My BMW woes

thepharcyde · 29 May 2007 at 22:31

Its been a while since I have visited Ocuk what joy I have had with my car. In hind sight I should have never have purchased it when a fellow poster noticed that it had the incorrect bumper.

Anyway forked out for two new tyres and booked it in for its inspection II service and to look at a few niggly issues.

Anyway it transpires that my car was not as clean as I thought.

Issues

Needs the following

Two new window regs
Rear heated window
Drivers seat belt
Exhaust gasket
2 new front alloys
Drivers window visor
Auto wiper sensor
Drivers airbag issues.

Booked it in again with the local dealer who needed the car for a couple of days with the work listed.

Anyway get a call only to be asked if the car had been in an accident. I said no, I have only had the car 4 months. They then checked HPI which was clear. The problem being is that the drivers head airbag had been cut out.

Shocked I called the dealers who sold me the car, who promptly dropped me off a courtesy car, and picked up my lemon Friday.

Anyway got a call today and they can confirm that it was involved in an accident they were not aware of. two options

1) We can repair the car (no)
2) We can replace your car with another (yes)

So tomorrow expecting a call with the options available to me.

Gutted

Vibez · 29 May 2007 at 22:33

Sorry to hear that mate, it does sound like a genuine mistake on their part and consider yourself lucky you bought from a main dealer, if that were private you'd have no comeback I'd imagine. Fairplay they're gonna repair it for you or swap, very good

Mackass · 29 May 2007 at 22:36

Sorry to hear that mate, any ideas how bad the crash was? Well as long as you get a decent replacement, then it won't be too bad.

thepharcyde · 29 May 2007 at 22:40

Garage who noticed it did not disclose much, but the o/s front han been impacted at some point. Did not question the dealers who sold me the car, just very happy that they have been extremely good in resolving the issue.

Driving a brand new 320d saloon at the mo, so happy with the miles I am getting to a tank, half sees more miles till fill up than full on my 330

easyrider · 29 May 2007 at 22:43

Man that just sux! :eek:

My hopes go out to you that this is sorted.

panthro · 29 May 2007 at 22:43

I wouldnt say you should be gutted, relieved more than anything else as you bought it from a dealer they are at fault and are willing to replace the car with another of exactly the same model and spec (assuming). If that was a private sale you would be up a creek with no paddle. Still, not a nice position to be in, hope you get it sorted.

cheets64 · 29 May 2007 at 22:58

Ouch I nearly bought a Focus that had a resprayed bumper, my dad stopped it and we opened the bonnet and there was signs of a front right smash, all the body had been worked on.

jamoor · 30 May 2007 at 00:06

thepharcyde said:
Its been a while since I have visited Ocuk what joy I have had with my car. In hind sight I should have never have purchased it when a fellow poster noticed that it had the incorrect bumper.

Anyway forked out for two new tyres and booked it in for its inspection II service and to look at a few niggly issues.

Anyway it transpires that my car was not as clean as I thought.

Issues

Needs the following

Two new window regs
Rear heated window
Drivers seat belt
Exhaust gasket
2 new front alloys
Drivers window visor
Auto wiper sensor
Drivers airbag issues.

Booked it in again with the local dealer who needed the car for a couple of days with the work listed.

Anyway get a call only to be asked if the car had been in an accident. I said no, I have only had the car 4 months. They then checked HPI which was clear. The problem being is that the drivers head airbag had been cut out.

Shocked I called the dealers who sold me the car, who promptly dropped me off a courtesy car, and picked up my lemon Friday.

Anyway got a call today and they can confirm that it was involved in an accident they were not aware of. two options

1) We can repair the car (no)
2) We can replace your car with another (yes)

So tomorrow expecting a call with the options available to me.

Gutted

Crikey, no airbag, didn't the lights come on the dash or anything saying there is no airbag?

scousegit · 30 May 2007 at 00:12

sensors were most likely disabled or the lights on the dash sabotaged.

seems they knew what they were doing.

jamoor · 30 May 2007 at 00:14

scousegit said:
sensors were most likely disabled or the lights on the dash sabotaged.

seems they knew what they were doing.

yeah, it should have come up in a diagnostics check which I am sure the dealer would have done prior to sale.

scousegit · 30 May 2007 at 00:15

obviously the check may not of been done properly and they have found to be negligable <Spelling>? lol and want to resolve this issue for him as soon as possible, with as least amount of disruption to himself.

