BMW warranty drama

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Friends, would like to share my experience with one of the
(so called) reputed BMW main dealer in west London. It is H R Owen, Holland park (based in
North Acton, London)

I have 2007 E60 LCI 535D. It is loaded with many optional
extras. One of the extra is active cruise control with stop and go function. I
really love that feature and use it a lot, it is kind of relaxation on long
journey and a bit of help in congestion also. I wouldn�t have bought this car
(atleast not at the price I paid) without this feature. My car was running out
of warranty last month so I went for few cosmetic warranty repairs, which was
done quickly. 

Just before my warranty was expiring (2 days left) I found a
problem with ACC (active cruise control) where it won�t turn on in one attempt.
However if you keep trying it will eventually come on in 3-5 attempts. I could reproduce
this every time but this problem was intermittent. When it won�t work it will
just show �mph� followed by �--� under it. If working normally it will show the
speed you set the cruise control to with an arch above it (normal behaviour). I
reported this to H R Owen Holland park dealership and they accepted my car for
a check. 

Now the actual drama starts.

Technicians at dealership were quite clueless about this
issue as they don�t see many e60s with acc. For a good part of a week they did
not accept the problem (despite reproducing it to them atleast once). After a
week of struggle they pointed out that I have a dension MP3 kit installed and
this could be interfering with the system and they would charge me for an hours
labour to remove it and continue their investigation! I couldn�t believe it how
can a technician conclude this. Dension system is for MP3 player and part of
MOST network which is in perfectly working condition since 7-8 months now and
acc problem started recently. I told them to charge me *only if* removing
dension solves the problem, otherwise not. They did not agree! Finally I had to
agree to pay. 

Technician removed dension kit and problem was still
present. By this time two weeks finished. Third week they started following up
with BMW technical department and BWM authorized them to replace acc control module
and by end of the week control unit was ordered. That took another few days to
come and it was already in its 4^th week. Finally they had problem
programming it to the car and that took another few days.

By end of 4^th technician put everything back and
went on test drive and the problem was STILL there! Learning that we have spent
4 weeks (a substantial portion of summer) and achieved nothing and I am liable
for charge for removing dension unit which did not help either I made a
complaint to BMW customer support. They came back telling me they will do
everything to assist the dealership to solve this problem.

It is mid of 5^th week now since I gave my car
there and dealership says they are waiting for response from BMW. They are
planning to give my car back while BMW decides on what to do next. They �might�
return my car this week which will be worse-off when I gave it to them.

It is worth mentioning that I was given a courtesy car (BMW
MINI ONE 1.4) by end of 3^rd week. For that too dealership wanted me
to pay �10 a day on insurance! Luckily my current insurer (Tesco) offered me
fully-comp insurance for free.

I don�t know what is my legal right here and what can be done
to compensate the mental harassment I have been thru (and still going) during
this 5 weeks. Above all what do I do about the problem now. They have told me
it will still be covered by warranty as now warranty has expired. I am planning
for county court action. Funniest part is from BMW customer support they say we
don�t have any ETA for any problem resolution. Their words �it will take as
longer as it takes�!

Sorry for this long write up but it may give a customer�s
view of how BMW and its dealer network treat their customers. Also it gives
right indication of so called technician�s knowledge about beating around the
bush like removing dension mp3 kit.

Words of advice: Stay away from H R Owen unless you need
just a puncture repair (that too could be 1hr labour @ �160+VAT/hr.)

Thanks for reading.

Afsar Imam

Edited by afsar