I posted earlier in this thread about ordering a new car and it not arriving with the correct specification.
Quick re-cap;
Last Christmas I ordered a new 530d.
Unbeknown to me, in Jan BMW sent out a notification that they were no longer going to fit Adaptive Suspension to any 5 series cars - What the proviso was for orders already in the system remains a mystery and if I had been informed at the time I would have cancelled my order.
Car was built in Feb and I collected it beginning of March - no one said anything about the car not having the adaptive suspension and it was left to me, whilst driving home, to realise it was missing.
Getting BMW to build another one was out of the question because by this time they had stopped making the 530d.
My supplying dealer messed me around for 3 weeks, falsely raising my hopes of swapping me into one of the 530d's of a similar spec. that were still unsold and physically available in the UK - basically neither the dealer, or BMW UK, would accept responsibility, or liability, for the cockup.
The only option left on the table was to keep the car and accept comensation of £3700, which was their best offer. I really liked the car but just couldn't live with the way it bounced and wallowed over the bumps (to make matters worse the dealer had given me the opportuniny to compare, back to back, a new 530d with adaptive suspension, but missing other essential items, and my car. To me the difference was night and day and I recommend to anyone buying one of these cars to get one with adaptive).
Then, out of the blue, the dealer offered to take my car back and refund me in full. I need a car for my job and with the 530d being my ideal car, I did a quick search on the BMW AUC to see if anything suitable was available.
I found a 6 month old 6500miles car in a higher spec than mine, with the essential adaptive suspension, that was still available, and a deal was done over the phone, a deposit placed and I collected it yesterday.
So I've gone from this Skyscaper Grey 530d;
To this Alvite Grey 530d;
Alvite Grey is an interesting colour - there's a lot going on and depending on the light it goes from bronze, gold, pink to purple as you walk around the car.
The engine in this car feels much stronger, with much more urge than my previous one and the gearbox is much more respsonsive in kickdown - the performance feels somewhere in the middle between a 530d and a 335d (which I test-drove a while back).
This car has also got electric steering column adjust and more electric seat adjustment, which makes me wonder if BMW were just banging out the last few cars with whatever parts they still had available.
History of this car is that it was supplied to one of the dealer technicians (they get offered them really cheap and drive them for 3-6 months before they change for something else) and if has been on sale since Jan 2023, which I find surprising as the good ones seem to sell straight away. Also the dealer was 200miles away and when I collected the car yesterday, they said if is becoming common policy with most BMW dealers to stop doing distance sales, for whatever reason.
Anyway, I'm really happy with this one and pleased with the way things have turned out.
