vikingshelmut

I called the dealer that I thought did the work, the service tech said he had no record of repair at his shop, but that I could call BMW to find out more.

Anyone know the general customer service number for BMW?

aretardedorange

When we bought our "CPO" Lexus ES350 it was accident free according to carfax AND autocheck. After 2 months with the car we found out it was involved in 2 small accidents. Lexus gave us $350 Lexus credit to be used on any accessory, repair, or anything. So call BMW NA you might get some BMW credit too? Hopefully your car was not involved in any big accidents our Lexus was tapped at the rear and the other accident was when the previous owner hit a mailbox.

jaycal3

Wait, so if I understand this correctly, you were provided with a Carfax report prior to buying the vehicle right? The Carfax showed it as clean right? And the vehicle is a CPO correct? I may be wrong here and if I am just disregard, but I don't think the dealership has any liability here - it is possible they really didn't know about the damage (if any). And why would they have CPO'd the car if so?? They have enough inventory to pass on these things and/or auction them. So you watch it and monitor its performance and make sure you get everything checked out while under the CPO warranty... doesnt the key store maintenance records?

On a side note, you didn't notice the hood sitting uneven, the airbag tab and the paint front and rear prior to agreeing to purchase the vehicle?? It sounds like you got buyers remorse and decided to ease your mind by running another check which then just screwed you up mentally about your purchase even more... again, maybe I am wrong but a purchase this big should deserve some homework prior to buying it - it is CPO'd and it wouldnt hurt to ask, but I say you are lucky it is a CPO!!

tuffluck

there are so many things that you will never catch when you buy your USED car. maybe you got lucky with yours jaycal, but door dings, paint scratches, hoods not aligning by .2mm--it's pretty impossible to catch ALL of the imperfections of a car. obviously a shopping cart rammed into your car might be an easy catch, but every imperfection your car has? it's just really impossible.

personally, i think the OP is obsessing/overreacting a bit on those things. no car is perfect unless you buy it new (and even that isn't always true), so don't go over it with a fine tooth comb and think it's up to the dealer to refund you due to these minor defects.

as for the wreck, kind of a "too bad" thing there. maybe you can kick yourself for not checking auto check prior to the purchase, but if you don't notice any noticeable problems due to the accident, and if your SA says there are no mechanical problems due to the accident, is it really that big of a deal or just a peace of mind thing? for all you know they already marked the price down because of the accident and you got a price break at the expense of a minor incident. is that a bad thing necessarily?

and for the record, you can run your car into your house if you want and fix everything on your own and never report it to the cops or the insurance and it will never show up on an accident report, if i'm not mistaken. there isn't much of a guarantee your USED car ever had a clean record, so don't get too much in a frenzy over it.

vikingshelmut

Hold on guys. Frenzy? Obsessing? I'm just trying to understand what is acceptable for a CPO car.

Trust me I have no buyers remorse. I love the car, I had just happened on the AutoCheck service and thought it would be a good idea to double check that the car had a clean history since everyone says CarFax sucks. I also did tons of homework on this car before I bought it. I pulled got a carfax in advance, got the vehicle service and maintenance history in advance, and looked the car over three times, etc. No I didn't notice the hood stuff or the airbag tag. The hood thing may be normal (I'll take pictures so you can see). I sincerely doubt that 99% of most folks would notice the upside down Airbag badge considering you can hardly read them when they are right side up :-). As for the paint overspray the only way I noticed it was that I dropped a soda can and it rolled under my car. When I got down on my stomach to grab it I could see what appears to be overspray. Again not a big deal to me until I saw the accidents reported on the AutoCheck.

Just to make everyone is clear here, I'm fine with a bumper respray, or even bumper replacement for a low speed impact. What I'm concerned about is if this car was in a major accident that caused Airbag deployment. That is more than just cosmetic repair. My point here asking these questions is not to build a case, or complain or whatever some of you are making it out to be, but simply to understand if that type of major repair would be acceptable for a CPO car. I really love the car, and even if it was in a few small fender benders I'd be Ok with it. I just want to protect my investment.

Needless to say next time I'll get AutoCheck first, just wish I would have know about this report (never heard of AutoCheck until yesterday) before I made an offer because believe me the price I paid was not discounted in any way for an accident.

swajames

Don't fret about the lack of a front plate - that's far from uncommon here in the Bay Area, many buyers specifically ask the dealers not to fit it when they pick up the car.

tuffluck

i'd be really surprised if carfax missed a "major" accident that included the deployment of airbags.

SergeyM

You gotta be kidding! It is absolutely impossible. Any decent used car manager can spot a paint job from 10 feet away. Why have they CPOed an accident damaged car - because BMW lets them do that. Misplace AIRBAG sign means that the original air bag did deploy and we are not talking a fender-bender here. Just for fun, try to trade the car to another BMW dealer. See what they tell you.

jaycal3

No disrespect vikingshelmut, again I was just saying that since its CPO'd I wouldn't worry about it. But it certainly doesn't hurt to ask. I figured the hood thing would have been noticeable. Post up some pics and keep us informed about what BMW does - if anything!

vikingshelmut

None taken, just don't want everyone thinking I'm some sort of whiner

I have a new theory about the airbag symbol. I found out the dealer I bought if from was the same dealer who sold it originally. I called, they checked the history and found no major repair, only a few instances of touch up over the last few years. Something she did say is that at some point they replaced the iDrive screen. Looking at the dash one may assume that you may have to remove one of the A-pillar covers to get the dash out to remove the iDrive. Can anyone confirm this? If so that might explain how the cover got turned upside down. I hope that is the reason anyway