Hi Forum!

My 2011 x5 50i would not close the sunroof the other day. upon a closer look i saw the plastic sunroof-slider clip on the left side was broken (looks like this part on ebay Sunroof Repair Part for BMW x3 X5 | eBay ) , missing pieces and jammed up against the outer/upper rail, physically preventing closure. the motors, seals and the springs seem to function just fine. i checked for foreign objects and there were non in the assembly. this seems to me like the thing just broke down, rather than me breaking it either due to foreign object insertion or abuse.

i took it to the dealership who initially estimated (per my extended service contract Gold level, since i am at 60k miles on the car) 50$ deductible per the Gold level. they called the next day, backtracked and told me it would be something like 3400$ for a the repair using the "repair kit" or about 6000$ for a whole new roof assembly.

this went down about 1 week after i had a "vehicle check" performed at 59.8k at the same dealership.

i feel like my car is being held hostage.

i am surprised to say the least and have some questions- i am hoping others have some experience with this and can offer me some input:

1) my impression was Gold level covered the Roof Motor and Gears (as listed in the pdf linked here: BMW Ultimate Protection Program - Extended Service Contracts ), so to me it sounds like this repair should be part of the extended warranty, and cost me 50$. Has anyone had to pay for this sort of repair while the car is past 50k and into the Extended Service Contract ? if so how much did you have to pay?

2) would Platinum Extended service contract cover this if the gold level does not? or is the roof just not covered under any extended warranty?

3) is there really no way for the dealership to replace just the sliders? the assembly looked complicated to me, but i have never worked on it, so it's foreign to me. i did find some you tube videos showing how to pop those clips off, but wonder about quality of 3rd party parts and if that causes other damage or calibration issues.

4) any alternative methods to fix it?

5) any tips to help me convince the dealership, so they go up to bat for me and convince bmw usa to own the problem ?

Thanks

D