Elmhurst BMW sold me an X5M with a cracked block!

[Kellie]

I should preface this by saying I always try my best to give businesses a chance to rectify bad situations before resorting to negative reviews. Unfortunately, I have escalated this situation as far as possible, and have been met with resistance at every turn, so here we are.

Cliffs notes are at the end for those with short attention spans.

After months of scouring the internet for the perfect X5M, I purchased an Alpine White on Sakhir Orange 2012 X5M with 45,000 miles on it from Elmhurst BMW in Illinois in June of 2018. I was SO excited about the car, the color combo, the mileage, and the fact that it had one owner and appeared to be so well cared for. I live in Colorado, so I tried to do my due diligence and arrange for a pre-purchase inspection with another BMW specialist, but couldn't find a local shop that could make time in their schedule. I decided to trust Elmhurst that the car was in excellent condition, as they stated. I had another enthusiast friend stop by to take a quick look at the car, but he was only able to do a cosmetic inspection. He said it looked nice, so I decided to go for it. I figured I would just purchase the most comprehensive aftermarket warranty they offered to cover me in the future. I signed the paperwork, and booked a flight for my husband to go pick it up.

My husband flew to Chicago and took an Uber to the dealership. When he arrived, the interior was still dirty, and had all sorts of white crusty residue in the buttons. He notified Eugene, and Eugene assured him that it had been detailed, but they took it back to do a half-assed touch up. Great. Fine. Whatever. He was on a time crunch, and had to hit the road, so he took it as-is.

When he got home, I immediately noticed that the "side view camera malfunction" warning came on whenever I tried to activate them. I immediately called my client advisor, Mike, to let him know, and he said they wouldn't be able to do anything about it, but to just wait a month and file a warranty claim. Shady, and I figured the warranty wouldn't cover anything electronic, but whatever. I waited a month, and took my car to my favorite BMW independent shop for its scheduled brake flush and to have the camera looked at. They noted that the oil pan gasket was leaking, a PCV hose was leaking, and the side view camera wiring was damaged and had caused corrosion at the camera itself. All told, over $3000 of work that should have been caught by Elmhurst, but I had a warranty, so whatever. I had the shop submit the claim to Continental Warranty, and everything was denied except for the oil pan gasket (but they refused to cover the one-time-use fasteners, or the alignment that needed to be done in conjunction with the repair). I decided to suck it up and have them get started on the oil pan gasket. I know these warranties have a reputation for nitpicking claims, and I was just happy they were paying for most of it. This is when things went downhill.

Upon removal of the oil pan, the technician found that the engine block was cracked and needed to be replaced. They immediately called Continental Warranty, and the claim was 100% denied. Continental said that it was "clearly stress cracks due to previous work being done". My car had only ever been serviced at Elmhurst, and according to the service history, had never had any work done in that area, so their hypothesis was absolutely incorrect. I called Elmhurst to tell them what was going on, and Tim Baber said he would call Continental and see what he could do. Tim called me back after the weekend, and said that Continental refused to budge. I asked for a refund on the warranty, and after some back and forth, they agreed to refund me in full. This was the last helpful thing Elmhurst BMW did for me. (Side note: It's been a month and I have yet to receive the refund.)

The full price of the engine replacement in my car was $26,000. My car cost $36,000. Elmhurst didn't offer me any assistance in contacting BMW of North America, or with the cost of the repairs. I asked them what they suggested I do, and Tim Baber told me to "JB Weld the cracks and sell the car." I pointed out how incredibly unethical that suggestion was. He said, "so trade it in at a place like CarMax." Oh, okay...I'll just pawn it off on someone else, and lose a ton of money in the process. He said, "well, you'd probably lose less trading it in than the engine would cost." He then offered me $28,000 on trade if I wanted to trade in my car for another one of their cars. He apparently forgot that my vehicle was dismantled and I live in Denver, not to mention the fact that I would never, in a million years, want another used car from them.

I worked as a technician at BMW dealerships in a past life, and fortunately, I still have a number of friends who work for dealerships, and for BMW of North America. I reached out to my friend who works for BMW North America to see if he could help, and he went to work advocating for me to the powers that be. After a few weeks of back and forth, he advised me to tow my car to BMW of Denver Downtown. In the end, he got BMW to goodwill 75% of the repair cost. That left me with a bill of $1,400 to my independent shop and $6,500 owed to BMW of Denver Downtown for the balance of the repair.

In the midst of this, I emailed Tim Baber, the used car sales manager, and Irv Shenderovsky, the general manager, to let them know how disappointed I was that they made no attempt whatsoever to assist me with this. They seemed perfectly content to sell me a car that needed a $26,000 engine and wash their hands of the situation. If I hadn't had friends at BMW, I would have been on the hook for the full cost of the repair, and they would not have lifted a finger to help me. Irv assured me that they would see what they could do to help, but he sent me one-sentence emails, no updates, and never answered his phone when I called him. He repeatedly asked for documents I had already sent him, and strung me along for over a month. He had their service manager, Korey, contact BMW of North America (the same exact thing I had already done, but weeks after the fact), and came back with the news that BMW wouldn't do anything more for me. BMW dealerships are independently owned, and I didn't expect more from BMWNA - I wanted Elmhurst BMW to take some responsibility. I asked Korey if they would have sold this car knowing the extent of the damage to the engine, and he said no, they would not have sold the car. But they did. They sold it to me. And they weren't sorry.

