I am so bummed. I owned (and still own, thank goodness) my first BMW, 2003 525, for 6 years and I'm pretty sure almost NEVER had it in the shop so when I was ready to upgrade a bit, there was no question another 5-series. I bought a 2007 550 CPO, but was owned by my BMW salesman of 6 years. That was 11- weeks and 1800 miles ago.

I have had iDrive electronic issues nearly non stop. I posted "My Nav never offers house number as an option", but that became the least of it. iDrive would lock up, loose presets, "think" for 10-15 seconds after every "click" (like an old slow PC), both volumn controls (dash or wheel) wouldn't work for a while then suddenly be fine, the car would determine what Satellite station "it" wanted to listen to, then lock up. I tell you, I documented things to help them trouble shoot and it quickly became a full page email. My salesman almost flipped when he saw it because (based off service history) he never had any of these issues. I thought it was me.

Now the good one. 1 block from my home the car started to studder and stall, then finally gave up. Had it towed to my dealer and it has been there for over a week. They have found some electronic "this and that" issues and have replaced a Key module (which reads the different key's profiles) which they think may fix my iDrive issues (thank Ja it wasn't my errors) but can't tell if its fixed because they still cannot figure out why it just won't run. They have a brain module type thing coming from somewhere (must be far, ordered Thursday, due to arrive Monday, Tuesday), they have BMW USA engaged but no guarantees.

I have to tell you how discouraged I am with this dang 550. When it ran it was fun, other than the electronics, it was FAST and agile but with electronic steering and drive by wire throttle plus all the other electronic stuff, this is the wrong car to be having mystery electrinic issues with.

Guess I'm not really looking for help here, just a shoulder to cry on with my BMW Brethern. It just blows really blows.

 

Wait so your sales man owned this CPO 550 before you? You said 6 yeras... I'm not following that part...

So now I'm wondering if thats why it was CPOed so early.. the first owner probably didnt want to deal with all these problems and sold it at an early age...

 

He has been his salesman for 6 years...not the car.

 

or could have been a demo/executive leased car....

 

Sorry, tried to keep it brief- poor job.

My 2nd BMW from this salesman; 2003 525 (still have and LOVE) and this. He leased this 2007 new through a BMW Salesman promo (some HUGE financial benefit). Owned it since new. When I bought it, they certified it for me. Just received the CPO Owner's Card from BMW.

Sorry, it did sound confusing.

 

Sorry to hear. Some cars can be problematic, my first E60, '04 530i was that way. But once you get electronic issues sorted out, it should be fine, mine was fine for almost 3 years after first couple of weeks of nightmare. Don't give up on it just yet, it doesn't cost you anything so far :-)

 

Is that car from Patrick BMW?

 

Haha, a fellow Chicagoan.

 

I have to say that my dealer for the past 6-years has been stellar. However, I have not had any tier II or III issues before. I think the dealer has the resources to get the problems resolved but the car is just really testing them. Patrick has always been there for me, even throwing this and that in gratis, but lke I said, never anything major on my 525 (knock, knock). I'm thinking if anyone can get me out of this, they can.

 

This is true, just a little "mud in the face" from the better half because it has now become "that car". She and I love my '03 525 for the past 6-years and I was a little more motivated to get the 550 than she was.

I guess the good news is I'm getting brand new "car brains" one module at a time.