Problems with a new BMW - Are all German Lawyers this crap?

My brand new BMW has broken down 6 times in the past 2 months,and had to be returned to the dealer 11 times.
Its had a new moonroof,2 Navs fitted,2 new sets of Xenon lights.I discovered it had been repainted before I took delivery and it has a weird noise that they cant get rid off.
The tires were fitted the wrong way round at the factory and have worn badly( they want to bill me !)
Then they damaged the alloys while fitting new tires and repainted the expensive alloys.

Anyway to cut a very very long story short,the BMW dealership is crap with some of the worst customer service I have ever seen in the entire world

So,they wont take the car back and I have used a German lawyer
He has written 2 letters to BMW and now tells me they have all the strong cards on their table

Anyway for writting 2 letters he has sent me a bill for wait for it 645 EURO

Just thought you should all be aware...stay away from German Lawyers.Fight it yourself.

I reckon you dont have a "Rechtschutzversicherung"? I would take the copies of the letters and the replies from BMW and try to go to a "kostenlose Rechtsberatung" to find out, if there is any chance of "winning the case".

Thanks Hannah...I think I wil try that.

I used to have "rechtschutzversicherung" but when I needed a Lawyer a few years ago,they refused to cover the costs so I canceld the policy

Simple answer YES esp our one!
I don’t know if you ever watched that new program on ITV3 at 5 o’clock. Well they did little discussions about complaining to large companies. They said the thing to do was to find out who the directors were or at least the top people of the company (even the accountant) and send a letter to all of them, put the letter in something that will catch there eye, i.e. a unusual box maybe in your case try and find or make a car. I know it seems alot of work but the expert on this show said it really works.

Here are the tips
) The pink envelope trick: to bypass the MD's secretary dress the envelope
up like a love letter.

2) The open-ended demand: don't demand anything specific - your
expectations may be exceeded.

3) The over-friendly intro: address the MD by first name to disarm him or
her.

this is the website if you are interested http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=4961

Good idea Bellesparks

Wife is in the US Army so thought about going to JAG but they havn´t got a clue either.

Going to fight this myself.On the flip side though,its will save me a lot of money in the long run...because I swear I will NEVER buy another BMW...EVER.

In fact I would rather walk

Black S2 - I agree completely - I have a BMW330 & its the biggest pile of sh1t I've ever owned, I can't wait to be rid of it. The left indicator changes speed all the time for no reason, always has, and BMW have been trying unsuccessfully for 2 years to fix it. They can't even fix a bloody light?!?! The Satnav gets lost every time I use it, & tries to send you down roads that don't exist, and the other day told me that the friend I was trying to visit lived in the middle of a major junction. It also thinks another mate of mine lives under a motorway bridge (which i suppose is possible...).I once used it to drive to Austria - and it sent me 376km in the wrong direction. I've now gone back to an old fashoned map. (Nearly set fire to the car for that one!).

Now where was that Audi dealership...

Mark-Mines a 330i too.

I left it outside a few times with the door unlocked and the key in the ignition... Praying someone would nick it,I mean a 2005 BMW...it should have ended up in Poland by now

My list is endless,I mean its so bad I dont drive it anymore in case it breaksdown again.
Anyone car manufaturer can build a lemon...the best ones though are the ones that can at least admit it

Sorry guys about the rant :$ Just so damn frustrated.

Even car thieves can spot a lemon! Mines a 2003 - so they must have been making crap ones for years. I think my one was the last one finished on a friday afternoon.

Why not post your road name & the time you will be getting back from work & 'forgetting' to take out the keys - I'm sure some obliging person will help you out!

Unfortunately, we had an NEW Audi A4 (company car) which was the same - in the car dealership every month because of some fuse burning out etc.

At the end, had to re-do the transmission (tipronic never did end up working after that), the oil pump died etc.

Shesh where is workmanship these days (too many electronics...) (think War of the World - new one with Tom Cruise - all the cars were EMI'd)

We couldn't wait to get rid of the car and it was only 2.5 years old. Now we have a very simple Mazda - love the thing!

Chris

THL - that surprises me a bit, but i guess you can be unlucky with any make. My bro has had Audi's for his last 4 or 5 cars, and I don't think he has had any problems with any of them - they've been great cars.

