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3ZHP
05-24-2014, 06:29 PM
We don't have a BMW page yer so, I'll stick this with the family stuff.

OK, so here’s the deal and a carryover from “Should I bail or hold on to our 06 330Cic”. I’ve been working intense midnight hours and live in the back hills of Middle Tennessee and need to have something very safe dependable for the wife to drive while I’m at work or sleeping. Over the past few months, we have had problems with the starter on what was her 2006 330I vert. The problem was diagnosed with a bad starter that takes 5 hours to change out time as well as several other PM items. Also, while the car was into the BMW dealer for the mechanical diagnosis, we had the car appraised for a trade and received a very reasonable offer that stood even after the outrageous repair quote. She works from home and doesn’t put many miles on the car so we started looking at a low mileage leases and made an appointment to revisit the dealer 85 miles away on Friday.

During the week my sleep schedule was a mess with leaving work Tuesday morning at 8:00 and returning at 5:00 p.m. for First Aid training. Then on Thursday, I made arrangements to look at a boat at 2:00 in the afternoon and only landed up getting less than 5 hours of broken sleep before and after the boat thing. In to work Thursday night @ 9:00 p.m. and out Friday morning @7:00 a.m. I followed that with heading to the BMW dealer by 8:30 a.m... The dealers an hour-and-a-half south east and we lose an hour in the time change so, that’s what it takes to make a 11:00 appointment.

When we get to the dealer, the Black on Black sport package she was inquiring on was sold and we moved on to her other top choice Orion Silver Metallic 328i xdrive. Car was ok but, I finally had to tell her that it looks like something my grandmother would drive and that gave the open door to other choices. The next was Glacier Silver Metallic with black interior. That was better but still didn’t do anything for me. We get finished with that and I spotted the blue one that was optioned out better but a little more pricy. He grabs the keys for the blue one and it is so much nicer than any of the other cars we were checking out. We asked to see the numbers on the silver one and the blue on just to see if it was at all possible. Well the numbers came back higher but, nowhere near what we expected and at that point we made the decision to go for the blue one.

Within a few more hours we the car was cleaned up, we got finished up with the finance, got the orientation and were on our way. The 85 mile trip back on the highway was slow due to rubber-necking two different accidents on the opposite side of the highway. When we got back to our town we grabbed a bite to eat at the local Logan’s, and headed home. Once I got home, I grabbed the camera to capture the shots below. After I finished posting the pics it was about 6:00p.m. and the fatigue was setting in. With only having a few broken hours of sleep in the last 50+ hours, I was shot and headed for bed.

The next thing I knew, I was getting woke up by the wife saying we had to go back to the car that had broken down throwing drivetrain malfunction errors a mile down the country road our development is off of and would not move. She had tried calling me 20 times but, my phone landed up being in my office on the other side of the house. After using the SOS service that wasn’t to be activated till today it worked and she talked to BMW assist. The car only had 105 miles on it and they were contacting someone to help her. Not knowing anyone or having family local she called her hairdresser that lives up the road by our development. She was out at her cottage but, called her girlfriend that gave my wife a ride home so she could wake me up.

We headed back to the car. It was a mile down the road pas a group of houses, some tight curves, a cattle pasture and a few corn fields. The road is tight with shoulders that a 4x4 would have trouble with. She managed to get the car in a driveway of a house that sits a ½ mile back off the road so, we were unbothered. She had talked to the towing company and the said they would be there in 20 minutes and that didn’t happen. The guy did call me and his GPS sent him to a incorrect location on the other side of town. Some clarification on the location, and the finally arrived. Yep, the surly arrived with a flatbed trailer pulled by a dually that looked 4 times worse than the worst one I’ve seen at club track events.

I stayed to make sure the car was secure and that was a wise move. The car would not stay out of Park mode and kept reengaging the position lock. After a few tries of pushing it out of the drive way we were stuck with it sideways in the middle of this dark country road. We swapped places and I got behind the wheel. The only way to keep the car out of park was to rev it to 3 or 4K. After a lot of revving and pushing we finally got it to the trailer. Then they winched it up and tied her down. We talked to them and they told us they were taking it right to the dealer and we headed home. On the way home I could see fresh oil in the exact path my wife took from just outside our development entrance till the point of death.

Saturday morning I left several voice mails at the dealer and received calls back. Turns out the car hadn’t made to the dealer and they didn’t know where it was. Next call was that they found it and the company that picked it up was on its way to the dealership. Shortly thereafter I received a call from the service department telling us that they were sending us a loaner and they would be here ASAP. The car did arrive but, had less than a half of tank of gas and not optioned out as good as my dead one. We’ve been told that the senior tech would be on it first thing Tuesday morning.

That’s all I know for now except that the wife just found multiple posts on Bimmerfest with very similar problems. We have also been talking to our sales guy about the lemon laws and BMW lemon policies.

I’ll keep ya posted.

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0018.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0018.jpg.html)

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0017.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0017.jpg.html)

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0015.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0015.jpg.html)

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0013.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0013.jpg.html)

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0012.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0012.jpg.html)

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0011.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0011.jpg.html)

http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss351/3zhpguy/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0005.jpg (http://s591.photobucket.com/user/3zhpguy/media/BMW/2014_328I/20140523_First_328I_0005.jpg.html)

danewilson77
05-24-2014, 06:42 PM
Great looking car. Sorry about all of th he problems Guy.

The friendliest forum on the planet.

stephenkirsh
05-24-2014, 07:06 PM
Man that's insane. Just further proves why I'll never buy a new car.

