Bought an old BMW M3, ACTUALLY filled with regret

shaank

shaank

shaank

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I bought a 2011 E93 M3 (that's a convertible V8 one) at the start of this year, from a guy that was going to trade it in for an M4, so I luckily I got it at a good price privately. FSH etc but no warranty. It's great, not the quickest car in the world but just a good package (except mpg) but it's a 2nd car for fun stuff so fair play. It's had good use, driven about 6k miles in it while I've had it - including an epic drive around Europe for 10 days. That's prob worth a thread at some point....


In June, two guys tried to break into it but didn't get very far, jarring open a window slightly and setting the alarm off. This seemed to have freaked out the alarm system on the car and involved 3 trips to the local BMW dealership to have it resolved over the course of 2 months. The last trip the Alarm Control Module was replaced. It's located under the passenger side rear wheel arch. I get the car back, park it up, go on holiday.

Mid sept - back from holidays, nice sunny day and I take the car for a jaunt up the M90 to Perth. About 20 miles up the road I feel like I have a flat tyre, so I slow down gradually with the aim of pulling over, but the car isn't warning me of anything, just doesn't feel right. Vibration. Over the course of 30s as I slow down the vibration becomes a 'wobble' for want of a better word.

Then bang.

The car bottoms out, the passenger side rear wheel detaches from the vehicle and passes past me. The car grinds along the ground and I skid off the road, luckily into the hard shoulder where it comes to a rest. Shocked, I jump out, call the police (wheel has gone bouncing down the road and could hit another car - luckily doesn't)

So no injuries, no other cars involved. The same wheel that <50 miles previously was taken off by the BMW dealership for the alarm replacement is now lying at the side of the motorway, my M3 is also lying a the side of the motorway in a sorry state. Having been dragged along the ground, there are burn marks on the rear quarter panel and bumper, and the suspension and brakes, hub etc all knackered.

F F S basically.


Car gets recovered to the BMW dealership. It's been over 9 weeks and I still don't have it back, I've had to claim through insurance to get the repair even started.

I don't even want the car back to be honest - I want them just to buy it off me considering this is their bloody fault in the first place, but they don't seem to be so up for that. It's taking ages, getting updates is a pain, I've had to go in about 7 times just to speak to someone. Courtesy cars have been a joke:

week 1: Astra
week 2: Corsa
week 3-7: X1
week 8: Mini
week 9: Mercedes E class

So they aren't doing much to 'get me into something I'd actually want instead of the M3' and they aren't giving me any indication of what the car would be worth to them, or accepting any liability. There's more to this detail wise that has annoyed me, but you get the drift.

Thoughts / advice etc?


tldr; BMW took a wheel off for a repair, shortly after that same wheel fell off when driving causing car to crash, car still with BMW, don't have it back yet, angry owner.
 
Escalate the situation, speak or write to the head of sales for that particular branch or region. Throw the toys out the pram, they've caused a near death situation for you and others, get them to bend over.

I had a similar incident with Kwik Fit. They were bricking it when I kicked off for the same reason.
 
Be prepared for a standard, "wheel nuts should be checked within 50miles" or similar response, as that is normally in the small print (at least at tyre fitters, but wouldn't surprise me at garages/dealers).

Whilst I can understand the frustration with the crap courtesy cars (they should have all been BMWs or maybe Minis) but expecting an M car is maybe a stretch.
 
Also, a good reason to acquire a decent torque wrench, whenever I have any work done, service or replacement tyres etc, I give them a check once I get home, a day later and usually a week later.
 
Write to the DP of the dealer group outlining what you did above. Make it clear you would like his 'oversight' on the situation with your car as right now your whole BMW experience is not that you would expect of such a premium brand. Give him a working day to come back to you with a resolution response and if you are satisfied great, if not I would go to BMW UK and give them the same and if that gets you nowhere the motoring press, Car, Autocar, WhatCar as it seems a story worthy of a follow up.

I would hope the DP will see your point and bang heads. Polite but firm at all stages and be clear in what you expect, be reasonable but clear.
 
Housey said:
Write to the DP of the dealer group outlining what you did above. Make it clear you would like his 'oversight' on the situation with your car as right now your whole BMW experience is not that you would expect of such a premium brand. Give him a working day to come back to you with a resolution response and if you are satisfied great, if not I would go to BMW UK and give them the same and if that gets you nowhere the motoring press, Car, Autocar, WhatCar as it seems a story worthy of a follow up.

I would hope the DP will see your point and bang heads. Polite but firm at all stages and be clear in what you expect, be reasonable but clear.
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You're on fire this evening :p
 
Armageus said:
Be prepared for a standard, "wheel nuts should be checked within 50 miles" or similar response, as that is normally in the small print (at least at tyre fitters, but wouldn't surprise me at garages/dealers).
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I would imagine that the simple necessity of returning the car to the customer in a safe condition would render any such standard comment spurious, if not downright balderdash (for want of a better word). :D You wouldn't have to check the wheel nuts (or any other structural fasteners) after driving a brand new car for 50 miles, as far as I am aware.

