Our Z3 proudly posing in front of the technical control centre, after it had passed the test with flying colors. Note the wheel badges and the nicer looking short antenna…
We told you last time in our column “Our Cars” that we went to Jorssen NV with our cherished Z3, where Jeroen Van der Reeth had made us an offer for the repair(s). On March 9 we were kindly received and told that the repair(s) would take a day. Due to family circumstances we could only collect the car after the weekend, which proved useful, as service manager Roel Smets had contacted us on March 9 in the afternoon that the door grip rubbers had to be re-ordered, as they were not correctly ordered originally.
New wheel badges, antenna and as new looking door handles and its proper rubber surroundings…
So we found our Z3 back next Monday, proudly bearing new wheel badges and a new short external “BMW Sport” antenna, and of course the correct rubber surroundings of the door handles. The final bill of 379,13 Euros correctly matched the original offer, safe for the slight extra for the correct door handle rubbers, and we found all this very reasonable indeed, as it included VAT, labor and parts. The glove box lock had also been replaced, and this had taken only 15 minutes, with the lock and cylinder only setting us back 71,17 Euros. The new wheel badges with its proper chromed surroundings cost only 10,74 Euros a piece. We were very pleased with the result, and it also shows the excellent spare parts policy of BMW, offering original factory spares at very reasonable prices of a (US built) BMW of a good 20 years old now, with last but not least excellent repair times. Replacing the antenna – the shorter new one works better with the car cover and has also improved looks, took only 30 minutes.
With a properly functioning glove box it was now time to check in for the annual technical control, where our BMW Z3 met with admiring looks and comments. Of course everything was OK, with the inspection people commenting “what a fantastic car”, when they scrutinized the car (also) underneath.
So now we are all set for pleasant spring and summer drives…stay tuned!
Hans Knol ten Bensel
Autoprova - for the Connaisseur 