Dave77 · 30 May 2007 at 00:16

Thats is very worrying!... but good that they are going to replace it for you.

I am surprised they did'nt pick up on a lot of those faults when preparing the car under the AUC scheme, problem with drivers seat belt should'nt have passed an MOT?

audiolab · 30 May 2007 at 00:28

I have had a few BMW's (although I am currently driving an Audi), all were faultless, except my last one which was an E46 325 coupe. Like yourself I have to say that found the dealer more than helpfull. I put my car in for a handbrake problem that resulted in the rear trailing arm needing replaced (long story). Despite the fact that I had bought it from another BMW dealer there were no quibbles. As soon as it was clear my car was going to be in for a few days I had a 320D MSport cabrio with only 60 miles on it dropped off at my house.

I had another visit to replace the entire cars brake pipe system from the master cylinder to the wheels, which apparently involves dropping the fuel tank. Again no worries, got downgraded to a 1 series then, but that was because it was short notice and there were no cars available. The 1 series was one of the service desk guys cars, seems they really did put the customer first.

I would breath a sigh of relief and thank your lucky stars they are playing ball, that could have got messy.

Maybe they will do you a good deal on an M3....

Meds · 30 May 2007 at 08:28

Thats Scary man, I'm hoping to buy an E46 coupe this weekend privately, and now i'm not so sure.

I had always thought the HPI checks brought up accidents etc...

merlin · 30 May 2007 at 08:38

HPI brings up total loss incidents, nothing else.

lordrobs · 30 May 2007 at 09:25

Good that you've been able to get it sorted via the dealer although I'd be pushing for option 3) A full refund of my original purchase price.

[TW]Fox · 30 May 2007 at 11:39

lordrobs said:
Good that you've been able to get it sorted via the dealer although I'd be pushing for option 3) A full refund of my original purchase price.

So he'll have had 8 months rental of a 330Ci for gratis? Yea right, as if they'd ever give him that

Butters · 30 May 2007 at 14:03

jamoor said:
Crikey, no airbag, didn't the lights come on the dash or anything saying there is no airbag?

If the bag had been cut out but all contact rings left in place then no, a warning light wouldn't have come on and it wouldn't have shown on GT1 or otherwise as you can't check for the actual presence of an airbag only that all sensors are receiving data to say its there. Doesn't mean it can't have been cut out but the sensors left plugged in place.

only removing the wheel would tell this which is what seems to have been done here.

thepharcyde · 30 May 2007 at 19:34

Butters said:
If the bag had been cut out but all contact rings left in place then no, a warning light wouldn't have come on and it wouldn't have shown on GT1 or otherwise as you can't check for the actual presence of an airbag only that all sensors are receiving data to say its there. Doesn't mean it can't have been cut out but the sensors left plugged in place.

only removing the wheel would tell this which is what seems to have been done here.

Exactly what had been done, the fabric had just been cut away according to the dealers.

Having just forked 710 this month on it, I hope they will add this to the car budget they will be sourcing.

I did phone BMW the first day I found out to see if they can sell accident damaged cars, they said as long as it meets BMW standards. So i think the fact that the airbag was missing was enough for them to not even push that they would just repair it.

I went to Thruxton for the BTCC a few weeks back and noticed a clear knocking feeling over the uneven ground, so I prob think it needed a lot doing to it.

lordrobs · 31 May 2007 at 11:58

[TW]Fox said:
So he'll have had 8 months rental of a 330Ci for gratis? Yea right, as if they'd ever give him that

1) They sold him a car which had been in a hefty smack without telling him. They could get away with this, I guess, if he didn't directly ask the question "has it had a bang?". The other garage spotted it straight away, so should the dealer.

2) They sold a car with an important piece of safety equipment missing.

You pay a premium at a dealer for piece of mind, something I wouldn't get from buying another car from them. I'd kick up a right one and at least try for my money back.