Introduction

Posted on 20 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

I have been an absolute fan of BMW for decades.

For me this was the dream brand. Two reasons made me think they had no rivals: they are at the forefront of innovation, and the aesthetic of their X series is simply amazing.

I have lived in Italy, United States, and Spain and many of my colleagues and friends owned a BMW and were happy with the experience and the client support. When in 2013 I decided to purchase a new car, I was finally settled in France and I thought it was a no brainer to go for a X3.

I purchased a second hand X3 E83 model, four years old (just at the end of the four years BMW warranty) and 53.000 Km. She was impeccable and had been diligently entertained only at BMW garages. She was beautiful and perfect.

Unfortunately, few months after I would embark in one of the most unfortunate series of mechanical failures that I could imagine.

In this page, I tell the story of my car. It is a story of 15.000 euros spent in reparations in 5 years, a story of moving from “believing this is a solid car” to being concerned about its “fragility, even for the most basic drive”.

It is clear that I was unlucky in failing into a model that was prone to failure. However, as of today I am unsure whether the responsibility should be given to the car, the local client support (BMW France), or the local garage I always used (BMW Velizy). I will let you judge.

In any case, in this page I show that BMW Client services (BMW France and BMW Velizy) have been uninterested in delivering the minimal level of client satisfaction, and always tried to find a fault in my behavior to justify their invoices.

Other drivers should be aware about my story, so that they could make an informed decision when buying a new or used BMW in France.

Technical data of my vehicle

Posted on 19 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

BMW X3 E83 2.0D
Production Code : PE11
Engine : N47D20O0
Displacement (Cylindrée ) : 1995 cm³
Power (Puissance nette maximale) : 130 kW
Fuel: Diesel

Mechanical failure #1: turbo compressor

Posted on 18 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

Failure date: 28/8/2013.

Expense: 3.018 euro.

Six months after the end of the warranty period, the car suffered a rupture of the turbo compressor.

The car had done 58.000 Km in four years and a half, and had been regularly entertained only in BMW centers.

The final invoice for the reparation was 3018 euro. Here is the invoice.

Following the practice suggested by other clients over the internet, I wrote to BMW France on 21/8/2013 to ask to participate to the reparation expenses. They answered on the 25/9/2013, proposing as a commercial gesture to cover 70% of the cost of the turbo compressor (1,571.6 x 70% = € 1.100,12 + TVA 21% = € 1331,14). At the time, I thought this was a great client service and it reinforced my trust in the BMW brand.

I was less impressed when in November 13 (3 months after the reparation) I received a check with an amount 216 euro lower than what they promised. I sent five emails to chase this issue, and finally received the check for the difference in December 2013, 4 months after the reparation.

This practice of promising a certain level of subvention and then sending a check for a lower amount without explanation will happen again in the future, in my case three times, showing that it is a practice often used by BMW France.

Mechanical failure #2: dual mass flywheel

Posted on 17 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

Failure date: 10/9/2015

Expense: 2.168 euros

On 29/7/2015 I had taken a rendezvous to do a regular maintenance at BMW Velizy. The car had 83.113 km. The day I dropped the car they communicated to me that BMW France forgot to inform me (notice the finger pointing) that my car was object of a recall action on the distribution chain. Email me if you would like to have access to the BMW’s PDF describing the recall action.

On 4/9/2015, only 150 km after I got my car back (basically after few drives), we had a rupture of the flywheel dampers (in French: amortisseurs du volant moteur). This reparation costed me 2.168 euro, the invoice is here.

The BMW Velizy garage obviously explained that it was not their fault, and that “the cause is not related to the intervention made on the distribution chain because the two parts are located on opposite sides of the engine”. Below the screenshot of their response:

Reparation 2.Image 1

However, given the high correlation between the two events (only few weeks and few drives) I was not convinced so I wrote again to BMW France to ask for support. They responded offering as a commercial gesture a check of 783 Euros (VAT included). Below the screenshot of their email:

Reparation 2.Image 2

Back then, I thought this was an acceptable compromise. Only after I realized this was a recurrent problem. In the following article published one year after my reparation, they explain that the same type of engine (N47 diesel) has been object of distribution chain ruptures and, above all, that to access the distribution chain you have to remove the engine entirely:

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/motors/bmw-s-timing-chain-problem-comes-back-to-haunt-carmaker-1.2869493

Therefore, when BMW Velizy executed the recall action on my car, they actually had access to the dual mass flywheel. Clearly, I did not have proof that the rupture was their fault, but the fact that they accessed the part and 150 km later this part failed, represents a very high correlation, and cast doubts on their claim that there is no link between the two failures.

On top of the above, I had again received a check that was lower than what BMW France proposed. Instead of 783 Euro, they sent a check for € 719,56 (10% less). I followed up with multiple emails , until I got from BMW Velizy, an answer claiming that since they applied a 10% discount to the cost of the piece (this 10% discount does not appear in any invoice), they reduced of a proportional amount the grant proposed by BMW France.

