hamz98

I am in the process of buying a 04 530i ,

This specific car, had the airbag light on, traction control light on (triangle with circle) and the seatbelt light would remain on.

The dealership i am buying it from (hyuandi) had removed these, as they have they proper machine.
supposedly all 3 lights were on due to a faulty steering sensor
i was just wondering if anybody has ran into this problem, or if it sounds shady.

Im thinking about getting a Safety inspection done at BMW, but would they reconize that lights were turned off, and even if nothing was fixed?


thanks for your help,

wantmye90

Just my 2 cents, but I would DEFINITELY have the car throughly inspected at a BMW dealership before buying that car. Ask Hyundai if they'll knock the cost of the inspection off your agreed to purchase price of the car if you go through with the buy, and be sure only you deal with the BMW dealership - not them. Even though the Hyundai dealership may have cleared the codes, something made them come on in the first place. Best to find out what may have caused that BEFORE buying the car, rather than later. You won't enjoy that car at all if the dash lights keep lighting up on you - it's very stresssful. Once they have sold you the car and have your money, they'll forget you. Be careful!

hamz98

thanks for the advice! Its def. worth the 200$

do u guys know if they cleared the codes without fixing the problem, would it
a) get paseed the bmw safety inspection
b) come back on in x amount of time? if so how long?

thanks again for the help
cant wait to join the club!

tarek307

Have BMW inspect it! Run Carfax & AUTO CHECK, make sure to run both!!

CoolTones

Hi Hamz98,

It's not a vacuum cleaner your investing your money in, but a very high tech, complex piece of equipment. Any reason why you're not considering a Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) BMW?

Yes, you'll pay more up front but in the end you'll hopefully avoid paying for some unexpected surprises. I agree with what everyone has said thus far. Again, if you can swing a CPO I'd say go for it.

Good Luck,
-Tony

tarek307

I'm sure the guy KNOWS he's NOT BUYING A VACUM CLEANER But that CPO warranty is not "So Special" on average you will literally pay $4-5k more for a CPO car, your much better off doing your homework and also buying a bumper to bumper warranty for about $2500 which will cover Mostly everything, as the CPO pretty much is just a powertrain warranty!

nyceric03

def get it checked out by a bmw dealership as for cpo its actually decent you get a combined total of 6 year 100,000 miles maintence

hamz98

hey,

thanks for all the help thus far! i luckly got it into the bmw dealership here in alberta canada today, as they had a cancellation this morning.
they did the same safety inspection that they do on there cpo's everything passed, with the exception to a few filters,

i would love to go with a cpo, but here in canada, for a 04 cpo 530i im looking at $46k +
while if i go this route , im saving a 10-15k

my primary worry is that the dealership im buying this car off of, basically deleted the codes without fixing the problem.
the last thing i want is to drive a few miles, and see the lights come back on :S

1esquire

CPO does not include scheduled maintenance. I have it on my car, and it basically covers a limited number of things (big ticket items), has a lot of exclusions, and you have to pay a $50 deductible for every service, even if it is covered by the CPO warranty. I agree that it is not "perfect," but it does give me peace of mind. I think I probably only paid about $2500 more than a non-CPO car would have cost me to get the CPO, and I don't have to worry about using a 3rd party insurance or fill out forms and substantiate stuff when I have an issue. I can just pull into the dealership and go from there.

I think it is worth it for a $2500 premium over non-CPO, but I woudn't pay $4k more (or $10-14k more, as you said) just b/c it's a CPO.

GP550iSport

My initial question would be: did someone trade in the BMW for a Hyundai? If they did, why? Where there too many issues with the 530 that they had it.....
I agree with everyone, please have it checked by a BMW dealership. You might be inheriting someone else's headaches. Good Luck!