Or you can deal with East Bay BMW in the SF Bay area and they won't do a loaner except for the fuel pump even though they don't have it in stock when BMWNA's letter said they do and to schedule ASAP. Plus the letters for the airbags (especially passenger) state that loaners will be available!

It's "their policy" since it doesn't take too long to replace the airbag in their opinion. What a ration of ....

I already had my driver's side airbag replaced with a 'known defective" airbag about 8 months ago. Just got the letter that they are ready to do the passenger side, which will be a "good" airbag. I'll get that and the fuel pump done at the same time.

Looks like getting the 'interim" airbag done on the driver's side will put me at the bottom of the list to get a proper replacement, but mine was a Florida car, and it seemed like the only thing to do. There was talk a loaner car that would be made available until parts could come in, but when I told them I needed a car with a trailer hitch, this was their response.

How did you know if you got an interim or final replacement?

As for fuel pump, is that listed on bmw recalls site for your car?

In my case I was specifically told it was an interim replacement they were going to do for my driver's airbag. When I got the fuel pump letter, it said no parts available yet. Just a couple of days ago, I got the letter for the Passenger Airbag, saying they were ready to do that. I presume that's a non-defective airbag. The service department put me on to their parts department to make sure it was in stock, which it wasn't. When ordering the airbag parts, they noticed the open recall for the fuel pump, so they ordered that too, even though I never got a letter indicating that BMW was ready to repair that.

Question for those who have already had the airbag replaced, was it the complete assembly with the cover? Or did they dismantle yours and just install new internals?

Oh, needed to mention, I also just filed a complaint with BMWNA (probably wont do a darned thing) about the $tealership and their attitudes on the loaner and lies on the parts availability. Called me back saying it would be at least 1 to 2 weeks before they could get the passenger airbag. I asked if they were sourcing from Germany as NONE of the parts distribution centers would take that long to ship to them. If in stock there are two DC's in CA that could ship to them either same day or overnight at the slowest!

I think the part replaced is the inflator...and that part is made by Takata? And if Takata...there's a lot more car manufacturers all waiting for replacement parts...from this air bag supplier (that's teetering on bankruptcy). :yikes:

I got a complete assembly for both my X5 and 325xi; including the cover.

As far as your complaint about slow delivery, I'm not sure it's really in BMW's hands; they can't complete the recalls until the suppliers supply them. Given the entire supply chain is geared to fulfill primarily the needs for new autos, there's not massive excess capacity. And this Takata issue spans numerous manufacturers and loads of model lines. But there's NO excuse for screwing around with you.

As far as loaners to do a recall job, I guess that's up to availability and policies at the dealership. I hardly ever use my dealership for repairs, sometimes for parts, yet I had no problem getting a loaner for both airbag recalls I've had so far. One tip on that; let them know you'll want a loaner when you schedule the appointment so they can book you on a day a loaner is available; it may not be the soonest day they can do the service.

Agree on the Takata about to be out of business overall and understand the cause of the recall too. But, I didn't think the dealerships would want to take the cover assembly apart to replace the bag and then reassemble.

Guess I'll know for sure if I ever get into the dealer. ;)

Hmm, if Bay Area dealerships are only replacing the inflators and not the complete set-up (inflator + cover)...I wonder what or how they are billing the recall? Are they requesting payback for both, but only supplying owners with inflators? And what do they do with new airbag covers...keep them for resale?

Hmmm, wouldn't be the first time Bay Area dealerships have taken advantage of customers. They were known for charging way more (gouging) for the goodwill replacement clusters versus the deals others were getting.

You're exactly right, especially on the goodwill cluster replacement from the E38 and E39. Fortunately when I went through that on one of my E38's I was in Southern California and was one of the 100% replacements at the time. My E38 now has a fully functional M5 cluster in it so I'm good.