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Car Care

Why You Should Never Park Your BMW on the Street

Bringing a BMW home means you’re taking on a certain responsibility. You need to care for it, protect it and maintain it — if for no other reason than a well-maintained BMW will last you for many years. Where should you be parking your BMW, and why should you avoid parking it in the street?

Careless Drivers

You can be the safest driver in the world, but you have no control over all the other drivers on the road. All it takes is one distracted driver — especially an uninsured one — and you’ll find yourself on the hook for a costly deductible or expensive repairs. Parking your car in the street leaves you vulnerable to anyone texting and driving, doing their makeup or trying to eat breakfast while they’re driving to work.

Car Thieves

A luxury car like a BMW is a prime target for car thieves. According to industry experts, most car thefts occur when you park a vehicle on the street or on your property. Leaving your BMW on the street is like walking into a junkyard while wearing a steak around your neck to greet the junkyard dog. Don’t make your favorite vehicle a tempting target. 

Snow Plows

In the winter, the most dangerous thing isn’t the ice, snow or cold temperatures — at least to your car. No, the most dangerous beast is the snowplow your city uses to keep your streets clear. If you leave your BMW on the street, you could end up with scratched paint, broken windows or worse. The snowplow driver isn’t targeting your car maliciously — they just can’t see it under all that snow, so you’re tempting fate by leaving it on the side of the road.

Keep your car in the garage during the winter months to avoid this kind of damage. If you’re worried about an old garage door opener that might not function as it used to, upgrade your current model for one connected to a smart home system. Some even come with security lights and alarms to ensure your ride’s security.

Harsh Weather 

A rainy day might seem like an easy way to wash your car, but harsh weather can do all sorts of damage to your vehicle. Severe winds can throw debris that will scratch your paint. Hailstones can break windows and shatter windshields. Parking your car on the street leaves it vulnerable to all of these things. Around 20% of the automobiles parked on the street regularly get struck with flying debris.

Birds

If you park outside, there’s always the risk that a passing bird might poop on your car. In addition to being unsightly, bird poop and splattered bugs are both acidic enough to burn through your BMW’s clear coat in 48 hours or less. Leave it for too long, and it could potentially eat down to the bare metal. The easiest way to avoid this is to park your car indoors and keep it off the street. 

Always Park Indoors When You Can

There are plenty of reasons to park indoors whenever you can, especially if you spent the money to bring home a luxury car like a BMW. Rocks, bird poop, careless drivers and snowplows can all damage your vehicle if you park on the street. Save yourself the expense and heartache by parking in your garage as often as possible. 

Car Care

10 Tips to Take Better Care of Your BMW

When you shop for a new car, you have dozens of makes and models to choose from, but owning a BMW is a unique experience. These marvelous examples of automotive engineering can last for decades if you care for them well. Here are 10 tips to help you take better care of your BMW:

1. Polish Your Headlights

No matter how well you care for your BMW, the plastic headlight covers fog up over time, which reduces visibility at night and in poor weather. Thankfully, all you need to polish your headlights is some abrasive headlight compound, a buffing wheel and any old electric drill. Apply the buffing compound and buff until the headlight is clear again. With a little effort, you’ve made your BMW safer.

2. Remove Any Salt Buildup

Salt buildup will be an issue in any location that uses salt to melt snow and ice from the roads during the winter. Salt and other de-icing chemicals can damage your BMW, encouraging rust and corrosion. If you’re driving on salted or treated roads, make sure you’re hosing off your undercarriage to remove any salt or chemical buildup. If this location is your permanent residence, you may even want to invest in an anti-corrosive undercarriage coating. 

3. Have Your Engine Checked

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and that goes double for taking care of your BMW. Whenever you head into the shop for regular maintenance, have your engine checked to ensure everything is working correctly. Catching small problems before they cause your car to break down can save you a lot of money in the long run. 

4. Flush Your Brakes

When we think about our car brakes, we usually picture changing brake pads and having rotors turned. But unless there is a problem, we generally don’t think about the brake fluid that transmits that hydraulic pressure. Still, automotive manufacturers recommend flushing and changing your brake fluid every two years. You should do this because brake fluid readily absorbs moisture, which can damage your anti-lock braking system’s (ABS) components over time. 

5. Check and Rotate Your Tires

AC Schnitzer M3 Wheel

It sounds simple, but something as easy as checking your tire pressure can make a world of difference. Underinflated tires don’t grip the road as well as properly inflated ones. They also reduce fuel economy. Check your tire pressure weekly and schedule a tire rotation every 3,000-6,000 miles to ensure everything is wearing evenly. 

