BMW

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BMW • Airbags • "Certified, pre-owned" BMWs • Cooling fan failure • Flaming seats • Flooded trunk • Paint problems • Steering failure • Transmission problems • Warranties • BMW Financial Services • Miscellaneous problems • 740 Series • 740 cell phones --- News • BMW Owners Suffer Reversal of Fortune • BMW Plans Price Hike • Transmission Failures Plague BMW Owners • New BMW to Burn Hydrogen and Gasoline • Gay Automotive Website Takes on BMW

Big Money Wasted? We think that's going a little far. The BMW is a great car -- if you like high-strung racing cars in street garb. Unfortunately, lots of everyday consumers buy these things thinking that because they're expensive, they must be reliable and trouble-free, which is about as far from the truth as Stuttgart is from Santa Monica.

All cars require maintenance and high-performance cars require lots and lots of very expensive routine maintenance. Also they're notorious for being afflicted with all kinds of exotic problems. If you're really into cars, understand them and are willing to lavish time, money and attention on one, the BMW may be for you. If you're looking to raise your self-esteem by buying something really expensive, we recommend real estate.

A few of the more recent complaints ...

Steve of Culver City, CA September 19, 2009

Dealership promised everything until I paid the down payment on a lengthy lease agreement, 2000 740il. Transmission went out after 70,000 miles total - only 35,000 by me, second owner. Engine melted at 60,000 miles because of faulty temperature gauge. BMW takes no responsibility for the ultimate driving machine. I think it's the ultimate drive-you-mad machine. Once I get the transmission fixed, I'll probably sell it and consider myself lucky if I only lose a few thousand dollars. Just one problem after another. Great rides when they're working, but you got to have a lot of cash to keep them in gear. As for the dealership, they are the river boat crooks. If you're willing to give them unlimited funds, they'll smile and be nice, but as soon as you want a budget up front, they are worse than your local Taliban mechanic. Liars and thieves. Rip off artists, who make their livings by commissions gouging unknowing people who slowly but surely realize they are being taken advantage of.

Leslie of Highland Park, IL September 10, 2009

I have a 2007 BMW X3 - I purchased the car new and currently have about 45,300 miles on the vehicle. The warranty will be up at 50,000 miles. Recently I had the car in service with Fields BMW in Northfield IL. The "service engine" light had been coming on (and going off) since the last service they had done for me several months prior and I was concerned. Fields replaced a thermostat sensor and added some brake fluid and I thought I was good to go. This service visit was on Wed. August 26, 2009. Two days later, on Friday August 28th, my car went into fail safe mode and I was stranded on the side of the road.

The problem happened as I was accelerating away from a light. When the light turned green and I pressed teh gas, the car suddenly lurched rather than gliding forward. As I continued to press the gas peddle the car became more sluggish - as if driving through wheel high mud. I pulled over just in time to see the transmission light appear on the dashboard. Placing the car in park I called Fields immediately to confirm that the light on the dash was indeed the transmission light. I then put the car back in drive and gently pressed the gas to see what would happen. The car went absolutely nowhere.

The car was towed to a different dealership. (The rationale for servicing the car at a different dealer was two-fold; a) I was much closer to the this dealer and b) based on the fact that my regular dealership had serviced the car two days prior and didn't find any major problems. I wanted a fresh crew working on the car). The car was taken to Perillo BMW at 1035 N. Clark Street in Chicago, IL. When the car arrived at Perillo on a flatbed, is was completely dead. I was told that it would not "crank" or turn over.

By Monday the car was mysteriously starting and Perillo was perplexed. To their credit they did call BMW coroprate engineers and open what's called a "PUMA" file (not sure on the spelling of the anacronym). Anyway, by Tuesday evening no one had any idea why the car had thrown itself into fail safe mode and shut down. The dealership wanted authorization to drive the car between 50-100 miles that night in order to try to re-create the failure. I gave the authorization. By Wednesday the dealrship and Corporate apparently had given up and Perillo called to say that I could pick up the car.

So, the end result is that I'm asked to pick up a car that was obviously dead on the side of the road a handful of days before, wouldn't turn over for a period of time and has no final diagnostic conclusion. Adding insult to injury is that the car is still under warranty but not for long. So, when this does happen again, it can be assesed and repaired at my cost.

I called corporate (BMW North America in Woodcliff NJ) on Wednesday September 2nd. At this time the car was still at Perillo. I wanted to see what they would do for me. Corporate was the most disappointing experience I have had in long while. The first thing the case manager wanted to know was, "Why did I take the car to Perillo and why didn't I take it back to Fields"? My answer was that any authorized BMW dealer should be sufficent, I was much closer to Perillo and bascially that I had lost some faith in Fields as they had diagnosed the car two days prior to the failure.

The next thing the case manager said was, "well you have a two year warranty on all replaced parts so you're fine". This comment made zero sense considering that parts had not been replaced while it was "being serviced" because both Perillo mechanics and BMW Corporate enginners couldn't figure what needed to be replaced. For the representative to say this to me suggested that he was either slow in the head or proof that he wasn't listening. After I explained that parts had not been replaced his response was, "well that's why we have a four year or 50,000 mile warranty"! I explained to him that I understood the concept of the warranty and therein lies my cause for concern.

I further explained to him that if the car could not be fixed while under warranty, that it spelled future trouble for me when it broke down again the first mile after the warranty expired. I'm not sure he grasped my point as he seemed unconcerned. I told him the I thought BMW NA should extend my warranty (at no cost) under the terms of a normal extended warranty. He told me he doubted they would do that but would make some calls and contact me "in a few days".

