service problems, any BMW Contacts?
 

we love our x5 but am having continued problems.
The current issue was quite alarming and almost caused my wife to get into an accident! She was driving down the streets in our development and heard a loud crack from under the hood, after which she wasn't able to steer the vehicle, the car ran up a curb and stopped on one of our neighbors lawns a couple feet shy of some trees and a ditch. Once she called me and I came running down the street fearing the worse by how she reacted on the phone, I was able to steer it although with an extreme amount of force, we left it on the road and BMW towed it in for service.
What appears to have been the cause as reported by the dealer was that the idler pulley bolts sheared off of the engine block, when this happened it also snapped the alternator free from the engine, punctured the radiator, and caused some other damage. I can't imagine what would have happened if this occurred while at higher speed. The dealer reported to me that not only was the damage more than they originally estimated but that they weren't able to get parts for the vehicle and that it would be at least 6 weeks in the shop(we are 5 weeks in now)! This morning they called to report that it would be at least another 2 weeks till they hope to receive the parts needed to fix our car and then couldn't estimate when it would be actually fixed.

Given this, I think we are just going to suck it up and take a loss on the car and trade it in on something new, was thinking of the 2014 X5 but they have seriously jacked the price up and are giving you less for it. To get a new diesel comporably equiped to ours, it's going to cost about 10-12k more than ours cost new two years ago!

Does anyone on the forums have any contact information for someone at BMW Corporate? Sent customer relations a few emails but I never hear back from anyone.

What are you expecting??????????

Things break, sometimes catastrophically- do you really expect BMW will give you a new car because your wife is upset?

The idler pulley was, as I recall, subject to a recall. Maybe not on your care, but look it up. Was your affected? Did you have it done?

Finally do you life in Zimbawe or China or New Zealand? Kinda depends where you live in terms of warranty and corporate. I see by your profile you listed ________________.


Ive lemoned a car and helped with a few- that is the only way to get BMW corp to pay attention. If you are in the USA, and if the car is under warranty and if you meet the criteria for a lemon claim in your state, you can tell them "I am lemoning this". They'll probably offer you some $$ to not lemon it.

Thanks for replying but to clarify, in no way am I looking for BMW to give me a new car, I do understand that hey, things break and they depreciate. I'm ok with biting the cost of depreciation and buying a new one but want to reach out to them and see if they can do anything for me in terms of maybe finding out what the story is on why the parts are taking over 6 weeks to get to the local dealer or hell, helping me get a BMW loaner car. Right now I'm driving a Dodge Ram pickup truck which is what the BMW dealer gave me as a loaner and they keep saying there aren't any BMW loaners available despite the fact that I drive by the dealership everyday and see a line of them parked out front.

Sorry, forgot some other information, Located in Southern New Jersey outside of Philadelphia if anyone know who the local rep is. Been asking the dealer for a contact at BMW to talk to but they refuse to give me his information.

Looked into the recall, mine was a late 2012 production and wasn't covered by the recall from what I was told.

Thought about lemoning the car but from what I can find we are just outside the limits of lemon law due to mileage, have had the car for just over 2 years and its spent about 3-4 months in the shop which I find to be unacceptable.

I would be very very upset if I were you and I think you have a right to complain. Yes, things do break and that is the nature of the beast but we have all purchased these high-end German designed and engineered vehicles for several reasons and I would venture to say most, if not all of us, place the reasons of reliability, longevity, and safety at the top of the list. The last reason I bought a BMW is to impress my friends or try to send a message to others about my social or financial status. I simply wanted a decent quality and dependable vehicle that I could depend on at all times. Now with that being said.

1. Six weeks plus for those repairs is absolutely ludicrous and is completely unreasonable. You have been more than patient and I have to give you credit for that.

2. Sticking you in a domestic pickup truck loaner for that long while your $60,000+ BMW is in the service department for warranty work is not only unacceptable but seriously needs to be addressed with BMW customer service. BMW provides loaners to the dealerships so customers can drive a BMW while their vehicles are down for repairs. Not only is this good marketing by the manufacturer but it's also something they do to reduce the inconvenience for the pending repairs that are being done to the customers vehicle.

3. I would have personally been on the phone with BMW corporate customer service lodging a complaint after 1 to 2 weeks had passed. This doesn't mean that they would be able to expedite the parts or get the repairs done in a more expedient manner but at least it would be documented with the manufacturer in case you have any future issues related to this incident. Additionally, if you have any new and unrelated service issues in the future and you decide to take legal action against the motor company it will always be in your favor to have the dates, times, and detailed complaints reported and recorded with corporate customer service.

4. BMW of North America, LLC
300 Chestnut Ridge Road
Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677-7731

Customer Relations:
1-800-831-1117
[email protected]

+1 on TLS's thoughtful post...unless the part(s) are exotic, on month long B/O or rare on some specific model, it seems the dlr has been foot dragging, hadn't really determined the parts and repairs necessary, or both.

I would be beefing at BMWNA more vociferously...

