Outrageous repair cost

The charging connector was ripped off my i3 while locked in, breaking the AC receptacle on the car. The repair time and cost by the BMW dealer is 2 weeks and $2900 plus taxes (15% where I live in Canada). With the cost of the rental, I will be looking at a total cost north of $4000 CA. This is nothing less than outrageous! This receptacle is made of basic polypro or polyethylene plastic which is not strong, and which can be ripped out pretty easily by pulling the locked connector sideways. BMW hasn't thought of this possibility, isn't prepared to handle such repairs and clearly applies abusive pricing for the replacement part.

I have written to customer service at BMW Canada. I hope reason will find them more than with my dealer.

Gridvantage
2014 i3 REX
2007 X5 3.0i

Expensive parts and labor seem to go along with expensive cars. This is why I wish that Honda or Toyota had designed the i3, not BMW. Honda engineering demonstrated its substantial chops when they designed our other car, the original Insight. I have been very disappointed that Honda didn't continue its innovation by designing an EV like the i3. We still have our Insight after 15 years because it has never needed to visit a mechanic for repairs since its battery pack warranty expired. We hope to keep our i3 just as long, but if we experience repair costs like yours, we'll be looking to replace it with something more reasonable.

Good luck with getting your repair costs reduced to something reasonable!

alohart said:

Expensive parts and labor seem to go along with expensive cars.

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Although there is some truth to that the cost of repair of i3/i8 is still much higher than other more expensive cars (like Audis and other BMWs). But a lot of that has to do with the fact that these cars have much lower numbers on the road, the parts are not necessarily common and a lot of design decisions went into improving efficiency or design rather than low cost repair (see body panel repair costs).

I do wonder if BMW really thought the i3 would start selling in larger numbers and some of the parts/costs would have become lower in that case.

Gridvantage said:

The charging connector was ripped off my i3 while locked in, breaking the AC receptacle on the car.

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May we know what happened?

I had a similar experience, except it was only my headlight assembly (including electrical) which was damaged. I ended up saving some money by getting a list of parts needed from my local dealer, bought the parts from https://www.bmwdiscountparts.com, and had the dealer install them. Something like this might be an alternative for the OP.

ASUN said:

Gridvantage said:

The charging connector was ripped off my i3 while locked in, breaking the AC receptacle on the car.

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May we know what happened?

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Hi ASUN, we had icing rain and my driveway has a small slope towards the street. When I parked my car, the rain had just started which left a trace of ice under the tires. In the morning, the car had moved about 6 feet, away from the charging station which ripped the connector out. While this was a very unfortunate situation, it is very easy for anyone to strip the connector out of the socked when the car is parked in a side street and connected to a public station. In my opinion the design of the receptacle must be changed and seriously solidified, particularly with repair costs running so high.

Gridvantage said:

In the morning, the car had moved about 6 feet, away from the charging station which ripped the connector out.

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Did you contact your insurance company? That sounds like a comprehensive claim to me.

Gridvantage said:

ASUN said:

Gridvantage said:

The charging connector was ripped off my i3 while locked in, breaking the AC receptacle on the car.

Click to expand...

May we know what happened?

Click to expand...

Hi ASUN, we had icing rain and my driveway has a small slope towards the street. When I parked my car, the rain had just started which left a trace of ice under the tires. In the morning, the car had moved about 6 feet, away from the charging station which ripped the connector out. While this was a very unfortunate situation, it is very easy for anyone to strip the connector out of the socked when the car is parked in a side street and connected to a public station. In my opinion the design of the receptacle must be changed and seriously solidified, particularly with repair costs running so high.

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Making the charging port stronger will not help, it may even inflict more damage to the body. Some sort of quick disconnect in the charging cable would be a better solution. Sort of like the break away hoses on the gas stations.