Comment by constantcrying

>I had cooling system problems that required hours of labor to get to just to replace a plastic part that cost $5 where an aluminum one would cost $7.

If the car has 10 places where the manufacturer saves 2 dollars, that is 20 dollars a car. At around 2.5 Million cars shipped each year that is 50 Million Euros each year profit for BMW.

The entire car industry is extremely cost sensitive, especially right now, with so much global competition and little consolidation.

The issue also isn't that the part is cost optimized. The issue is that it fails.