lymin6

I have a new 535d and my wife has a new X5, both have been in for warranty work recently.

I had a Cd Changer problem (Details on previous thread) and my wife had the usual steering wheel rubbing/vibration when warm, both the X5 and her previous X3 had this problem, the X3 was just replaced and never had a problem again, the X5 has been in for two days, only to come out with the same steering rack, some more grease on it and an additive added to the power steering fluid. Of course this has not fixed the problem.

The problem is that my wife just uses the car around town, and it doesn't get warm enough to show the service, when we use it to go on long journeys its a nightmare!

So I spoke to them and asked why this problem will not go away, they said if they replace the steering rack, and its not faulty the dealer now pays for the part.

SO THE QUESTION FOR US ALL IN 2008 IS ARE BMW CUTTING BACK ON WARRANTY CLAIMS AND WILL CUSTOMER RELATIONS SUFFER, Its to early to know but BMW do want to increase profit, is this one of the ways it is going to head.

You experiences please

Dandle

Ive been chatting to my dealer the last couple of weeks with regards to my headlights misting up and the warranty manager said the same thing. If the dealership replaces a part which goes back to BMW for a warranty claim and BMW deam the item not faulty then the dealership gets charged for the parts fitted. Its a shame because the reason ive moved to BMW was because we had such trouble with warranty claims on our Audi(so much so I will never waste money on another Audi). BMW did come through for me though and after seeing pics of my lights they are now replacing them(shame the dealer couldnt make the decision though).

ressla

So far, touch wood, my BMW dealer have been fine with me ( Cracked windscreen ,07-02 nav disc , steering wheel rubber "paint" flaking, and flaking paint on steering wheel columm by ignition) all sorted under warranty.

I'm sorry to hear that Audi are getting stingy aswell -check this out.
I had a '96 A4 1.8T . In 2000 ( when it was well out of warranty) the car just had done 63,000 miles and suddenly conked out after running on what seemed like 1/4 power.

I called out the recovery people- they couldnt see what it was but said it was probably the CAMBELT. Aaaaaaaargh I thought.
They offered to tow it to an indy or the Audi main dealer. I agreed to take it to the main dealer so I could get an "official" verdict.

The report came back - the cambelt tensioner had gone , meaning the cambelt had come off , causing the valves to become bent , meaning the cylinder head was wrecked and need replacing . aaaaaaaaaaaaargh i felt like crying.





However, the service manager said he had contacted Audi who agreed that this should never have happened to a car at 63,000 miles.
BECAUSE I HAD THE CAR ALWAYS SERVICED AT A MAIN DEALER, even though it was 12 months out of warranty Audi covered 100% of the costs of a new cylinder head! saved me ?2k!!

And the car ran like a dream afterwards ( the 1.8T engine was notorious too for a tapping sound due to carbon build up on the inlets - this of course was gone with the new cylinder head!) . Grinning like a cheshire cat.

mhs525

Sounds like normal give and take between BMW and the dealers. Could be the dealers may have been a bit casual in replacing parts because BMW was paying all the bills. If BMW's internal research showed a lot of those parts to not be faulty no surprise they are pushing back. Unfortunately in my experience the dealer never takes the hit, we do...

Here in the states the relationship between BMW and the dealers that actually sell and service the cars can drive you nuts. Life would be a hell of lot simpler if I could by a car from BMW NA but I can't, only through a dealer :thumbsdown: