5 *months* to fix an i3. Normal?

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stuckwithani3

New member
Joined
Feb 20, 2016
Messages
3
After it took three BMW dealerships in New York a total of FIVE MONTHS to fix our i3, I was told by BMW that is this completely acceptable. I was told that the car has “new technologies” and dealerships are not well versed to deal with issues yet. In essence, they told me that BMW is using my time and my money so that their dealerships learn a thing or two about the car.

I am posting this here to hear what other i3 drivers think about our ordeal.

Let me start by saying this: My wife and I love our i3 and it is a fantastic car. We were even considering getting a second i3 and trading in our Cayenne for an X5 eDrive. However, after our lease ends, we will drop off our i3 and we will *never* again consider another BMW. Here’s why.

Our leased 2014 BMW i3 was rear-ended by an under-insured driver in September 2015 and we finally got the car back this month (Feb 16). For the first two months at a local dealership, nobody knew what it takes to fix the car and it looked like no one even knew what parts were needed to fix it. They were waiting for some “parts database update” — whatever that means. As soon as they started working on it they found carbon fiber damage and immediately totaled it because they did not know how to fix it. Our insurance company had to step in and find another BMW dealership with slightly more competence to fix it instead of writing it off. It took another three months to “fix” the car.

In the mean time, our friends at BMW Financial Services had filed a diminished value claim with the under-insured driver’s insurance company. Since that company had been paying (on and off) for rental cars over the five months that BMW took to fix their car, they didn’t have enough money to cover our deductible. So, the BMW dealership that fixed the car required us to pay a ransom of $1000 to release our car.

Two days after the car comes back, it started to emit sulfury / electric fire like fumes in the garage. On a visit to a third BMW dealership, they find a problem with the 12-volt battery and say the it will take them 1.5 weeks to get a new battery in stock. And if that wasn’t enough, the car comes back with its wiper not working — which is an interesting thing to find out when driving on a freeway in freezing rain / sleet.

We not only made five months of lease payments on a car we didn’t drive but we also had to use a car that wasn’t meant to be a commuter. And now, we have a car that has been undervalued (by over 25%) by BMW Financial Services and yet we pay the same monthly lease payments. Interestingly, not surprisingly, both BMW North America and BMW Financial Services claim they are not responsible for thousands of extra dollars we spent or the time it took to fix the car.

Normally, I would rather just pay up the remaining lease payments and return the car than drive it a minute longer. However, I was stupid enough to pay $15,000 up front when they were practically giving away this car in some parts of the country, and I don’t feel like giving BMW any more of my money. And what do I do after that? Perhaps get a car from a more honest company? Are there any left? VW-Audi maybe? ;).

After all this, BMW isn’t even courteous to write me an apology for their Car of the Half Year.

Goodbye.

PS: I sincerely hope other i3 drivers enjoy their cars and never end up in our situation. It was/is truly truly horrible.
 
I would have not allowed the insurance company to shop around to save them some money after the car was totalled by BMW first recommend repairer.
 
I would file for mediation for your $1000 and some of the 5 lease payments. Failing that, I would take it in to different dealers for every minor nuisance and demand nicer loaners each time. At some point you may meet a service manager who sees things from your perspective and advocates on your behalf.

You clearly were handled poorly.
 
IMHO this is typical of BMW dealers. All they want is your signature on the contract, after that they really don't care much at all. Our 2014 had the whooping tires and it was a real battle to get our leasing dealer to do anything, after months of drama, they agreed at last to replace the defective tires. Imagine my surprise when I learned a couple of weeks later that they had put another set of the same defective early 2014 production tires on my car and had lied when I asked them if they were the newest production from Bridgestone. They just took a set of their oldest tires on the parts shelf and told me they were new production. The result is that 1000mi later, my car is whooping and howling again on smooth pavement and the Service Manager at my dealer is now proven to be willing to look you in the eye and lie.

Do you think BMW will ever see anymore of my money?
 
Dealers are dealers. For all brands of car there are good and bad.

There is a limit to the amount of blame you apply to BMW for a particular dealer treating you poorly.

