Going Back For A 4th Service Call in 2 months. Advice?
 

My X5 is going back o the dealer for the four time in two months. This is to the resolve my heated seat which has still not be fixed. The original intent of this visit is to fix pieces of trim broken during the third visit. In addition, I am going to discuss a blatant lie on the part of the SA. Supposidly they "spent many hours on my issue and found no fault" but "as a favor" they swapped my seat anyway with a seat from a brand new E70 sitting on the lot. Turns out no swap was made since my seat looked dirty, as a result of filth left all over the vehicle from the third trip, and the heated seat still did not work properly. Turns out they only swapped the heating element although I am very skeptical since I've already caught them in a lie once. Plus they have not fixed the squeaking and rattling noise in back which was supposidly caused my me leaving a ice scraper in the rear cargo area. Of course the noise is still there.

To recap:
Out of service from the morning of October 2 through the evening of October 16
- Fixed two recall items
- Rattling noise caused by "a bad hose" Turns out they replaced a power streering pump. This explains to extremely heavy streering from the day I took I deilvery. This did not fix the rattle I had been hearing.
- Could not duplicate unusual shifting transmission
- Rattle and squeak was supposed to have been fixed with a new cargo cover.
- Front heated seat "working normal"
- No indications of dynamic drive failure (I do have pics to prove the failure)
- Front vented seat fan replaced to fixed noise
- CD player in dash activates from no reason but this is considered "normal"
- Loaner provided on week two. Written up by a very disgrunted shop person. "Full tank of gas" was only 3/4 full.

Out of Service from the morning of 10/25 through the evening of 11/09
- Work during the first visit broke the active seat feature. Seat only works for 1 - 3 minutes at a time. New motor installed.
- Rattle still present. Initially replaced the frint struts and even eventally diagnosed as a bad swaybar.
- Told the seat control unit was drawing too much power which caused heated seat issue. Issue still not fixed even with new seat control unit.
- Cargo cover finally in stock and installed to "fix" the noise in the cargo area
- Given a very filthy rental car as documented in a past thread. Seat sticky from spilled drinks, back seats covered in spilled juice, and moldy cups found strewn about. Low oil warning after the 2nd day.

Out of service from the morning of 11/13 through the evening of 11/15:
- Noise from cargo area caused by owner's ice scraper. Not the case. Noise is still there
- Swapped out driver seat for a new seat to fix issues. Untrue statement. Seat still broken.
- Another dynamic drive failure. "Found two older error codes" which suprised me since apparently there were no error codes. Steering angle sensor recalibrated
- Transmission still shifting roughly but this is "normal"

Going back in on 11/26 for the noises in the cargo area and driver seat issues. At this point what is the best course of action? I am going to at a minimum ask for the extended warranty. With issues like these, I can't imagine what I'll see four years down the line. Does that sound fair? Does this sound like enough to consult a lawyer about lemoning this X5? I've also been told about a "buy back." What would that entail?

Thanks everyone.

I suggest you call Corporate, explain what has been done during those visits (just stick to the facts, no emotions and name-callings). Ask them for recommendations as "what should I do now" ? They will either direct you to another dealer, or call your dealer and straigthen them out. After all, they (the Corporate) got their image to preserve ! Believe me, if Honda does it, BMW will do that for sure !

Good luck !

good luck

IMO, I'd seriously be talking to the dealer about taking this thing back...problems out the rear apparently. Don't imagine it will get better down the road. That said, none of this issues listed seam major to me. Heated seats have been an issue for BMW from 1999+ and rattling noises are something that is only found after build.

Let me guess - Herb Chambers dealership on Com. Ave.?

that would have been my guess too....

Ding!

I have called corporate and they seemed to have gotten very good at getting them to look at things.

What would be involved in getting them to take the car back and how should I approach things? I am very concerned about reliability considering I've already had quite a few issues.

To add, I have been very patient with everyone throughout the entire process from initial order through today's service.

I originally ordered my E70 mid October 2006 with a expected delivery date of late December or early January. Then the date became late January, then early February, then late February, then early March, and finally took delivery in mid March. My salesman told me I was one of the only people that did not call every day asking for a status update and did not press for an explaination. I let him know I understood that it was out of his hands and he had no control over delivery schedules. I was the model customer. The night of delivery, I waited almost an hour so that he could close a sale. I patiently waited in the showroom since I know each sale was important and he had commision at stake.

During the first service call, I went a week without a vehicle and took a loaner the beginning of week two. I called once for a status update but otherwise let the dealer do their work. More than half of the item were "could not duplicate" and not addressed. That service call, led to one item actually being broken.

For the second service call, I spent an hour cleaning the loaner car to clean up some of the grime left by previous drivers. Again, I did not press them for explainations every day. I patiently waited for status updates every few days. Still, my issues were not fixed despite promises that everything was thoroughly tested.

After 30 days of the vehicle being out of service, I called corporate to ask about acceptable levels of service. They got me a service appointment ASAP. The third service is where I was angry but calm. Being lied to automatically puts me off and to have a SA practically suggest I'm an idiot is too much to stand. Then the added insult of having parts slapped together willy nilly led me to call corprate over the long weekend.

Today, I refused to deal with the last SA (who replaced my original SA as he has left for a new job) and requested a new SA. This person seems more knowledgable but I am not confident everything will be addressed. So here I am without a vehicle (no loaner or rental provided this time) while I await the latest fix.

Hopefully this present a clear picture of the patience I have shown over the past two months.

don't keep the truck...return it immediately!!!

simply put your truck is part of a bad batch.... if they haven't figured it out by now...they won't.

swap it for a new one if you can!!!

that would be my decision!

It seems so. Guess the power steering being bad out of the factory is a bad sign. I found my old thread from March about the heated seat not working right out of the factory as well. It didn't seem a big deal since warm weather was coming. Little did I know it would be such a big deal.

Sorry for all the questions but who would I ask about a tradein? My dealer or corporate?