If you want something done right, you do it yourself.” I would like nothing more than to have the space and tools to maintain my cars properly, with my own hands.

Can you afford it though?

I reckon most people don’t think about the total cost of ownership when it comes to cars. So long as the monthly payment is reasonable, why the hell not! You can absolutely afford that $70,000 truck. I get it: those payments are the consistent, tangible thing on the monthly budget. And if you ever miss payments, the lending bank is coming to take that truck away.

Wouldn’t want that now, would we?

The other costly parts of car ownership shows up not nearly as often. We get to gripe about super high insurance costs only once every six months. State licensing is an annual thing. Maintenance? The typical new car has a few years of free maintenance at the dealership. Unless you drive an F ton of miles, wear items such as tires and brakes get replaced every few years. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of consideration.

Out of the budget, too. How many car owners actually save up money in preparation for that $1,500 tire bill, or $600 major service - after free maintenance expires? (I’m obviously excluding the rich folks who can more than afford to write a random $2,000 check like it’s nothing.) Anecdotally, I’ve seen many people who can’t come up with these sums so suddenly. So they either put it on a credit card, or cheap out on the needed service. “What’s the cheapest set of tires available for this car?”

What then counts as maintenance is taking the car to Walmart for oil changes. That’s it. I’m half convinced the reason certain car brands are unreliable is because of owners not following the specified maintenance procedure precisely. Simply changing the oil every year on a BMW is not going to cut it. On the other hand, a Toyota will still last forever on oil changes alone.

Which is why I have no worries about keeping my BMW M2 past its warranty period. I am going to maintain that car by the book - either with the dealership, or an independent BMW mechanic. And obviously, I’ve budgeted for this. New tires are due this year, and the cost is not going to be a surprise.

Tire check

I’ve been remiss in regularly checking the tire pressure on the BMW M2. Best practice with any car is to maintain tire pressures as dictated by the sticker on the driver-side door jam. (The M2 calls for 35 psi cold at all four corners. Easy.) Almost imperceptible amounts of air leaks out of the tires over time, so it’s important to refill it periodically. Back in my more diligent days, it was once a month check in the morning, when the tires are stone cold.

With the M2 sitting at nearly 18,000 total miles, it was also time to check the tread depth. The BMW comes from the factory fitted with Michelin Pilot Super Sport (PSS) tires. No complaints about these boots: they grip fantastically, and perform reasonably well in the wet. The PSS has a 300 tread-wear rating, which to me means if a driver drives completely like a grandma, the tire should last 30,000 miles.

No chance of that happening in a rear-wheel-drive sports car with 400 horsepower. From what I can gather in the inter-webs, the rear tires on a M2 Competition (or BMW M3/M4, which has the same exact drivetrain) typically lasts from 12,000 to 15,000 miles. (The front tires obviously last longer because all they do is steer.) So I was surprised to find a decent amount of rear tread remaining on my M2.

It seems I drive the car in a performant manner very seldomly. For shame!

I reckon I will have to replace (at least the rear) tires at the end of this year. This BMW M2 is reaching a point in its young life where it’s starting to cost me some money to maintain. The free service (first three years or 30,000 miles) ended last year. The consumables are consuming to the point of needing replacement. This is the point of ownership when car enthusiasts tend trade it in for another new car. We get to drive something different, and it resets the maintenance clock, too (if you will).

But not in this economy! This BMW M2 is my ride-or-die for the foreseeable future.

Gratis finis

Well that is it. Today is the final time that maintenance on my BMW M2 will be paid for by BMW. Every new BMW vehicle comes with three years’ worth of free maintenance. That is the perk you receive in paying so handsomely for Bavarian engineering. It’s wild to realize it’s been three years since I bought the M2 back in October of 2020 - during the heart of the pandemic. Taking it for its third annual service also signals the longest period I’ve kept a car bought with my own money.

And honestly I do intend to keep this M2 Competition for as long as possible. I know I said the same thing about the Porsche 911 GT3 (letting that car go still hurts), but hey, the intention is there, okay? Sometimes life throw you unexpected curveballs - especially the financial ones - and you just have to adjust. There’s plenty of residual value tied to M2; if I ever need to sell it in order to facilitate some big life decisions, I totally would in a heartbeat.

What I won’t do is sell the BMW in order to buy another car. The days of swapping out vehicles every few years is over. The M2 is just about the perfect car for me: powerful and sporting enough to easily get into trouble, yet practical enough to do a major Costco run. To move on from that for the newest flavor in automotive town would be silly. Besides, with interest rates at historic highs (for my lifetime), I want to avoid taking out a loan, or withdrawing money from the savings account.

Cheers to many more years with the M2. Time to start saving up for not-free maintenance service that begins a year from now.

At least the roads will be nice

One of the silver linings I’m seeing with the whole State of California on lockdown is that the roads are getting some much-overdue maintenance work done to them. With an exponential decrease in the amount of cars on the road, what better time than now to fill in those potholes and repave a major thoroughfare. No need to worry about the coronavirus, because workers would be outdoors where the air naturally circulates and it’s very easy to socially distance.

A few weeks ago I was a part of a skeleton crew for my job that physically went to campus for work, and to my surprise, 19th Avenue was down to one lane from the normal four. Crews were taking the opportunity to repave the busy boulevard while traffic levels are historically low. Ironically closing it down to a single lane caused a traffic jam of its own with the few remaining cars: it took me a good 15 minutes just to get out of the area and on my way back home, which was slightly annoying because with shelter-in-place happening, I had expected to commute in record time (traveling at normal speeds, mind).

This Summer there was to be a planned shutdown of the super busy section Highway 101 at the Highway 280 interchange for three whole weeks. The need for seismic retrofit to the aging elevated structure is paramount, no matter the absolute traffic hell that is for sure to happen as a consequence of shutting down the freeway. I mean, it’s not like our region is famous for earthquakes or anything. Nonetheless, the fear of massive congestion during construction can now be allayed because the city have moved the project up by months; work actually starts this weekend.

I am greatly looking forward to some beautifully smooth roads once things return to normal.