Hope everything works out. Keep us posted.

BavarianZHP
05-24-2014, 07:52 PM
I've always wondered how reliable the F30's are... The first years are never a buy-to-own.

webster
05-24-2014, 09:11 PM
Wow, so sorry to hear of your troubles. That's some crap luck.

Never selling my e46.

Avetiso
05-24-2014, 09:18 PM
Wow. Sorry to hear about your troubles, Guy.

gmurphy
05-24-2014, 10:45 PM
Man that's insane. Just further proves why I'll never buy a new car.

Hope everything works out. Keep us posted.

Good to have a warranty though!


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Oli77
05-25-2014, 04:51 AM
What BMW dealership? Sorry to hear about this mess but I am sure they will set it right.

stephenkirsh
05-25-2014, 10:00 AM
Good to have a warranty though!


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Meh. I'd rather have a car just work then to have a warranty and have it in the shop frequently.

alexandre
05-25-2014, 08:22 PM
What a shit storm. Especially with the dealer being so far away. Hope they sort all this stuff out.

JupiterBMW
05-25-2014, 08:33 PM
Whoa, not happy to hear this, especially owning one. I see you got the luxury line with the same interior we did. Beautiful choice, I like the blue. Good luck with the repairs and keep us posted.


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Au1994
05-27-2014, 05:06 PM
Any word on the patient?

3ZHP
05-27-2014, 07:02 PM
Today's update

The dealer called yesterday and told my wife they sold the red loaner we had and needed to ship it to Texas so, this morning they came to our house and switched it out for another new 328I black on black.

On the dead one, our sales agent called us late this afternoon to tell us that it either had a hose on the transmission that came loose or was broken. They fixed the hose but, there's no tranni fluid in the states so, it will be shipped from Germany. Once the fluid is in the transmission it will be checked for damage and function-ability. They've also have been in contact with BMW USA and they together will determine what happens next after the final transmission diagnosis. According to the lemon law if the car is in the shop for more than 30 days in the first year they must replace it. If this goes till next Monday we'll have over a third of that timeframe accumulated. What ever happens, this car will be under a full bumper to bumper warranty except tires for the duration of our lease.


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johnrando
05-27-2014, 08:48 PM
Sorry to hear all that... fingers crossed.

Au1994
05-28-2014, 03:02 AM
To me it sounds moderately encouraging. With the benefit of the warranty I think you can drive with confidence. Strange about the transmission fluid. None? In the whole US?

ELCID86
05-28-2014, 03:44 AM
"...no tranni fluid in the states... what??

328ioc
05-28-2014, 07:47 AM
"...no tranni fluid in the states... what??

Brand new cars with "life time" fluid. So kinda makes sense but still stupid that they wouldn't have any at all laying around.

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ELCID86
05-28-2014, 08:01 AM
yeah, piss poor planning on someone's part.

Simmsled
05-28-2014, 01:33 PM
I nearly purchased an F30 320i (Jalopnik Edition) before getting my ZHP.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck.

ranger
05-28-2014, 03:36 PM
Those Lemon Laws can be powerful motivator to a dealer in a situation like this.

Sockethead
05-29-2014, 03:07 PM
In defense of the F30 328i, we leased one of the dealers loaners for two years as Kpro's company car. It's got x drive and the 8 speed auto. The engine is incredible and the trans is one of the best autos I've ever run We beat the living shit out of it every day. We did 16 runs at the local drag strip and that friggin thing is fast as hell. We put a Burger Tuning JB1 on it and ran consistent 13.4 runs. That's over a full second faster than the best time in my ZHP.
We did get a drive train malfunction a couple of weeks ago and that limited the boost but the error went away without taking it to the dealer. We'll get it there one of these days but it still has full power and we still beat the crap out of it..
We're not worried about reliability at all...
I think you just had some bad luck there. Let them fix it. I bet it will be fine. Most dealers will take care of you.

3ZHP
05-29-2014, 04:26 PM
Thanks, and yes the dealer has been great to work with. The loaners have been brand new off the lot and delivered to our house 85 miles away. I talked to our service advisor yesterday morning, and she told me it was a defective inter cooler line that broke or came off. I didn't hear from them today so, I'm assuming the part didn't come in yet. I did ask what the trani fluid capacity was and she thought, 7 liters (1.85 gallons).

I'll update status tomorrow when I know more.


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webster
05-30-2014, 09:24 PM
Glad to hear they're taking good care of you, but have you thought at all that it might have been better to keep the e46

3ZHP
05-31-2014, 08:32 AM
Thanks, the latest status I got Friday was that the line was in but the fluid hadn't arrived yet. Once the fluid is in, it will be repaired and evaluated for any additional damage caused from driving it. Currently still in the new loaner running free miles.


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3ZHP
06-04-2014, 12:54 AM
Well, we got the car back yesterday. Looks like there was no damage done with the fluid loss, all they did was refill the trani and took it for a 30 mile test ride. The only miles we have on it so far was the trip home that was probably 100 miles with some new mountain road infestation. The only thing that bothered me was that I had to ask them to wash the car for us. At my last dealer in Northern Ohio the cars were always freshly washed after they were serviced.


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330i ZHP
06-04-2014, 01:53 AM
good luck with the car issues

danewilson77
06-04-2014, 04:37 AM
Yeah Guy. That's a legit gripe.

3ZHP
06-05-2014, 04:57 PM
good luck with the car issues

Thanks


Yeah Guy. That's a legit gripe.

Yah it is but, it is one of the many things I've found different in the south though