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I am sure we have some members that own a BMW, Mini, Rolls, Rover or one of the BMW brands. I was a supplier to them for metal stampings and sub assemblies for several models produced in the U.S.. It always make me sick to see what was going to recycle or crushing. Here is a link, https://youtu.be/J0B9sBiouJo
We had a stamping defect what is called a smile. It is the start of a fracture in the metal, not a split just a thinned out area. It was in the BMW Z3 roadster when it was in production. They crushed over 30 cars that had this tiny defect less than a 1/2" in length and hidden by the trunk rubber seal. Some were complete cars and some just bodies. We had to buy them all at various prices. I asked the engineers why they would not let us start a race team and use the cars for that. They said it was too dangerous to let defective cars out. No common since of engineering there.
Some of the cars in the video are probably test cars but I have also seen brand new vehicles that they could not figure out what was wrong with them at the factory so they just crush them. When it only cost about $14,000 to build and X-6 today you cannot spend too many hours working on the car. There are cars that will get 100 miles on them in testing to try to fix them. All cars have the computer wiped before they ship so no miles show. Some of them they use for yard cars to run around the facility in and then crush them.
How many could be helped so much by getting those cars at a discount? I like how they blow all the air bags before they take them apart. So all you need to do is hook up to the computer and you can have some fun.
I have stood outside Ford plants and watched new vehicles being crushed after body shop weld trials. No engine or drive just the bodies. I am sure they do the same with lots of test cars also.
We had a stamping defect what is called a smile. It is the start of a fracture in the metal, not a split just a thinned out area. It was in the BMW Z3 roadster when it was in production. They crushed over 30 cars that had this tiny defect less than a 1/2" in length and hidden by the trunk rubber seal. Some were complete cars and some just bodies. We had to buy them all at various prices. I asked the engineers why they would not let us start a race team and use the cars for that. They said it was too dangerous to let defective cars out. No common since of engineering there.
Some of the cars in the video are probably test cars but I have also seen brand new vehicles that they could not figure out what was wrong with them at the factory so they just crush them. When it only cost about $14,000 to build and X-6 today you cannot spend too many hours working on the car. There are cars that will get 100 miles on them in testing to try to fix them. All cars have the computer wiped before they ship so no miles show. Some of them they use for yard cars to run around the facility in and then crush them.
How many could be helped so much by getting those cars at a discount? I like how they blow all the air bags before they take them apart. So all you need to do is hook up to the computer and you can have some fun.
I have stood outside Ford plants and watched new vehicles being crushed after body shop weld trials. No engine or drive just the bodies. I am sure they do the same with lots of test cars also.
