New I3s Are Being Held at The Ports

I was told that my new BMW i3 is being held at the port north of Los Angeles because there is a recall on it.

According to the dealer, it has been trapped there for 10 days and they don't know when it'll be released for shipment to the dealer.

They said it has to receive new software. The car was manufactured on Oct 10. I am guessing the software upgrade is done at the port. I would've thought it would be done at the dealer.

Does anyone know about this? I'm guessing this means all of the cars are due for another software update.

Mine arrived in San Diego or Long Beach on Nov 6th and has been there since as well. Called my guy today, they got a hold of the port and was told it is on hold for KLE replacement campaign. I thought the car would've been built with the new version KLEs since it finished production at the end of September <shrug>. Not holding my breath for arrival before the end of the month...

My production date was October 15. It's at the dealership according to the BMW tracking and we arranged delivery for Friday after Thanksgiving. I wonder if I just made the cutoff where mine already has all the updates?

What is KLE replacement?

johnnydrim said:

What is KLE replacement?

Click to expand...

The KLE is one of the two battery chargers. The software change is to restore full charging power capability. The previous KLE's were overheating and failing in some instances in the summer heat. In order to keep the fleet running the charging program was modified to reduce the charging rate by about 30%.

I found an article about the people BMW has at the port checking out the vehicles. My car came in to the main West Coast port which is about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. The article said they have 40 or 50 people working there. Not many. I'm sure Beverly Hills BMW has that number just in the service department

But this seems like it would be quite a challege. Apparently they have to rehab every single car.

Does anyone know how the operation works at the port? They would need a lot of highly trained people and a lot of service space, no?

When they replace the KL E how much time does that take? Do they have to update all the software? And I gather from other discussion on the sitethat that is a very time-consuming process.

I'm also assuming from discussion elsewhere on the site that my long awaited car will have to go in sometime pretty soon for more software tweaking, time-consuming.

Do others see it the same way?

johnnydrim said:

I found an article about the people BMW has at the port checking out the vehicles. My car came in to the main West Coast port which is about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. The article said they have 40 or 50 people working there. Not many. I'm sure Beverly Hills BMW has that number just in the service department

But this seems like it would be quite a challege. Apparently they have to rehab every single car.

Does anyone know how the operation works at the port? They would need a lot of highly trained people and a lot of service space, no?

When they replace the KL E how much time does that take? Do they have to update all the software? And I gather from other discussion on the sitethat that is a very time-consuming process.

I'm also assuming from discussion elsewhere on the site that my long awaited car will have to go in sometime pretty soon for more software tweaking, time-consuming.

Do others see it the same way?

Click to expand...

Supposedly there are additional software updates that are estimated to be available after the first of the year. These updates will include navigation/system changes that allow us to see the SOC number and engage the early Rex if you program a route where a lot of hill climbing will be required near the end of your range. I am also told that the range estimating mathematics will also be modified to be less conservative.

Have any of you received your cars yet? Apparently, mine is also stuck at VPC getting the new KLE. I guess it will be delivered mid December.

I haven't received my car.

My dealer complained to me about the non-responsiveness of the people who run the operation at the port near Oxnard.

Mid-December is disheartening. Is that just your attempt to be realistic or did someone tell you that?

I can't for the life of me understand why they don't put more people on this job. The dealer told me the guys at the port who update the cars go home at 5 PM. Meanwhile there must be more boats and more cars.

BMW must be better run than this.

Can anyone shed any light?

My guess based on my salesman telling me that they have a two week backlog of programming.
I read a 2009 article that stated tht BMW outsourced the VPC management to AMPorts, who run dozens of prep sites around the world.

I wonder if BMW feel like they outsourced responsibility too?

I was told since there are so many problems to wait until 1st quarter 2015 and they will
have many more problems solved:

From what I've read, the vast majority of 'issues' (I'm not calling them actual problems) have been able to be resolved via a software update. I've had one issue on mine since June, and it only happened once, and has not repeated (for some reason, the charging plug would not release when the car was unlocked - I had to pull the emergency release, but it's worked fine before and since). While taking the car to the dealership to be reprogrammed could be a pain, many of the tweaks have been enhancements or refinements, not a bug fix. Just like buying a computer or new smart phone...if you wait, there will be newer, features. The thing with an i3, many of its functions are software, and you can get the advantage of having it now, and still get those tweaks as they become available. And, have fun and probably save energy costs along the way. No, you'll probably not come out ahead because of depreciation, but that's true with most any vehicle. And, depreciation isn't as big a factor on a car that you could logically keep for many years, should you choose to...it isn't going to rust, the compression isn't going to go kaput and leak oil and use more gas, no muffler, oil changes, spark plugs, body rust, etc. I, for one, decided not to wait, and have been enjoying mine since I first picked it up.