Originally Posted by ard

4. .....not sure what the criteria is here.

Originally Posted by JCL

A small clarification on point 4:

If it is warranty, and if BMW is like many other manufacturers I have dealt with, they have the right to ask for the parts back from the dealer. They may or may not do so, depending on whether they are investigating something in particular, or whether they simply want to ensure that the parts are out of circulation for any reason at all. The dealer stores them until BMW asks for them, or provides a disposal instruction, up to a predetermined time limit (I have seen up to one year, depending on the manufacturer). If the dealer does not keep them (and the manufacturer does warranty audits at their discretion) then not only does the manufacturer have the ability to not pay the warranty claim (parts and labour) but they can go after all similar warranty claims at the dealership to determine if there was any padding going on in the claims process. Once a dealer has been burned in a warranty audit, they will become very focused on keeping the parts. That doesn't mean you can get hold of them, it just provides some background on where they might be.

Not knowing the background to the OP's situation, a question to the dealer as to whether the parts have been destroyed, or returned to the manufacturer, would be the first step.