I finally got Irv on the phone, and expressed how incredibly upset and disappointed I have been with his handling of the situation. He acted defensive, and insisted over and over again that there was no way they could have known about the damage, totally missing the fact that it doesn't matter whether or not they knew. What matters is how they handled the issue. If they had stepped up to contact BMW on my behalf to address the issue from the beginning, if they had offered to pay for, or even split my out of pocket costs with me just to make it right, I would be raving about their customer service to my friends and family. I wouldn't have hesitated to travel again for another car purchase. Instead, here I am, letting the world know how bad they dropped the ball and how little they care about their clients once they've signed on the dotted line. In the end, after over a month of arguing, he offered me $2500. A pittance compared to the $8,000 this has cost me.

So at this point, I just want to warn others away from Elmhurst. Go literally anywhere else to buy your BMW.

Cliffs notes: Elmhurst BMW sold me a car that needed a $26,000 engine replacement and refused to assist me in any way with the repairs.

[0-60motorsports]

Thanks for posting this. Do you have better pics of the block? That looks like one of the holes for the pan is cracked and not the side of the block itself.

[Kellie]

Originally Posted by 0-60motorsports

Thanks for posting this. Do you have better pics of the block? That looks like one of the holes for the pan is cracked and not the side of the block itself.

I do have other photos, but they do not show the cracks quite as clearly. I never saw the cracks myself, so I am unsure as to the exact location of them, or how many there were. That said, there is no BMW approved method of repairing a cracked block, so the only solution was replacement. It was likely a manufacturing defect, so it's unfortunate that I was saddled with the remainder of the bill.

Look toward the end of the screwdriver here.

[0-60motorsports]

Originally Posted by Kellie

I do have other photos, but they do not show the cracks quite as clearly. I never saw the cracks myself, so I am unsure as to the exact location of them, or how many there were. That said, there is no BMW approved method of repairing a cracked block, so the only solution was replacement. It was likely a manufacturing defect, so it's unfortunate that I was saddled with the remainder of the bill.



Look toward the end of the screwdriver here.

Yes there is no way to repair it properly, replacement is the only way. Now just put all this behind you and enjoy the car.

[crystalworks]

I think I'd be pretty salty myself. That said, I could see how that would easily be missed after being taken in on trade. Dealers just turn and burn these cars. It's just a line item on a spreadsheet to then, not a dream car.

Thanks for sharing your story. At least the dealership refunded (is going to refund) your warranty and gave you a few grand. Crappy situation all around. Looks like a bolt was cross threaded and snapped the metal... Could have even been at the factory with such few miles.

[chitown312]

Money makes the world go round. Here is my opinion.

I suspect BMW dealers don't put much effort looking for problems when they turn cars over to their CPO program. They may think that well the warranty will cover it when that part hard fails and it'll be fixed anyway. By no means do they take stuff apart to get a better look inside because that is none billable beyond a standard inspection. They may plug the car into a computer and inspect the car's mechanical with a flashlight to a certain level of effort. As for none CPOs if its not bleeding too bad or making a noise i imagine the mentality is well its used. Maybe lower volume or special dealers are better than others but it's all about profit at one point.

I'd like to hope Indy shops do a better job for pre-purchase inspections. A local one in my area charges 4 or so hours to look through everything but that probably wouldn't have caught your issue aside from them saying anything beyond that you need a new gasket.

I'm glad you got your issue addressed minus the headache and missing money from your wallet. Saving money not buying new is always a risk and it sometimes gets tricky investing in a 3rd party warranty. I'm surprised BMW offered so much for the repair and its a miracle it worked out so far from the point of you having to pay for everything.

It's completely odd that the block was cracked but its a 550hp v8 engine in an M car so anything is possible in my opinion. One would hope something like the block would at least be solid since it's a BMW. If I bought a M car and the block cracked i'd be like well that's unfortunate but possible. If I bought a Lexus and it had a cracked block I'd feel like i got struck by lightning(meaning odds are so much less or close to zero).

[blndweasel]

I don't mean to marginalize your terrible experience in any way, but based on the photos of that crack it appears to be exterior to the sealing surface, and only affects a portion of the threading for that fastener. Looking at the scenario retrospectively (which is easy to do at arms length, I acknowledge so feel free to hate me), I would have likely attempted an in-place repair and seen how things went rather than replace the entire engine. As long as you could achieve proper torque on the fastener (perhaps using a longer bolt as permitted by the depth of the threads to accommodate suitable thread engagement), I wouldn't see an issue with achieving a proper pan seal.

Now, understandably your mind likely jumps to "well, what else could be wrong though" and that is a totally valid question to ask. How damage like this would occur in the first place is beyond me, unless the block was damaged prior to or during assembly.

Glad you were able to cut the costs down significantly through leveraging your network of contacts.

[chitown312]

where are these photos?

[ard]

People seem to think a BMW dealers pre-owned sales group is better than two guys in a trailer with plastic flags strung up over the lot.

It isnt.

Elmhurst could have done quite a bit for you, including a BMW backed powertrain warranty that would have covered this defect.

As with so many aftermarket warranties, they look great on paper- a waste of money by and large. Id always go for a BMW backed plan...always, always. alwys

Elmhurst clearly has done their part in earning a reputation as scumbags......

Glad you have a new motor for a decent spend. Enjoy.

[740iS]

Sorry to read what you went through and don't disagree with any of your feelings to what they didn't do! I don't care for dealers like that either.

But one person mentioned here "CPO" and if this was a CPO it would have covered the powertrain and including the engine. But since you say it was a third party warranty, that is the definition of not being CPO.

I am surprised BMWNA stepped up the way they did, but IMHO, Elmhurst should have covered the remaining 25% at the very least. I think that type of goodwill would have been the best advertising money spent by them!

Just my 2 cents worth.