It's not that climbing the seats is not impossible, it's just stupid to design a system this way.

Here's my situation, I cannot open the rear doors from the inside because I have child locks set to "on". I also have two car seats back there currently installed. On top of this I have tools in the rear cargo area that are bulky and heavy.

So, here is what I have to go through in order to get the damn battery replaced.

Open the drivers door, climb between the drivers and passengers seats and unbuckle the car seats. Remove them and take them out of the car. Then, climb back in and drag the tools all the way from the back to the front. Finally, climb all the way in the back and open the lift gate.

I assure you, this is not a small task but I really appreciate the "what's the big deal responses". Very helpfull (may I suggest a gov't job designing something?). :thumbup:

Oh, the reason the car has been sitting for four weeks is because I have been away on buisness and just came back.

Thanks..

Trust me, things could be worse in your life :rolleyes:

Overall.. in the scheme of things... sure. But it's just frustrating to have to go through all this just to change the battery.

Thank god venting is free. :D

Those crazy Germans....
That's what I say to myself every time I find something wierd/ridiculous/generally odd about the car.

True :thumbup:

The other thing you could have done is to open the hood and put a set of jumper cables on the designated + and - connections. Even if you didn't try to jump start the vehicle, doing so would likely have given you enough juice to use the remote to pop the rear hatch.

Excellent suggestion.

A simple solution should of been for BMW just to provided a lock cylinder for us to use the key at the hatch. I mean...come on...even the 3 series has one. How much is BMW saving by deleting the hatch lock cylinder? :dunno: Not having a lock cylinder in the hatch is stupid...especially when the battery is in the hatch! Must be one of those odd german engineering feature to design a battery operated latch to lock the battery compartment!