Got my x6 sent into bmw for new rear brake lines fitted. £ 90 for the lines and was 2 hrs labour to fit. Car went into the workshop, and I got a call.

Sorry, but it’s gonna be £2800 to fit as whole back axle has gotta come out! Plus vat!!!

3k for 2 piddly lines. This is extortion, and local specialists are quoting similar if not more.

Other than scrap the car with over 4k worth of brand new parts on, what can I do?

Why are the brake lines being replaced are the leaking ? or is it just that you want them changed ? BMW are not alone in fitting brake lines to a bare shell then putting huge assemblies like the rear subframe and axel in place to cover them up. My wife's car is a 3.0 Subaru Outback with a Perrin engine upgrade (400whp) she loves it and it has been a brilliant car 15 MOT's and it had it's first advisory this year. However she reported a soft pedal last year when I investigated I found signs of brake fluid leaking on the nearside rear. Now Subaru run the brake lines inside the car so they are protected brilliant, until they need to exit to reach the rear wheels they chose to do that in a place where they then mount the fuel tank ?? To drop the tank you first have to drop the Rear subframe (sound familiar) Cost at a dealer would be more than the car is worth (and she does love her car) so my solution run new brake lines inside the car into the boot area near the spare wheel well drill two holes for grommets and feed the new lines down and connect to the existing flexy pipes. A days head scratching and planning £30 worth of materials and brake fluid job done

So a BMW dealer will have Labour rates north of £200 per hour so dropping the rear subframe will probably be 2 days work possibly with 2 techs for safety easy to see where the money goes. Personally I would run new lines in copper (no rust issues) and clip them to the rear subframe cut out the existing lines apart from where they are above the subframe. Same with parts Febi, Mehyle Bosch and many others are OEM parts suppliers to BMW who like all other Car manufacturers tend to make Bodies and Engines all the other thousands of parts are brought in. Buy those parts from BMW and you will find their markup is often 400% that's life. Maintaining our Beemers i top condition particularly the older models would become uneconomical very quickly if using dealers

Dave