Woodlandhills, so you didn't you look at the date code on the tyres when you went to pick the car up? If you did, you could have pointed out that the date on the tyres was wrong and you could have shown the dealer up, forced them to put new tyres on it and saved yourself the hassle.
 
I33t said:
Dealers are dealers. For all brands of car there are good and bad.

There is a limit to the amount of blame you apply to BMW for a particular dealer treating you poorly.

Woodlandhills, so you didn't you look at the date code on the tyres when you went to pick the car up? If you did, you could have pointed out that the date on the tyres was wrong and you could have shown the dealer up, forced them to put new tyres on it and saved yourself the hassle.

Believe me when I say that I think exactly that every time I drive the car.... Hind sight is 20/20! Thank God, we leased!
 
After almost 1 year of ownership and 15k miles, we are very happy with our i3 purchase. Just like the OP, we love our car.

However it is fair to say that some customers have experienced delayed repairs and fixes by their dealers, who still find their feet with the new i products. Software upgrades, windscreen exchange or even a squeaky door window - no repair was performed with a quick turnaround for me. Whilst the dealerships do their best to cushion the blow (exchange i3s every single time), it doesn't always seem fair. The "early adopter excuse" is starting to wear thin.
 
Some dealers are proactive on getting their people trained, and that's not only the service aspects, but the body repair...BMW offers that training, but not every dealer has decided to dedicate their personnel to it.

From what I understand, in the UK, the BMW stores that can sell i3's are corporate run, and not independent dealers...at least there, they SHOULD be able to deal with things. Doesn't work if you take it to just any dealer, even there, though.

FWIW, I've not needed much service on my car...the most complex body related thing was they had to replace the charging port release cable which entailed removing the fender. My dealer is an I-certified body shop. Hopefully, I'll never need it!

The carbon fiber frame of the vehicle is designed specifically for crash repair. The parts you need require the damaged stuff to be carefully cut off at certain prescribed positions, depending on the depth of the damage, then the new pieces bonded in place. Done correctly, the car should be as strong, or stronger than new, but potentially a few pounds heavier from the splice.
 
Kiwi said:
I would have not allowed the insurance company to shop around to save them some money after the car was totalled by BMW first recommend repairer.

I am assuming that they didn't want their car totaled since they put 15,000 down on the lease. In the case of a total loss, that money is gone, correct?
 
FWIW, the i3 was designed to be repaired IF the extent of the damage does not exceed a specified amount of distance into something critical. If the dealer opted to partake in BMW's training, it should not have been anywhere near that long to repair. It is not like a 'normal' car, and requires different (not necessarily hard) techniques to do it properly that may not be obvious to a tech used to steel and aluminum chassis.
 
Wait...

Your angry at BMW because you were rear-ended? Seriously? What if you had never been rear-ended? Would you have two i3's? Would you have an x5 40e?

I don't see how its BMW's fault, if anything, your insurance company should have totaled the car, make your insurance company pay for 5 months of lease payments for a car you couldn't drive. Unless, of course, they provided a rental.
 
imolazhp said:
Wait...

Your angry at BMW because you were rear-ended? Seriously? What if you had never been rear-ended? Would you have two i3's? Would you have an x5 40e?

Well, maybe it's a good thing this happened then? :)

Seriously though, what I posted is only a snapshot of the five month saga. There have been a lot of phone calls between us and BMW and over time, it got really annoying. We were very happy with our original dealer in the West, but we had to move across the continent to NY and it is clear that BMW dealers in this part of the world are terrible. So, if the dealers use the BMW name then I guess I should be angry with BMW? The big thing is over several calls with BMW, they stood "100%" behind their dealers and their dealers didn't know what they were doing, which I think reflects really poorly on BMW.
 
PDXelectric said:
Kiwi said:
I would have not allowed the insurance company to shop around to save them some money after the car was totalled by BMW first recommend repairer.

I am assuming that they didn't want their car totaled since they put 15,000 down on the lease. In the case of a total loss, that money is gone, correct?

