Horrible dealer service experience

[anatolych]

Life Quality BMW in Bayridge (Brooklyn) is the closest dealership to us. When check engine light lit up and our 1.5 year old X5 35D went into reduced power mode on Thursday, I figured we'd go to them to save the time. I knew their reputation was not stellar, but I figured how bad could it be...
When my wife arrived next morning for a scheduled appointment at 9:30 and said she'd wait to hear what the issues are, they offered her coffee and magazines. Two hours later when she got tired of waiting, she approached the customer service representative. She was told that the mechanic will start looking at the car soon! And thats when everything started going wrong. 1. Despite a scheduled appointment, they did not have anyone looking at the car for 2+ hours. 2. They did not tell my wife about the wait so she could plan her day better 3. They did not apologize, but pretended thats normal and was our fault that we did not know they are not in the rush. 4. There are no loaner car available and they will not do anything about it. And to top it off, when my wife picked up the car this Friday, the same error came up twice on on her 5 mile drive home.
In summary, after an incredibly rude service, one week wait, hundreds of dollars of car rental fees we got our car back with the same issues. I don't have to tell you that I took the car straight to JMK BMW, which is 15 miles out, but have the nicest people working there. I was out of the dealership in 15 minutes in a brand new 528i. They should call me back Tuesday with the diagnosis.
The main purpose for this post is to alert fellow NY/NJ BMW owners to avoid LQ at all costs.I gather that the only thing I can do in this situation. If you break in Brooklyn, have your car loaded on the tow truck and shipped to your local dealer. It will save you time, money and aggravation.

I am not yet sure what is wrong with the car, LQ changed the air temperature sensor, which did not fix things. It starts as normal, and after a few miles the Check Engine Light comes up and it switches into reduced power mode. If you turn off the engine and restart almost immediately, everything works again, but repeats a few miles later. I'll keep you posted...