6. Flush and Fill Your Transmission

Your BMW dealer will tell you your transmission is a lifetime fill, meaning you never have to do anything with it. It’s a great excuse to sell you a new transmission. That’s why you might hear people complaining about how BMW transmissions tend to slip at 70,000 to 90,000 miles. Instead of spending thousands on a new drive train, flush your transmission and replace the filter every 50,000 miles to keep your BMW running smoothly. 

7. Change Your Oil More Often Than Recommended

Your owner’s manual likely recommends you change your BMW’s oil every 12,000 to 15,000 miles. This can allow carbon to build up on your intake valves, which can cause a whole host of different problems — especially if you drive or live in a hot climate. Instead, change your oil every 5,000 miles or so, especially if the temperature outside is climbing. 

8. Park in the Shade

Ultraviolet (UV) rays are awful for your BMW. They can damage both the interior and the exterior over time, causing all sorts of problems. Whenever possible, park in the shade. You may also want to protect your exterior with a UV-resistant wax for those times when parking in the sun is unavoidable. 

9. Be Picky About Your Fuel

It’s tempting to drive up to whichever gas station crosses your path when you need a fill-up, but if you want to protect your BMW, you need to be picky about your fuel. Only use reputable gas stations. Others can look great on the outside but may not mix their fuel correctly. Or, they may have dirty tanks that can cause more problems. 

10. Treat and Protect Your Interior

It doesn’t matter if you have leather, vinyl, fabric or some combination of the three in your BMW’s interior. You need to take care to treat and protect it. Look for products designed specifically for your interior type. Leather needs to be cleaned and conditioned to keep it from drying out and cracking. Vinyl needs to be protected, especially from UV damage. 

Cloth upholstery also needs to be cleaned — and a liberal coating of Scotch Guard won’t hurt if you regularly eat in your car.

Take Care of Your BMW, and It Will Take Care of You

A well-cared-for BMW will serve you for decades, no matter how many miles you put on it. Care for your BMW, and it will take care of you for many years to come.

Car Care

How to Wash Your BMW

There’s nothing better than seeing a freshly washed BMW glinting in the sun, except maybe sitting behind the wheel and feeling it roar to life. While you can take your car to a car wash once a week for a wash and wax, that can get expensive quickly — especially if you’re springing for the hand detailing. If you want to save a bit of money, how can you wash your BMW at home?

Clean It Often

You might not think you need to wash your BMW every week, but if you run into a situation where you end up with bird poop or tree sap on your paint job, you’ll want to break out the cleaning supplies. These substances are often acidic enough to burn right through the clear coat and paint, leaving your vehicle susceptible to rust. 

The best thing you can do to maintain your BMW’s appearance is to wash it once a week. Of course, before you start breaking out the buckets and sponges, you’ll need to know what type of supplies to use.

Choose the Right Supplies

How many times did your dad let you help wash the car as a kid? The first thing you were sent to retrieve was probably the dish soap from the kitchen, because it made great suds and easily cut through road grease and grime.

Don’t make that mistake as an adult, though. Make sure you’re using soap and other supplies that are specifically designed for use on cars. That standard dish soap may work great on road grime, but it often contains abrasives to help you cut through stuck-on food while you’re cleaning dishes. These micro-abrasives can damage your car’s clear coat and paint.

Choose a soap or cleaning solvent specifically designed to work without harming car paint. You have a number of different industrial and consumer cleaners to choose from, all with one specific purpose in mind — keeping your BMW as clean as the day it rolled off the line.

Park in a Shady Spot

You might be tempted to park out in your driveway or street on a sunny day so you can soak up some Vitamin D while you’re washing your car, but we recommend against it. Yes, washing your car in direct sunlight sill causes the water to evaporate faster, but that quick evaporation will leave water spots and other unsightly marks on your exterior.

Instead of using the sun, wash your car in a nice shady spot and dry it off with soft microfiber towels to prevent the water from leaving spots or streaks on your finish. It might sound like an extra chore, but it can help preserve your exterior and prevent little things from becoming bigger problems in the long run. 

Enjoy Your Hard Work

That’s all there is to it. As long as the water is beading up and rolling off your car, there’s no need for a new coat of wax, so all that’s left to do is sit back and enjoy all your hard work. Everybody loves the look of a freshly cleaned BMW, plus you get the satisfaction of a job well done.