E89 20i - Hill Assist

Nice result, but it does nothing towards the original complaint...i.e. lack of hill start could be dangerous on..err...hills!

Unless you put that £2700 away to cover potential crashes?

I can agree with BMW for saying you'd need to pay the difference for a 35i as that is a totally different car, but regarding the auto 20i that they offered to swap for....I think they should've honoured the original finance deal on that....otherwise it wasn't a "free" swap, so they were being naughty their!

So the cheque for £2700 is partly from BMW UK and partly from the dealer?

Can I ask how you 1st approached this with the dealer? i.e. before collection or after, saying it was a real problem or playing on the princicple of mis-advertisement?
 
kevinmarkwhite said:
Nice result, but it does nothing towards the original complaint...i.e. lack of hill start could be dangerous on..err...hills!

Unless you put that £2700 away to cover potential crashes?
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The reality is that it is not dangerous per se. The argument is that it is very difficult but not impossible - that anyone getting into the car for the first time could not do a hill start without rolling back, which I argue you could do in any other car. Therefore it is a flaw. I see the money as compensation for the fact that I might have to spend some time practising, as a nest egg for if I do gently roll back and nudge someone, and because it is fundamentally compensation for what is an inconvenience (having enjoyed it on my last two BMW's) and different to what was adveertised

kevinmarkwhite said:
I can agree with BMW for saying you'd need to pay the difference for a 35i as that is a totally different car, but regarding the auto 20i that they offered to swap for....I think they should've honoured the original finance deal on that....otherwise it wasn't a "free" swap, so they were being naughty their!
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I only asked for the 35i as I did not want an auto - the wife literally hates them. The 35i was the only other viable option and the closest vehicle to the one I ordered, was promised and should have had, apart from a bigger engine and electric seats. I even suggested they take the seats out. And the engine was going to cost me an additional £800 - £1000 per year in a world where petrol is only going up, so it was by no means ideal.

kevinmarkwhite said:
So the cheque for £2700 is partly from BMW UK and partly from the dealer?
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Exactly - £1,845 from BMW and everything else from the dealer. Dealer went above and beyond.

kevinmarkwhite said:
Can I ask how you 1st approached this with the dealer? i.e. before collection or after, saying it was a real problem or playing on the princicple of mis-advertisement?
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Picked up my car at the beginning of March. I thought it was not there as the brakes were bedding in. Was going to ask dealer to look at it when they were sorting the scratches to the interior trim later in the month, and only then did I realise through various forum that it just was not fitted. Showed dealer evidence of the issue and asked that it be retrofitted. It took about a month to figure out retro-fitting was and going to be an option any time soon, and hence we started all this...

Let me know if there is anything else I can help with, as Gsm and other posters certainly helped me.
 
wow that's some result!

My cheque is supposed to be in the post today. Not nearly as big as yours though

I wonder how many others have actually had cash as opposed to payment in kind?
 
Thanks for the replies to my points.

I can see the 35i option not being cheap, even if they did a free swap. As you say, fuel and insurance would be expensive....although in return you would get lots of smiles!!! It wouldn't be an option for me.

I've held off pushing this with my dealer as I haven't had much of a problem with it, but considering my car is leaking (see other thread), if that can't be resolved in the next few visits, then I might bring this up as well.

And bluespit - true....cash is more useful than dealer credit....£2700 would help my Florida holiday fund recover from the £3k I stole from it for my sat nav and other toys!!!
 
Picked up my replacement sdrive20i auto this morning and am sooooo chuffed :D

IMO, the 8spd auto is a real improvement over the manual. Best part of it is that the finance deal hasnt changed so the residual at the end is the same; reckon it is prob worth the £2700 (£1845 + extra residual) mentioned above and I didn't want any cash back, credit etc. as the hill start is the feature I wanted. Was also able to add the heated seats that I was one day too late in speccing in the original.

Result! :D :driving:

Can't praise North Oxford BMW enough as it literally took one phone call from me and they did the rest :thumbsup:

Oh, and a casual drive back from the dealer and potter around the local b roads returned over 40mpg indicated.
 
