Yesterday my drivers side door handle carrier mechanism snapped, making access to via the driver's door impossible. So all of yesterday I am forced to open the driver's door from the inside by crawling over the seats.

Fast forward to this morning. After driving across town I pull into the garage at home and out of habit I leave the keys in the ignition. As soon as I shut the driver's door I know that I am screwed. All the other doors were locked, and even though the driver's door is unlocked I am unable to gain access to the vehicle because the damn door handle carrier is busted !ouch:

Not wanting to break a window (it's 5 degrees outside), I call a local towing company and ask if they can open up a late model BMW that is "locked out". Their response is "we won't know until we try" - not inspiring, but what am I going to do. About 20 minutes later they show up, and within 30 seconds the guy has the doors open and I have my keys in my hand. :thumbup: Zero damage to the vehicle, and my pocket is $45 lighter - well worth it, I might add.

I am not going to disclose how he did it, for obvious reasons, but if anyone gets into this predicament and wants to contact me via PM, I'll pass along the tricks that he used.

This afternoon my local independent mechanic replaced the door handle carrier (I know I could have done it myself, but I didn't feel the money saved was worth doing this on a day where the daytime highs were in the single digits :tsk: ), and I am back in business. No 4 week lead time, just called him up and he got me in the same day. Nice!

i think it's hilarious that both of you had the exact same issue. I've had a problem with my trunk latch, think i drove off and trunk wasnt fully closed. Paid someone $20 in the bronx (a indie mech, i swear) and was all good. Happened again a few mths ago hear in FL and I got it open myself.