It would have been a big loss for us if it got totaled. However, we had no say in what to do. The insurance companies didn't want to total it without an estimate and it took BMW about four months to get an estimate! After three months or so, we just wanted closure so we could move on.
 
stuckwithani3 said:
It would have been a big loss for us if it got totaled. However, we had no say in what to do. The insurance companies didn't want to total it without an estimate and it took BMW about four months to get an estimate! After three months or so, we just wanted closure so we could move on.

Why were you doing all the foot-work? Why was your insurance company not handling it? I don't understand, I've seen i3's get totaled over what looks like a ripped off front bumper cover. That same owner paid cash for his i3, somewhere around $60k with tax if I recall and lost less than $5k if I recall correctly. You might look into a better insurance company once you get it all settled, that is a complete nightmare. Again, were you not in a rental car provided by the insurance company? Those are not cheap.
 
stuckwithani3 said:
Our leased 2014 BMW i3 was rear-ended by an under-insured driver in September 2015

For the first two months at a local dealership, nobody knew what it takes to fix the car and it looked like no one even knew what parts were needed to fix it. They were waiting for some “parts database update” — whatever that means. As soon as they started working on it they found carbon fiber damage and immediately totaled it because they did not know how to fix it. Our insurance company had to step in and find another BMW dealership with slightly more competence to fix it instead of writing it off. It took another three months to “fix” the car.

Problem number one. Accepting bulldust from the dealer.

1. "parts database update"
2. Not working on the car for two months for a bulldust excuse. The car should have been stripped down to identify repair items before the "parts database" was even looked at.

Problem number two. Failing to act.

1. See problem number one. Should not be accepted that a dealer cannot retrieve parts info with or without a parts database. They have a direct line to BMW and the car is in production. Even if parts are not in the US they could be requisitioned by BMW.
2. When the dealer fails to act appropriately (days to weeks), the owner should be pushing the insurance company for the vehicle to be moved to a dealer of their choice, not waiting for an insurance company to act. Speaking to BMW direct, I'm sure they could tell you which dealers have the training and equipment to repair the vehicle (this should have been verified before the vehicle was delivered to a dealer for repair.)


In the mean time, our friends at BMW Financial Services had filed a diminished value claim with the under-insured driver’s insurance company. Since that company had been paying (on and off) for rental cars over the five months that BMW took to fix their car, they didn’t have enough money to cover our deductible. So, the BMW dealership that fixed the car required us to pay a ransom of $1000 to release our car.

Problem number three.
Small claims court. Or soliciter's letter. You would win.

Two days after the car comes back, it started to emit sulfury / electric fire like fumes in the garage. On a visit to a third BMW dealership, they find a problem with the 12-volt battery and say the it will take them 1.5 weeks to get a new battery in stock. And if that wasn’t enough, the car comes back with its wiper not working — which is an interesting thing to find out when driving on a freeway in freezing rain / sleet.

Problem number four.
1. The battery was not maintained during the extended repair process. The car should have been returned to the repairing dealer who probably would have supplied a new battery and adjusted the claim on the insurance company.
2. Same goes with the wiper. It is the responsibility of the repairer to identify and correct issues involved with the repair, not some other dealer (who in all fairness would have to charge you)

We not only made five months of lease payments on a car we didn’t drive but we also had to use a car that wasn’t meant to be a commuter. And now, we have a car that has been undervalued (by over 25%) by BMW Financial Services and yet we pay the same monthly lease payments. Interestingly, not surprisingly, both BMW North America and BMW Financial Services claim they are not responsible for thousands of extra dollars we spent or the time it took to fix the car.

Non-problem number 1
You have a legally binding lease for a vehicle. You are involved in an accident and the vehicle is off the road for some time. The accident has no bearing on your lease contract. The third party insurer is supplying you with a hire vehicle. How is this the responsibility of BMW? BMW should forget about the lease because of your accident? I agree it is annoying that you are deprived of the vehicle while it is being repaired, and I guess the hire vehicle is not of the same calibre, but how is that anything to do with BMW?
 
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