The best car I have owned in my entire life was a Honda Accord (ok, lets get the old man jokes out of the way - I was only 24 when i bought it!). I kept that car for 5 years, I was so attached to it (to give you an idea of how impressive that is, in the 2 years before the Honda I went through 11 cars).

What on earth do you do to your cars?

I am on my second car still after 10 years.

Rear springs still working?

BlackS2 - My sincere sympathies.
I think you have just been really unlucky here. I've got 2 BMs, a 330 for when the weather's crap like now and a Z3 for when it's not, and I have to say they have both been flawless, AND the dealership service is superb...Carlsberg don't do car dealerships, but if they did...etc.
Before that I had a 530 which was also spot on.
Have you tried going direct to the manufacturer?
I once had an Alfa 164 which was a brilliant car 99% of the time, but had the unfortunate habit of shutting down the engine, power steering, electrics all by itself at inconvenient moments.
Sounds to me like BMW had some Italians on work placement the week they built your car. Normally the boys in Munich do a decent job of building motors.

Want to lend me your 330 over the summer when its not being used? Stop the engine getting cobwebs and all that...

I think BlackS2 will cheerfully lend you his one, provided you agree to smack it into a tree or something in order to write it off and he can claim the insurance!

Mein Zapeint,thanks for the sympathies.

BMW has finally agreed to take the BMW back,I dont owe them and they dont owe me!
Allowing for the 6,0000km in 9 months the money I put down unreal and well below average depreciation paying the BMW Bank back etc I am about 7,000 Euro out of pocket about a Euro for every 1km.

Still I am just glad to be shot of the thing.

Lessons learned

1. Dont waist good money on German lawyers (645 euro for two useless letters)

2. Dont by a BMW.
3.If you want to experience classic German bad customer service...buy a BMW.

OK peeps...Rant over and thanks for listening :$

Well, my Range Rover was stolen in liverpool & ended up in the Mersey, I drove my Escort van over a mini, my Fiat Uno burst into flames on the motorway (Thanks Neil373), I rolled one Mini playing 'car football', I hit a deer with my 405, I drove an Astra over a ploughed field with 12 people in it & the suspension collapsed (but I don't count that as one of the 11 as it was a lease car), I swapped my Granada for a hotel for the weekend, I got bored rebuilding a jeep & gave it away when I got into building mini's (I rebuilt 3, sold 2, and kept 1), and I blew a Cavalier gearbox up doing 135MPH on the motorway.

So you see there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything!

I'm really sorry to hear about this BMW disaster. I really hope it is an anomaly...I'm a big fan of the manufacturer, although admittedly the quality is not as consistent as that of Lexus etc.

I believe it's usually best to buy cars used (Yes, even for those who can afford new ones). You can buy great cars in superb condition for so much less once you let depreciation work its wonders. Most people buy brand new cars because they think brand new is a guarantee of reliability and no hassles whatsoever, but needless to say S2's example belies that idea. I once bought a 12 year old BMW 325i Sport, with only 48K miles on the clock, in mint condition, well maintained, for about a third of the price a new one would cost. I put about 40,000 miles on it and it never once broke down; it was totally reliable and never needed any significant repairs. My mistake was that I sold it too soon; I should have kept it longer.

As someone mentioned earlier, the increased number of high-tech gadgets has certainly done nothing for the reliability of our favourite marques, and maybe BMW's overall reliability has indeed decreased; I don't know because my current car is 19 years old!

S2, just out of curiosity, was your 330i the new E90 generation (the current body style) or the E46 gen., which was just before?

[quote]Lessons learned[/quote]Simple - Never ever buy a new car

Much easier just to wire the contents of your bank account to the car company, saves the hassel[/quote]Well, my Range Rover was stolen in liverpool & ended up in the Mersey, I drove my Escort van over a mini, my Fiat Uno burst into flames on the motorway (Thanks Neil373), I rolled one Mini playing 'car football', I hit a deer with my 405, I drove an Astra over a ploughed field with 12 people in it & the suspension collapsed (but I don't count that as one of the 11 as it was a lease car), I swapped my Granada for a hotel for the weekend, I got bored rebuilding a jeep & gave it away when I got into building mini's (I rebuilt 3, sold 2, and kept 1), and I blew a Cavalier gearbox up doing 135MPH on the motorway[quote]

Some people just know way too much about cars...

