Unhappy with dealer.

Its very difficult to know which way to jump when you have a rare car you are now happy with other than this.
Its a catch 22, it could be something as simple as a defective light control module that once its replaced you have many happy years of trouble free motoring after a shaky start. Or of course this car could continue to be a proverbial pain in the arse.

From many years experience with BMW i'm inclined to think that once this light issue is fixed the car will be reasonably reliable and you could spend far longer looking for another one you like than it will take to change the LCM, however it could also be a issue in the loom etc but the likelihood is the LCM is at fault if both sensors have already been replaced as I think its unlikely that both headlights are simultaneously faulty, but its not impossible.

If it were me I would let them have a go at changing say the LCM/headlights and get them to extend the hand back agreement with you if they still cant figure it out. If the light system is covered under a general BMW warranty it might be worth letting another dealer take a look but it does sound like the dealer has been up against an intermittent fault which can be a pain to diagnose.
 
Thanks again for all the advice.

I agree whilst the 2.0 engine is fine, after driving the 3.0 it would be a disappointment.

In an ideal world I would like to keep this car especially as I could be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire with a replacement.

I'm not sure how I'm going to get the dealer to replace all these parts, after the third visit common sense should have told them to change everything to be sure of a fix, especially as they knew this was the final chance for them but they didn't. They have admitted they have experienced the problem so it's not as though they think it's me.

I feel I'm stuck really, the car had already had a collapsed rear shock ( fixed first time) bad water leak (fixed after 15 days in workshop over three visits) and now the lights (not fixed after 15 days and three visits)

If I let them carry on or take the car elsewhere I can pretty much forget any chance of a replacement/ refund and of course I'll be kicking myself if more problems occur.

Having said that, I can only see about three cars in the country that come near the spec of mine and of course what happens if they have issues too?

Maybe I should be asking them for a deal on a new 35i especially as it's the end of the sales quarter! They must be keen to get another car registered!
 
You do wonder with the water ingress you had did something in the car get water damaged and the two faults are inter connected.
i think by letting them have yet another go it actually strengthens your case for rejection as it further demonstrates their inability to get it right and your reasonable behavior, having given them many opportunities to fix it.
However if you can get a cheap 35i or even an 35is out of them! LOL!!!
 
Ah good old common sense. In my experience of BMW dealerships over the past 20 plus years that isn't always there. My Mums E39 touring had an issue with the self levelling suspension, the rear went as high as a X5 while in Asda one night. Over several months different parts were replaced.....infact the whole system and it turned out it had been a faulty wiring loom all along and they had never checked that. Too busy throwing parts at it trying to solve it.

Like you say there is never any guarantee that another car won't have another problem. Doubtful but sometimes these things happen.

If you were happy to stretch your budget on a new 35i then see what they could offer you.m, however after adding some toys it may become a lot more than you had anticipated price wise.

It is a tough decision and I'm sure you will come to the right one in the end. The first step is approaching the dealership and seeing what they have to say.
 
I had an 11 plate 35iS that spent 1 month of my 3 months ownership in the dealers - 3 trips back to the dealer on the back of a recovery truck .... a leak, a misfire, 2 trips for adaptive suspension issues ... I lost all faith and asked the dealer for their options. One option was that they give me a full refund. I opted for that and found another newer 13 plate 35iS which I still have.

I would get rid of it if you feel you won't trust it even if repaired. I wondered whether I should keep my 11 plate 35iS as they were so rare. I am glad I got my money back, looked for and got another.

To be fair to the sales staff at Cooper Reading they were as good as they could be and it was only their finance dept in Sunderland that caused me issues as they took seemingly ages to refund the money - but they did.

If you have the option of a full refund and won't trust the car any more or will always worry then take the money ... or get a deal on another model. Just be careful if taking a deal on another that you are actually getting a good deal. Cooper Reading offered me my money back or for £30 a month extra a new M135i. I took the money and found I could get an identically spec'd M135i new for £30 less a month not more !!

Good luck whatever you decide.
 
Well, I arrived at the dealer first thing to confront them about the problems. Unfortunately no one of any importance was available until tomorrow.

They asked me to leave the car there as they didn't want me to drive it with the problem as it was dangerous and lent me a 2 series tourer.

My intention was to go back down first thing tomorrow and discuss the options they would offer me, however they have just phoned to say they have put the car on the ramp and have found something broken on the rear suspension ( they have already fixed this once) I can't believe in all this time in their workshops, now they spot this which must have been like it all along.

This is the end for me, certainly for the car and possibly the dealer also, although that's for them to try and resolve.
 
Not great to hear. Think you've made up your mind. Question now is are you going to stick with a Z4 and BMW or try another brand and dealer?

Certainly the dealership doesn't sound great to me. Is there anywhere else close by to you?
 
Awful nightmare that no doubt put a dampener over Christmas.

This is why I don't understand the "holy grail" of a BMWFSH. The majority of my experiences and those of family members is similar to this. Main dealers trying to charge for things that don't need doing and not fixing failed parts correctly.

My guess would be they are scrimping on the parts/changing the cheapest bits first hoping this fixes the issue, if changing them at all judging by the suspension issue.

As for the AUC, I doubt they do anything at all apart from a quick sub-standard wash and whack it onto the forecourt.

I would get my money back and eventually a similar car will come up, it will be worth the wait. They don't deserve your custom IMO.

