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 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.