Sun King...it was the new E90 version!
I used to have a E46 330i sport,had a lot of problems with that car too,although that was mostly down to the dealerships shoddy work and not the Manufacturere.

Should have learned my lesson then!
The most reliable car I have ever owned is my Lotus Elise...58,000 in 3 years hard km and not a thing wrong.

Best customer service experienced in Germany...MG Rover and Honda.
Worst customer service and least reliable...well its a toss between BMW and VW.
Anyway I have paid the robbing useless lawyer his 645 Euro for 2 letters and have learnt my lesson...
1) stay away from BMW...arrogant company would be an understatement.
2) Dont bother with German Lawyers...they lur you into a trap by telling you that you can win and its worth taking someone to court...then write two letters and say..."oh i´m sorry maybe its not a good idea after all"!!!

I ususally drive a very reliable Toyota Corolla but as a lady kindly decided to crump me last Thursday I am currantly driving an all singing all dancing 5 Series BMW Touring. It's fun (especially watching the telly when you wait at level crossings). But like MarcCJ mentioned the navi. is strange - we drove to my daughter's in Bonn yesterday and it wanted to go a completely different direction (so we just told it to shut up and went the usual way). I do like the way the speed is projected on the windscreen - might stop me getting speeding tickets :$

I test drove a CLK cabrio the other day. Aren't automatic wipers just the best!

Jean-Pierre

Apparently you Brits just do not know how to drive these cars. Maybe you could read the instructions manual for a start, then you wouldn't end under a bridge. With over 140k km (not miles! the world has changed since the 18th century!) in BMWs I never had a single technical problem with 3 different models I drowe.
BTW Black S2, what is the problem you have with Poland?

Well, the difference between us brits and other folk is that we don't need instruction manuals. We brits use our Brains !

The some people need instruction manuals the size of oxford dictionarys, so that the companies can make sure that some twat doesn't sue them.

A Woman writing off her Porsche whilst driving too fast in a corner. She sued Porsche and won !! The instruction manual doesn't mention that going too fast in a corner will result in an accident.

How about the woman that tried to dry her pet in the microwave ?? It didn't say you couldn't in the instruction manual !!!

I wonder if McDonalds brought out an instruction manual of where to put your coffee that you have just purchased from the drive-in ( Not between your legs )

And how about the guys that have been smoking all of their lives ? They get cancer and sue the tobacco companies!! - and win !!!

And you're saying that we brits are too stupid to drive a car ??

Amik,

I had my Audi stolen a few years back.A few months later the police did a raid on some warehouse in Poland and thats were it was found...albeit minus one engine!

When I used to work in Hanau,my company had a 7 serries and a 3 serries stolen,guess where they were found...yep Poland!

Sorry Amik,if you are Polish,no offence meant,in fact right now I would love it if my Crap BMW ended up in Poland

I dont think I understand your point about having 3 BMWs with no problems Amik.What has that got to do with my disgusting experience?
The fact is IMHO they are very overated cars...its called Badge engineering.
Also if you check the ADAC reliability ratings BMW are only Average.

Wish I'd known about this a few years ago - did pretty much the same thing.
Seriously though, I took the view that I was extremely fortunate to crawl out of the upside-down, totally trashed car without a scratch - a humbling experience let me tell you. Decided that if my skills weren't up to driving a seriously fast motor I shouldn't buy another one - so I didn't. And rather than sue Porsche I have since told anyone who's interested (and a fair few who are not) what brilliant passenger safety cells these cars have.

Regarding the "Poland / knocked-off motors" comments earlier in the thread, one of my neighbours (allegedly!) brings dodgy cars INTO Germany. Right now there are 2 Maseratis, a 7 series BM and a top of the range X5 in the yard. The boys are Italian and dress exactly like Tony's boys in the Sopranos though, so nobody's about to shop them. I also think it would be unwise to buy a car from them...I mean what happens if it develops problems and you take it back to complain...? " No problemo..I take-a you to our-a Customer Complaints department. Its in this-a warehouse at the edge of town..."