Whether you check the car yourself for your own peace of mind is one thing, but, I'll guarantee that at least 90% of owners wouldn't even consider it. You don't take your car to a mainstream dealership and expect the wheels to fall off. I'd be going ballistic.....and before now too!
 
shifty_uk said:
You're on fire this evening :p
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A lot of dealings with the motor trade over the years and sadly waiting for salespeople/service people to give you what you want is often a complete waste of time. Give them chance then when they fail go to the top as they had their chance and failed, time to go around. Always remember what a friend of mine said, Chairman of one of the large dealer groups. I will always get involved when I get a letter/email that is fair, well written and polite and where I feel the customer has been let down and most major DP's are the same in my experience. It took a few minutes and 2 days for Audi to fix my R8 after I got bored waiting and wrote to the DP of the Audi dealership, same with BMW a couple of years back when they wanted me to pay for warranty work. To add Audi UK were absolutely useless and I told them to do one in the end as they were adding nothing but pain and annoyance, which they were.
 
Gepetto said:
I would imagine that the simple necessity of returning the car to the customer in a safe condition would render any such standard comment spurious, if not downright balderdash (for want of a better word). :D You wouldn't have to check the wheel nuts (or any other structural fasteners) after driving a brand new car for 50 miles, as far as I am aware.
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I 100% agree that you shouldn't have to, but that warning must exist for a reason?

As for not needing to check a brand new car - no you don't, but I imagine they are checked as part of the PDI (in addition to being QCed during the build process)
 
Housey said:
A lot of dealings with the motor trade over the years and sadly waiting for salespeople/service people to give you what you want is often a complete waste of time. Give them chance then when they fail go to the top as they had their chance and failed, time to go around. Always remember what a friend of mine said, Chairman of one of the large dealer groups. I will always get involved when I get a letter/email that is fair, well written and polite and where I feel the customer has been let down and most major DP's are the same in my experience. It took a few minutes and 2 days for Audi to fix my R8 after I got bored waiting and wrote to the DP of the Audi dealership, same with BMW a couple of years back when they wanted me to pay for warranty work. To add Audi UK were absolutely useless and I told them to do one in the end as they were adding nothing but pain and annoyance, which they were.
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Indeed, it was your instruction that helped me to get my A4 problem resolved nearly 4 years ago.

I've noticed that essentially your advice is rinse and repeat, just replace one brand with another and 9 times out of 10, it's the correct approach.
 
paradigm said:
Indeed, it was your instruction that helped me to get my A4 problem resolved nearly 4 years ago.

I've noticed that essentially your advice is rinse and repeat, just replace one brand with another and 9 times out of 10, it's the correct approach.
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Comes from experience that's all. Can't be right all the time, but most of the time on stuff like this I am bang on the money. :)
 
Thanks for the thoughts peeps of Motors.

To those that asked, the car had done about 30 miles since the wheel had been taken off - so really not a lot, and likely not even enough to be time to 'check the bolts'.

I've pinged an email to the chain's customer service mailbox already (I did this on Wednesday afternoon) and got a reply stating a senior manager would be in touch within 48hrs. Obviously no one has been in touch and 48hrs has long past.

@ Housey - other than the usual front door of customer services how can I get the details to go above their heads? Your advice sounds ideal, if I knew who to go to.
 
shaank said:
Thanks for the thoughts peeps of Motors.

To those that asked, the car had done about 30 miles since the wheel had been taken off - so really not a lot, and likely not even enough to be time to 'check the bolts'.

I've pinged an email to the chain's customer service mailbox already (I did this on Wednesday afternoon) and got a reply stating a senior manager would be in touch within 48hrs. Obviously no one has been in touch and 48hrs has long past.

@ Housey - other than the usual front door of customer services how can I get the details to go above their heads? Your advice sounds ideal, if I knew who to go to.
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Not sure which dealer you use but a minute of looking for Eastern BMW:

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/keith-duncan-3997593a

Find out the holding company name, identify the Directors, work out an email contact or postal address of the head office.
 
shaank said:
@ Housey - other than the usual front door of customer services how can I get the details to go above their heads? Your advice sounds ideal, if I knew who to go to.
Click to expand...

Go to the company website and seek out the HQ website, or look for the about us area which usually contains leadership profiles. Or go to LinkedIn and search on the dealer group or as suggested, find the holding company name and dig out the board members. Or if you know the right people in the trade, phone em and ask for a contact number of said DP/Sales Director etc.

If you give me the dealer name, message me if needs be, I should be able to find the name of who I would contact.
 
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