Adafruit: From Ultimate Driving Machine to Ultimate Rent-Seeking Machine: The BMW Logo Screw Patent.
If you haven’t already heard, BMW’s R&D teams have been busy “innovating.” Unfortunately, they aren’t focusing on the things that actually matter—like stellar engine performance or the legendary driving dynamics that gearheads love. Instead, the C-suite execs decided that the best use of their engineering budget was to design a proprietary security screw specifically intended to prevent BMW drivers from fixing their own cars.
Not to defend BMW here but it’s likely a very specific part that this screw is used for and 99% of home mechanics probably are never going to encounter it. Most likely having something to do with the high-voltage system which you shouldn’t be messing with anyway.
It’s not their right to decide if I get to work on my own property.
If you cant figure out how to get past this screw you shouldn’t be working on things. Mechanics have a million speciality tools, what’s one more little bit, doesn’t affect us the slightest.
Well, they don’t in this case either - they just add an extra step to it. You can buy a bit like that off eBay.
It’s more nuanced. If even 1 of these screws is used for something that might ever need repairing, BMW mechanics will need to get the tool to be able to provide full support. It might even be possible that official BMW mechanics will be required to use the proprietary tool and are not allowed to use knock offs.