I have owned 8 BMS's thi sbeing my 8th and let me tell you I am very frustrated. I have owned the car since Oct and it has been in the shop for 4 weeks total of the 6 months of ownership. 1st scenario - 13.2 recall for software update - 2 weeks got it back finally.

New scenario had th car updated to 16.0 went fine- took it in after some small issues and when trying to update to 16.2 it crashed. It will drive but that is about it. Now then a PUMA case was opened and a BMW Field tech was out on 5/18/05 but to no prevail - car still down.

Tomorrow a Siemens rep is coming out to replace the floppy drive in the programmer to see the actual porgrammer has a read problem.

Biggest problem is that even it gets back up an drunning is it reliable? Is this just going to happen gagain? The early production models have problems and maybe I am just 1 porblem child, but I have to tell you BMW owes me on this one.

Called BMWNA and have been in conversations with them, after tomorrow, if the car is still down, I will promise a nice letter to the dealer and BMWNA wil be composed.

 

So sorry. But you know it all boils down to dealer know how and their relationship with BMWNA. I good dealer has mastered the CIP upgrades and has the experience to know what to do when. My dealer had 2 7series loose their TCUs while updating to CIP 16.2. They called NA, determined that it was corrupting data and took it off their 4 upgrade stations. They reved back to 16.1. They also do enough volume to generate the hands on experience that is required with these cars and are large enough to maintain an inventory of parts that they know they will need. I know they have one or more staff person dedicated to working PUMAs and warranty claims with NA. It makes all the difference.

2 weeks for a CIP upgrade??? Your car was parked most of that time.

 

Not parked - I have been in touch with the floor foreman everyday, the car just is not accepting CIP updating, it continues to show faults. I know the GM very well, he has talked to me sevral times and now has taken a personal interest in the car. The dealer has tred everything. It may have sat one or two days max.

 

I am not suggesting their intentions are not honorable, but you must accept that their resources are very limited at handling these software issues. You mentioned that they are waiting, thats you and how many other 5, 6, 7 and soon 3 series on one station that has a broken floppy? Unless I have mis-understood your post, it seems that at least 40% of the issues on 75% of the new BMWs they see, cannot currently be addressed because they have a broken floppy drive.

Do they still use NCR paper and dot matrix printers to print out purchase orders? Do they need to write down your VIN and mileage when taking in your car? Its stored in your key you know.
Do the SAs have email addresses?

These are signs that a dealership is technically behind the curve. They may sell well so BMWNA tolerates them.

Now if they had more experience they would already know that this REV does have issues with certain Telematics Control Units and not waste another 3 days, frustrating a presumably loyal customer.

Forgive the rant but we drive a great car. The difference between a happy owner and a frustrated one boils down to the after sales service and numerous posts on this board are a testament to the crap that E60s owners are fed by service advisors that are just clueless.

 

They have email adresses but you know what they did not have the key reader like the dealership here does. Today is the day they either fix it - or I blow up.

 

I very much share your frustration. Mine has been in the shop 4 times in 7 months or so and I still have several unresolved issues...

A tip - don't write to BMW NA, write to Germany directly.
This got things moving on my end.

 

get me an address and I will -

 

Call BMW NA and ask them to speak to the customer relations manager. they will direct you to the right person.

Also, see if your dealer would take your car in a trade without a loss to you and sell you another car.

I assure you that your dealer wants to please you as I have been to many Aftersales conferences and that's ALL they preach to us.....

"MAKE SURE YOU REPAIR THE CUSTOMER FIRST AND THEN THE CAR."