To give an idea of the levels these places stoop to, the wife's uncle was persuaded to upgrade his alloys when changing tyres on a 3 year old car at a main dealer. He's elderly and agreed. Paying full price for the new alloys, he came away happy. When someone quizzed him on his old alloys, it was discovered the garage had kindly "disposed" of them free of charge. 4 near perfect BMW alloys!!!
 
As always, thank you for the support.

Yes I now fully believe they do just clean the cars and put them up for sale hoping they can leave problems to the new owner and of course put the bill to the warranty company rather than out of the dealers pocket.

The problem I have is that whilst I did look at other cars I chose the z4 and so changing to something else will be a step backwards in my eyes. My second choice was an m135i so perhaps that's an option.

I will probably still push for a new replacement but if not and assuming they don't have other cars available that they don't list on their site it looks like a refund ;(
 
what is it they are claiming is now broken on the rear?
you really want to get on BMW customer services and play merry hell with them, or at least tell the dealer you are going to do this.
you want them to think your going to create such a stink that it affects the bonus the dealers receive for good customer service.

I did this once with Audi Blackburn who had sold a friend an 2 year old 8k AUDI A3 Cab. He came around in it after his wife picked it up.
He was complaining that when he actually drove it the brakes didn't feel right. His wife hadn't noticed anything wrong apparently, I think she just got starry eyed at her nice shiney new car. I drove it and the brakes were clearly very warped. We put it on an MOT brake tester the next morning and they were out of balance by about 35%, the maximum for an Mot is 25%. We took it back and to cut along story short within a few days we had negotiated with the dealer principal "compensation" of a cheque for £1,000 not to take the matter to Audi UK and trading standards. The issue we pushed was they had sent out a clearly unroadworthy car that would fail an MOT despite having paperwork from them claiming the car had been through not one but two so called million than one point checks and a full valet (there were empty coke bottles in the rear footwells). They paid up as clearly the loss of customer service bonus was going to cost them far more.

Might be worth you pursuing something similar and see what "compensation" you can squeeze out of them, after all you have been back and forth to the dealer numerous times and the "bmw new car experience" has been well and truly soured for you!
 
Sorry for the delay in updating.

Several conversations with the dealer resulted in them accepting that I could return the car for a refund as I had clearly lost all faith. They left it with me to decide if I wanted to just walk away or try and find a replacement.

Shortly afterwards they phoned back to say the car was definitely fixed and would I consider taking the car back if they were to offer some form of compensation? Apparently the rear shock Spring was not located correctly so it was confusing the sensor, they showed me the rubber mount was damaged because of this. How they missed this I don't know.

A long chat with my wife and we came to the conclusion that even with a refund I would probably go straight out and look for an identical or very similar replacement.

So a proposal was put to the dealer that I would take the car back on 'approval' until Monday. During this time I would be able to thoroughly test the car but more importantly to be sure that I could enjoy the car again and put all the hassle behind me. They agreed that if for any reason I didn't want to stick with it, even if the faults were fixed, I could walk away from it on Monday.

The compensation they have offered so far is an extra years warranty ....

As of today the car is still working perfectly, no leak and no light issues, I'm still in two minds as to what to do. I'm happy with the car in a functional way but can I learn to love it again in the next 48hrs without worrying if it's going to break?
 
The extra years warranty would only be worth something if you decided to keep the car. There really isn't anything else you could ask for. The only thing I could think of is that you tell them that you want them to find you another car, whilst you keep driving yours.....

This happened to me on an SL500 I had and it was clearly not fit for purpose and they tried for 6 months to try and get me another car whilst they lent me an E Class. It was 6 months of free motoring
 
Drive the car as much as possible and get it as wet as possible over the weekend, I'm sure you can learn to love the car as long as it does what it should. Good luck
 
I'm sure you will fall back in love with the car quickly enough and just think of all the hassle/stress of finding a replacement. To be honest even if you went looking for another you would probably find that you were distrusting of that car initially as well because of your recent E89 experience.
 
I'd push for some free servicing and clarify that the extra warranty is a full AUC year no extended warranty as that is underwritten by Mondial and does not cover water ingress. Great to have your car back, and I'm sure your faith will restore- I had a similar experience when buying my AUC X5 but love it now issues are resolved.
 
mr.tourette said:
z4peter said:
As a side note, has anyone any idea what could be wrong with the lights? The BMW dealer clearly doesn't.

I have an agreement that if any of the faults weren't rectified in the final visit they would change the car.

I've been on the auc site and 3.0's are rare as. I don't really want to step down to a 2.3 so wondered what the 2.8 four cylinder is like in comparison to the six?
Click to expand...


Personally I would never take a 4 over a 6 in a sports car
Click to expand...
My last Zed was the 28i and was very happy with and it was easily quicker and better performing than the previous 25i which had 6 cylinders. To be honest I was searching for another 28i when I came across the deal for my 35is.
Admittedly this one is much better but couple the 28i as I did with the adaptive suspension and I would put it up against any other 6 cylinder other than the M and the 35is as far as performance goes. Yes you loose a bit in the sound department but at 40 mpg it has it's compensations. Test drive one and you will be surprised.
 
Well the car is performing perfectly and the dealer has offered me additional compensation by way of a service/parts/accessories credit to go with the extra warranty and free mot. So I've decided to stick with the car :D
 
Only just caught up wit this saga. Well done for hanging in there. I do hope that it now behaves itself!

Enjoy :driving:
 
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