The loaner is what it is. It isn't like he dropped off his Bentley Cabrio. ;)

As to the potential trade it in on another but the cost diff sucks, the OP was fairly ecstatic on his orig buy price, but these babies depreciate like a solar panel farm in Seattle, imo.
GL, mD

Yea, I agree, must be part of the story that I'm not receiving from the service advisor, can't imagine any of the parts for my car taking 6+ weeks to be available, especially for a car built here in the US using an engine that is very much current.

was hoping someone had a direct contact email for someone at BMW Corporate, I've sent a letter and email to their customer service account listed on their website a couple times and have yet to hear back.

If it were me, I'd drive there and camp out in their lobby.

Might come to that, plus, with this Dodge Ram they have me in as a loaner I could easily pack up my grill, a tent, mattress, and everything else i'd need for a nice camp out in front of their dealership

No no no, I meant BMW North America. They're out by Mt. Olive and you'd be right next to the Mars building. You could probably start a campaign and walk from lobby to lobby exchanging BMW keychains for M&Ms

You send a certified letter, saying "I am exercising my rights to 'lemon' this car". THAT gets their attention. Then once you have their attention, you request whatever it is you want.

(call them up and say "I am sending a lemon request, could you give me a street address for delivery as well as s fax number?"... they will then try and draw you into the old "tell us your problems, we'll promise to look into it" story...refuse to engage, press for an address and fax number. You will then be escalated to the serious people in the group- at THAT point you can decide 'will I give them one more shot or will I lemon?' And dont get too caught up in the legalities of lemoning-this is a tool to get their attention.)

Expecting that you will magically call or email a person that will give you a new 5 series loaner and Fedex parts isnt going to happen.... I can give you the name, email and phone number of the BMW lemon byback manager and she will ignore your contacts....

hehe, sounds like a good idea, just got off the phone with them actually. They said they are "not interested in providing any assistance at this time" due to the age and mileage of the vehicle.... car is 2 years old and about 40k on it...

Also in response to the long time in service their response was that in no way do they gaurantee the availability of parts for past model years to be readily available.

In response to the issue of loaner cars, apparently BMW NA doesn't provide loaners, its totally up to the dealer's discretion which has to be BS because i know for a fact that the dealer bills BMW NA for the expense of the enterprise rental car I have because they even told me that they had to get approval from them due to how long i'd be in it...

I don't know, just dismayed at this point by the lack of good customer service on their part, when I was on the phone with them I was truly as nice as I could be as I know screaming at them isn't going to get me anywhere.

Very easy for them to blow you off on the phone. As Ard mentioned, put it in writing.

I plan on it, lucky for me, my wife is an attorney so a letter will be going out tonight. Also as an FYI, found the following, thinking of forwarding my complain to the top brass, i'm sure it'll end up in their trash bin but it's worth a shot.

BMW of North America

Will be interested to follow the results of this thread...
Typical and classic response to a customer with a product that cost north of $50Gs, is two years old, with ~40k miles, warranty remaining, and a foot dragging dealer: "not interested in providing any assistance at this time".

Hope your barrister wife's letter gets their attention.
GL, mD

We should connect your wife with Ard. Between the two of those, we could probably start some sort of class action lawsuit that would have a settlement requiring better customer support. It's not like we purchased Yugos here.

I would be livid. I don't expect them to give me an Aventador , but a Dodge Ram for 5 weeks ! I had software issues on my E92 and they were very courteous during the month that my car was being diagnosed.

I would follow the advice being given here. I think you have been more than patient. This is why I don't keep these cars past 40k miles. It becomes a nightmare for many.

Sorry to hear for the issues but as for the time to repair the car, i can understand why it may take time. you don't know all the little stuff which may have broke which are not common replacement items. The E70 is out of production and BMW may be pushing suppliers to make F15 parts. I would talk with BMW NA to see if they can compensate you for the lost time and also push for a BMW loaner. I am lucky that my dealership gave me a closely optioned X5 and a 550 f10 when my 2011 was in the shop for 63 days. Good luck

Latest development is that the dealer called saying that the part they are waiting on is the alternator and that there are none in the country, expected time is another 2-3 weeks.

Couldn't believe it, I asked if the dealership had searched or called other dealers to find the part. They assured me that they did and that none were available.

Still didn't believe it so I called a few dealers, all did show none in stock but finally got a dealer to do a locate for the part. He found one in Michigan and one in the BMW warehouse in Illinois, they were nice enough to give me the numbers of both locations so I called and verified they were available, called my dealer back and told them to pick up the phone and get my damn car fixed. Part is now being fedexed and is due at the dealer by Friday....

So aggravated with the dealer, my SA is nice and I'm sure he is just reporting what is told to him but the management behind the scenes needs a few lessons in customer service!

No alternators in the country? C'mon Man! Sorry to hear you're getting such crap service

Glad to hear you got it moving.

Someone in parts and/or that SA is simply not doing a competent job...the people you called that located the alternator used EXACTLY the same tools that your dealer has at their fingertips.

That really is inexcusable.

So BMW had a recall for this precise issue...you should file a complaint with DOT stating that BMW failed to properly identify the affected cars in the recall as yours also failed. as someone who has run a few recalls, there is nothing worse than telling regulators "we know what the issue is, what is affected and what the solution is"..then having to say "oh, whoops"

Here: https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

It may help others too.

GL- may you be back in your car this weekend!

So now you're doing the leg work your dealership should ! Wow. I can not begin to tell you the stink I would've raised by now. Hopefully you get your vehicle back soon.