I received a call back from the case manager on Wed September 9th, seven days after our conversation. He informed me that he was sorry for the delay but that "he wasn't able to call out" for a few days. I am entirely unclear on why he could not make calls from BMW North America for several days.

As of 9/3 he had not yet spoken with the general service manager at Perillo. He told me that he would "get back to me after he spoke with the dealership". I told him that based on our conversation of last week, when I had requested an extended warranty comp'd by BMW - that I had thought it over and did not expect BMW to cover ALL parts, but perhaps to guaranty exteneded coverage on all computer/electronic/sensor related issues as that seemed to be the focus of the research on the car. His repsonse was that he doubted that would happen as the car "had a lot of sensors". I asked him if he would want his wife/girlfriend or baby sister to be driving the car down the highway and have it suddenly go into fail safe and shut down? He chuckled but admitted "no". I'm glad he found this entertaining.

This is my fourth BMW product and will be my last. I feel like I have been treated like an idiot and not like a loyal BMW client. I don't think that BMW corporate has responded in a customer service friendly fashion at all, and I'm not sure that the dealership tried hard enough to find the problem. However, I can't fault the dealership because I'm not sure how supportive corporate engineers were and based on my experience with "Thomas the case manager" - I have my doubts.

John of Saratoga, CA September 5, 2009

I am the owner of a 2000 323CI. Without any warning reverse suddenly would not work. I found there are hundreds of people with the same problem and a website, noreverse.org, dedicated to the problem. During the repair it was found the reverse drum had broken.

Robert of Campbell, CA September 5, 2009

I bought a brand new BMW 325i in April, 2003. I had a major allergy and NEVER roll windows down or open the Moomroot while driving. The only time that I roll windows down is to get cash from the drive-up ATM bank machine, or to talk someone in the parking lot. That is all about it. All windows looked pretty brand new today. A few weeks ago I drove to the drive-up ATM to get cash, after I got cash and rolled windows up and it broke. How could the windows rarely use and brake easily, specially that it made by BMS in Germany? I had Acura within 13 years, everything is sitll working when I sold it. Even its automotatic antenna is still working too. As you know how much hard work that the automatic antenna would be but it's still working in 13 years in Acura. I NEVER BUY BMW AGAIN IN MY LIFE.

Steven of Patchogue, NY September 5, 2009

All of a sudden I went to shift my 2000 bmw 323i into reverse and suprise suprise it acts like it is nuetral. I have had no issues with the tranny and foward gears work fine. My mechanic just replaced three selenoids in the valve body hoping it would be the fix but... it wasn't. I really hope I dont have to pay for a rebuilt transmission because I dont trust that it won't happen again. I was told that maybe something in the valvebody is stuck like one of the valves maybe but if not I have no other option but to rebuild. I am online reading pleanty of horror stories about this exact issue and can't believe such a highly priced and rated car fails in reverse out of nowhere.I am at 155k on the car just got it at 135k for 4500 and put atleast 4000 into it mechanically before this happened. I feel like I got beat out of 8500 as I have only owned the car for 6 months. Why does bmw put gm trans in there car in the first f'n place if i wanted a gm i would have bought one. This to me is very ridiculous. I own a 2001 lexus and guess what I have a lexus transmission that came stock with the car with absolutely no problems. I will never own another bmw after this crap, what a waste!

Rich of Thousand Oaks , CA August 29, 2009

2000 328i Transmission Will not go into REVERSE. After looking online I find it is common and yet BMW has not addressed it. They have been getting around it by replacing the whole transmission so it gets put into a general transmission fix rather then a NO REVERSE fix.

Brooke of Fortson, GA August 26, 2009

I am the owner of a 2000 323ci. I have had absolutely NO transmission problems whatsoever and with no warning at all my reverse suddenly doesn't work. I have been told by a transmission shop that it will be at least 3000.00 to repair the problem. I got online and have discovered there are hundreds of people having the same problem. This is ridiculous and BMW needs to do a recall or repair these vehicles!

jim of san Francisco, CA August 19, 2009

...For all you folks writing about faulty BMW transmissions...BMW has produced hundreds of thousands of cars with defective transmissions. I have owned dozens of various make cars in over 40yrs driving never had a bad trans until BMW. My wife had BMW with 60,000 careful miles when trans blew up.

jim of san Francisco, CA August 15, 2009

...i had a 525 BMW for many years, it was well maintained and serviced. The transmission went out at 65,000 miles. The heater radiator in the passenger space would fog up the windshield, a big deal to fix. Salvation Army wouldn't take car with bad trans, rest of car looked like 2yrs old. Gave car to BMW salesman who said he would fix for his kid...never heard from him again except from DMV when he did not pay a ticket. I will never ever buy another BMW.

Millie of San Jose, CA August 4, 2009

This complaint is not targeted at the dealership but the manufacturer. 3 of my 4 window regulators on my 2002 BMW 325 have gone bad and my window won't close. What does it take to make BMW liable for these defective parts or force them to shoulder the repair costs? It's not fair for consumers like me to dish out all this money for malfunctioning parts and over priced labor when there is virtually no wear and tear to the parts. It just sickens me that BMW charges top price for their cars while their parts go bad pre-maturely. BMW is the only manufacturer I know of with this problem.

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