It’s been a bumpy ride as new BART cars spend time in...

The first new cars in BART’s highly touted “Fleet of the Future” are spending quite a bit of time in the shop, as troubles and glitches continue to pop up.

According to BART records, the first 10 Bombardier cars, which cost between $1.7 million and $2 million each, have needed 481 fixes since going into regular service in January.

Most of the visits to the service shop were for “preventive maintenance” aimed at fine tuning each car’s more than 30 microprocessors and 180 software packages. But a whopping 202 of the visits were triggered by mechanical problems — everything from motor, drive train and brake troubles to malfunctioning doors and improperly flashing signs.

That’s an average of 20 mechanical problems per car — per month.

Of the 160 work orders for the second batch of 10 cars, 110 were for mechanical problems that popped up unexpectedly.

BART officials say the high volume of technical fixes was to be expected, given that the new custom-made cars were “prototype vehicles with such a high level of technical complexity.”

And since BART’s rail gauge is different from other rail systems around the county, the cars could not be tested at the Bombardier factory in upstate New York.

“We have to do all of the testing here,” BART spokesman Jim Allison said.

Still, BART spent nine months road testing the cars on its rails, plus met a lengthy review by the state Public Utilities Commission, before the cars went into service.

“It looks worse on paper than it is,” Allison said, adding that under the BART contract, Bombardier is responsible for the costs of the repairs.

BART’s original schedule called for having 163 cars up and running by July 1. The number was later upped to 198 cars.

However, ongoing manufacturing and testing delays have slowed the delivery to a snail’s pace — at least for now. As a result, there are 20 in service and 10 waiting to be unwrapped.

But BART Board President Robert Raburn says it’s worth the wait.

“We don’t want to take a whole boatload of new cars that are not complete,” Raburn said.

“We want to get it right.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@ sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross