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  #1  
Old 10-23-2009, 05:45 PM
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BMW questionable warranty

My little gripe.

I own a April built 35d great car.

Bought it for the 7 seats due to havnig three children under 8.

Found that the little levers that you use to direct airflow in the rear centre airvent come aparrt if knoked by overly happy kids in the back.

Simple part really outside/inside vent that clips together. Unfortunilty one part got lost.

This 50c part (which is what I am sure it costs BMW) is not available for individual sale, one has to buy the whole airvent at a cost of $350.

To top it off BMW does not warranty this part as they are well aware that it is a poor design, my dealers service manager saying he has replaced 6 of them in the last 18 months.

What a rip off BMW. I also love how there customer service department gave the job of informing me on the poor service manager at the dealership, they couldnt do me the courtesy of ringing and telling me themselves ... well done ... what commendable customer service ... very poor indeed

I wonder how many other owners out there have had this problem?
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  #2  
Old 10-23-2009, 07:35 PM
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Red face

I don't know if I would blame BMW for your kids breaking the A/C vent. My kids broke my company car rear a/c vent and Chrysler wouldn't pay for it because it was user error.
Luckily, my kids have not broken any of the a/c vents in the X5 and I have had the car a year.
I understand your frustration that the part cost so much but that is part of the joy of having kids.
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  #3  
Old 10-23-2009, 07:44 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by socalrancher View Post
I don't know if I would blame BMW for your kids breaking the A/C vent. My kids broke my company car rear a/c vent and Chrysler wouldn't pay for it because it was user error.
Luckily, my kids have not broken any of the a/c vents in the X5 and I have had the car a year.
I understand your frustration that the part cost so much but that is part of the joy of having kids.

Very true. My frustration comes more from the fact that BMW does not offer the small part indipendantly of the whole air vent.

I would be more than happy to pay for the part and the service guys said if I had both parts they would fix it for me for nothing with 'super glue'

Just a grab for money in my opinion by BMW as they know they can get away with it due to it being a luxury car.
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  #4  
Old 10-24-2009, 11:26 AM
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lol... i highly doubt its a "grab" for money so much as they don't want to keep the sku seperate..just standard inventory practices with almost every manufacturer
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Old 10-24-2009, 12:48 PM
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Somewhat similar story....

I had a new X5 (E53), and in the first few months of ownership my kids kicked in the rear speaker grill getting out of the rear seat. We had a talk about it, but it was an accident. I mentioned it to my dealer when I was in for a scheduled service, and asked them to fix it up. When I came back to pick up the car, there was no charge for the new grill. I asked why; it was obviously not warranty, as there was nothing defective about the grill (it probably still had small footprints on it). The dealer advised that they had changed it on their own, no charge for parts or labour, and they hoped that I was enjoying the car. Seemed like a pretty good approach to customer service, and I guess it worked because I have told several people the story.
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  #6  
Old 10-24-2009, 05:08 PM
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Originally Posted by jhu321 View Post
lol... i highly doubt its a "grab" for money so much as they don't want to keep the sku seperate..just standard inventory practices with almost every manufacturer
Not wanting to be rude but I dont find it very funny.

I also would question 'standard inventory practice' involving having to remove the trim from the centre console in order to unscrew a plastic part (the air vent) at a cost of 30 minutes labor as apposed to 2 minutes to clip in a new lever.

If thats standard practice Henry Ford would be turning in his grave.

As for a grab for money I know removing the vent and replacing it takes about 10 minutes as I did it myself when fitting my rear entertainment system from INvision - so 30 minutes labor at a cost of $50 ... wow thats a better hourly rate than a large percentage of the population.

Luxury car .... luxury price .... luxury service costs

Really at the end of the day I dont care because as soon as I fix it my kids will break it again.
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  #7  
Old 10-24-2009, 10:20 PM
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Make your kids pay for it.
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  #8  
Old 10-25-2009, 03:33 AM
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lol not as in funny... lol as in happened to me on my 745Li... the backplate for teh shifter fell out and i tried to order another one... they wanted to sell me a whole new shifter assembyl for 900 bucks.. I'm like no.. it works fine.. just the back plate.. sell me a new backplate... couldn't do it... I had to find an ebay one off a wrecked car.... irony is a few months later my car got totalled... lol....

as for grab for money... its probably more like a "its gotta be worth my time to do this" no bid thing. realistically the dealership rather be doing bigger jobs that pay better than these 1 hr jobs here or there; it doesn't take 30 minutes to do something, it takes 10 minutes; but they don't care... they rather have the tech be free to do a bigger job that they can make more money off of instead of this small job. Its just the opportunity cost issue... if it was say a safety issue thats not a choice to be fixed or not then i call that a money grabbing issue... this was more like a ehh... don't really want to deal with it but if you pay me enough i'll do it.

-john
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