Glaikit said:
Picked up my replacement sdrive20i auto this morning and am sooooo chuffed :D

IMO, the 8spd auto is a real improvement over the manual. Best part of it is that the finance deal hasnt changed so the residual at the end is the same; reckon it is prob worth the £2700 (£1845 + extra residual) mentioned above and I didn't want any cash back, credit etc. as the hill start is the feature I wanted. Was also able to add the heated seats that I was one day too late in speccing in the original.

Result! :D :driving:

Can't praise North Oxford BMW enough as it literally took one phone call from me and they did the rest :thumbsup:

Oh, and a casual drive back from the dealer and potter around the local b roads returned over 40mpg indicated.
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I assume you kept the same finance deal because you sorted this before the old (better) one was finished (ie before 31 March)...?
 
duncan-m-w said:
Glaikit said:
Picked up my replacement sdrive20i auto this morning and am sooooo chuffed :D

IMO, the 8spd auto is a real improvement over the manual. Best part of it is that the finance deal hasnt changed so the residual at the end is the same; reckon it is prob worth the £2700 (£1845 + extra residual) mentioned above and I didn't want any cash back, credit etc. as the hill start is the feature I wanted. Was also able to add the heated seats that I was one day too late in speccing in the original.

Result! :D :driving:

Can't praise North Oxford BMW enough as it literally took one phone call from me and they did the rest :thumbsup:

Oh, and a casual drive back from the dealer and potter around the local b roads returned over 40mpg indicated.
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I assume you kept the same finance deal because you sorted this before the old (better) one was finished (ie before 31 March)...?
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More or less but the finance deal would stand whatever, for better or worse. All that happens is that BMW UK finance change over the chassis number on the paperwork.
 
Resurrecting this one yet again....

Condensed version of my story is;

I complained to my dealer about the lack of hill assist. They didn't have a clue that the car didn't come with it. I pointed out to them that their sales man had discussed the benefits of hill assist before I ordered the car and that it is listed as being a function in their sales literature.
I was asked to put it in writing so they could approach BMW, which I did.
Got a call from their senior sales bloke saying that they are awaiting a response from BMW. :tumbleweed:

Will let you know what they say.
 
So...
Our dealers have been in touch with BMW who said that they had sent a bulletin out and removed the hill assist off their web site or something like that. Our dealers told them that we had ordered the car and that the hill assist had, in fact, been used as a selling point. BMW asked what we wanted and our garage said that we had mentioned about having parking sensors fitted.
Dealer rang husband today to say, 'good news, BMW have agreed to fitting rear parking sensors as compensation!'
Husband then said that just rear is no good, (there, as you know, is just a few feet to see behind the driver to reverse but the z4 has a massive bonnet so the front sensors are far, far more important)
Dealer told husband that we had gone from being 'very reasonable to unreasonable' because he asked for front and rear sensors to be fitted.
Dealer said BMW would have to provide a brand new bumper if front sensors were to be fitted which would cost circa £3500! Husband said don't be ridiculous, it doesn't need a new bumper. Dealer said BMW insist on it! Husband said so if we brought the car back in and asked for retrofit parking sensors you would charge us £3500 then? Dealer said no of course not, you wouldn't pay it. Husband said, you've answered your own question then, parking sensors can be retrofitted without replacing the bumper.
He said that the alternative is to bring the car back as is our right under UK consumer law. Dealer said we would have to take that up with the people that financed the car!
Husband said, no, we bought it from you.
Dealer then said he will ask BMW about front sensors also but doesn't think they will let us have them.
Husband said he got very shirty with him during the conversation.
We are waiting another call back to see what they say.
 
How much would retrofit front+rear PDC be? Perhaps, if they wont do it, push for money and use that to get it done elsewhere?

Also, you could say BMW were being unreasonable in not supplying the feature (hill start) when it was clearly advertised with it and people, such as yourself had purchased the car on the understanding it was included - a lot of orders were placed before this came to light, so for those orders, the car wasn't supplied to the spec it was sold as.

Also, your contract is with the dealer. It doesn't matter to you if the dealer gets help from BMW UK to help you out, but thats not your concern and you couldn't be arsed how it is done...they should just do it. To try and bounce you off to other people is trying to wriggle out of their responsibility.

I think BMW should come up with a standard "compensation" package for these issues, cos come people are getting better than others.

When I first mentioned it to my dealer before I collected mine, he went outside and tested another car...came back and said I was right. Then later he said 20i have never had hill start....so even though I pointed it out to him, he later changed his line to try and say they never have had it, so why would they now....er...cos it was advertised perhaps!!!

