Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig
That's why both dealers and BMWNA told me to use a trickle charger or battery tender. If you want to start a class action suit, I would like BMW to buy back my vehicle for this and a parts availability problem. I drove around for 3 months with a check engine light waiting on a part. I also had the heated fuel filter go bad and waited 5 weeks. Both times, I had to get BMWNA involved in order to receive parts for my vehicle. I've asked them to buy my vehicle and they declined. I'm waiting on a compensation check from BMWNA right now. It only amounts to a small amount of money. I don't consider it a fair amount of compensation. BMWNA says I have to drive my car daily at highway speeds in order to keep my battery charged. I find this unacceptable for a modern vehicle. Please let us know what they tell you. I already had someone tell me on the Lexus board they saw my posts and decided to purchase a new Lexus GX 460. They leave their vehicle at the airport for ten days at a time and were worried about not being able to start the X5d when they returned. If I had known I had to keep my car on a battery charger every night, I wouldn't have purchased this vehicle.
Craig
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DO NOT CASH YOUR CHECK! If you truly hold out any hope of having BMW buy back your vehicle, DO NOT CASH ANY CHECK they give you.
That can be considered, in many states, to be payment in full for your damages. The act of cashing the check can act as legal acceptance and agreement of BMWs payment to you.
Contact an attorney who specializes in Lemon Law cases. There are quite a few, who specialize in this area of the law. Class Action suits of this kind go no where and will take years. BMW has deep pockets and excellent attorneys of their own. Trust me, if there's any case here, it's already being investigated by some law firm, somewhere.
If you truly want BMW to take back your vehicle, your only realistic option is to contact an attorney and go through the lemon law process that is allowed within your state.
But, once again, you'll be doing BMW a massive favor by cashing that check and muddying your legal options. It will not absolutely preclude you from any future damages, but there's a likelihood that it could, so why take the chance in this situation?
Since you're not an attorney, and you don't know the laws in your state that govern the acceptance of such funds, do not cash any funds from BMW until you've received confirmation from an attorney that doing so will not preclude you from collecting future compensation.
My bet is that any attorney you speak to is going to recommend that you not cash any funds from BMW, if you have a desire to take future action.
But, as someone who knows a whole hell of a lot about batteries, and is involved in green-energy startups that specifically with battery technology and storage, I will tell you this: BMW is incorrect when they tell you that you must drive your vehicle daily, in order for the battery to remain charged.
If your battery is exposed to very low temperatures (below 30-degrees), for days at a time, and you're only performing stop and go driving, buy a battery tender. This would be required for all vehicles do to the way in which alternators switch on and off at specific RPMS (explanations of which should be confined to a different thread).
Battery tenders are not a big deal and they cost $30.00. You'd need to use one, depending on your driving habits, if you owned a Honda Civic. Temperature Extremes and Stop and Go Driving = Chaos on batteries, regardless of who manufactures them.
Do some research on alternators, the rpm ranges at which they're active, and the way in which batteries are charged. This is a problem that is not all that uncommon.