If you were to return the car, you could say its not fit for purpose because this (hill start) doesn't work, and as that was an important feature to you (the dealer even admits it was part of the sales clincher) it means the car doesn't work in the way it was sold.

But rejecting the car is a big thing and unless you changed engine (more expense) you wont get one with hill start. I dont think you want to reject it, cos you are prepared to take compensation.

Stealers....wriggly little shits!
 
I think Kevin has hit the nail on the head here, there should be a consistent approach from BMW to treat all of its customers fairly who complain.

It seems the approach they have taken is wait to see if anyone complains, offer a small amount of compensation and then increase it based upon how loudly and strongly the individual shouts and makes a fuss.

Good luck and fair play to everyone who has got something out of BMW, but there seems to be a big range from nothing up to duncan getting £2700, some people getting auto's, dealer credits and things like parking sensors above.

We have accepted £500 and we were ok with that as the hill control is not a big issue where we live, plus having driven the car I don't think getting used to the EPB is a big issue anyway. It was more the principle of thinking the car had a feature that was removed without being informed.

However, it seems they can't 'fix' the issue and retrofit hill control, so the only other alternatives are to reject the car, or to be offered some form of compensation. Therefore to me there should be a standard and fair offering to everyone.

Email to watchdog anyone? :evil:
 
I picked up my car yesterday evening, with its new shadowline grills, oil and filter change, aluminium pedals and a cheque for £2700 (and the car looks awesome!). So in 'what a dealer would have charged me' terms, it is actually more like £3300 (although the MD of the dealership provided most of that compensation - I think to just have me stop phoning him). The £1845 BMW Customer Services chipped in was apparently related to the level of spec I ordered.

The only other option was to return the car, which BMW Customer Services refused to accept I would legally be justified in doing, but were "willing to do so" anyway (whatever - like saying it was going to be out the goodness of their heart). Those became my final two options.

The decision to return is nothing to do with Finance.

Agree there should be a standard approach, as this is wasting a lot of the public's and BMW's time!! They could be using this time and energy to figure out how to retro-fit hiss start assist, which was all I really wanted.
 
Right, got a result. BMW have agreed to fit both front and rear parking sensors.
Dealer rang back and said after much talk with BMW they have finally agreed to do both ends. 'Even though it will be very costly'.
He was much more polite with husband when he rang back.

You are right, there should be a standard compensation deal for people who ordered the car expecting it to be on. They can't advertise a feature and customers expect it to be there and then just say actually, it doesn't come as standard on your car despite what was advertised.

I am happy to have the parking sensors, front and rear, fitted by way of compensation.

I think my husband would've told them to shove the car (even tho it's mine!) if we hadn't gotten some decent form of recompense, he was so mad today!

Just waiting on a call now to get it booked in to have the sensors fitted. At least it will beep at me when I roll back into something through lack of hill assist! :D
 
No it won't...it only activates if you put in reverse! But don't worry, I'm sure the car behind will be beeping!!!!

Nice result, and good to hear the salesman had restored his customer respect attitude...which should never have gone in the first place. I guess he was arse-licking and making out he'd done you a huge favour! Which in one way he has, but in another way, he hasn't done any more than he should've.

Hope they can do it reasonably soon and it goes well. Well done, persistence pays off!
 
kevinmarkwhite said:
No it won't...it only activates if you put in reverse! But don't worry, I'm sure the car behind will be beeping!!!!
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My Freelander2's sensors worked all round the car for about 30 seconds after starting.

Let's hope they hurry up and get the job done.
 
Carol M said:
kevinmarkwhite said:
No it won't...it only activates if you put in reverse! But don't worry, I'm sure the car behind will be beeping!!!!
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My Freelander2's sensors worked all round the car for about 30 seconds after starting.

Let's hope they hurry up and get the job done.
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Ha ha! We've got a freelander 2 as well :D
 
You can just press the PDC button on the centre console to activate it when driving slowly or at a standstill

Good result Carol :thumbsup:
 
Going down to my stealer at 2'ish today cos they've got one of the olympic torches for people to hold (its coming through Barnstaple on Monday). Probably not the time to hit them with a claim for compensation for hill start...but apparently there is free food, so I'll be too busy to talk anyway!
 
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