Reparation 2.Image 3

I know I was right because BMW France proposed a contribution as an absolute amount, rather than corresponding to the cost of the piece. However, BMW Velizy did not care about this, they simply denied the evidence.

Given the little amount at stake, I gave up. However, this gives an idea of how opaque is the management of their budget dedicated to client grants as a commercial gesture. If we multiply these amounts by number of clients a year they propose a grant in France, I wonder what do they do with the amount unpaid.

Mechanical failure #3: vibration damper

Posted on 15 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

Failure date: 27/01/2017.

Expense: 973 euros.

15 months after my last problem, on Jan 2017 it was the moment for the vibration damper failure (in French: ammortisseur de vibrations). Cost of the invoice: 973 euro.

I did not ask for any support to BMW France.

2017.vibration damper.png

Mechanical failure #4: ES transfer case

Posted on 14 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

Failure date: 27/3/2018.

Expense: 3.573 euros.

One year after the previous reparation, I had the most expensive so far: the ES transfer case rupture (in French: “ES boite de transfert”.

The reparation this time amounted to 3573 euros, here is the invoice.

I submitted a request to BMW France to participate to the expenses. One month after they responded positively, proposing to contribute to 30% of the piece « boîte de transfert » as mentioned in the quotation:

Reparation 4.Image 1

Equivalent to 30% x 1945,22 euro (VAT excluded) = 583, 57 euro:

Reparation 4.Image 2

This time the payment story gets even worst from a customer service perspective.

On April 30 BMW France communicates to contact a specific post-sales agent at BMW Velizy (who I will not name for data privacy reasons) to get the payment. I write to this person four times, no answer whatsoever. Then, on September the 24^th (5 months later) he responds apologizing (“Je vous présente mes sincères excuses pour mon absence de réponse à vos mails…”).

Moreover, as a confirmation of the habit of BMW France to send a check with a lower amount than what they promised, I receive a check of 510 Euros (13% less).

Mechanical failure #5: turbo compressor

Posted on 13 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

Failure date: 17/01/19.

Expense: 5.374 euro.

Again! Yes, for the second time the turbo compressor broke and produced a disaster. The invoice was monstrous: 5.374 euros.

At the fifth reparation in 5 years, after 15.000 euros spent in extraordinary reparations, I decided enough was enough. I contacted BMW France to ask the refund of 100% of the reparation.

Their response was astonishing. According to them, one year before I was late 222 days in doing the maintenance; therefore, they could not support contributing to the reparation. Here is their response (case 1-70576803460):

Reparation 5.Image 1

My stupor was difficult to describe. I had not missed any maintenance, I even had done the previous one 2000 Km in advance, and the garage never told me or recorded that I was late with a maintenance . Below the record of my service maintenance:

Reparation 5.Image 2

Let me put on a different angle this situation. My turbo broke 11 months (and 13.600 km) after the last maintenance. This maintenance was the standard BMW “inspection 1” and it included the air-diesel filter. See the invoice here.

2018.maintenance inspection 1

The rupture happened after the car had been properly maintained according to brand requirements given the mileage. However, for BMW, if in a distant past the car had been late once in doing the maintenance, they will stop supporting you.

They will not tell you when you are late

Let us dig further on this delay. When in 2017 I asked to BMW Velizy reserve an appointment for this maintenance, they told me it was not necessary, and to strictly follow the indications on the car display. They never mentioned a two years rule, just follow the display.

The display did not report delays and 2.000 km before the revision I asked BMW Velizy for an appointment. At the check-in of the vehicle, the technician did not report any delay and recorded that I was 1700 kilometers advance of the revision limit (see the check-in form below):

Comande atelier Feb.18 cleaned 2.png

In the meantime, every summer I checked the oil and added one liter following the brand indications for the type of oil to use.

In conclusion, I followed the BMW instructions, and they never reported a delay in my maintenance record. I was indeed 222 days late according to a rule that they have never communicated and the display never signaled.

The pretext

This delay rule is applied without clear communication to the client and in an inconsistent way, so it feels it is rather a pretext.

Even if you do a maintenance in advance with respect to kilometers, they will also count the time. If you do a maintenance late in terms of time, they will not communicate to you, the car display will communicate it neither, but it will mark your record and at the first instance in which you need support, your warranty will be invalid and they will stop supporting you.

Besides, I will give you another demonstration that the delay rule is applied arbitrarily as a pretext. My mechanical failure 4 happened one month after the 2018 maintenance (inspection 1, the one allegedly late 22 days) and they still decided to participate to the expenses. So why they applied the pretext in 2019 (failure 5) and not in 2018 (failure 4). This shows that the time delay rule is arbitrary and not consistently applied across cases and clients.

Conclusions

Posted on 11 March 2019 by Massimiliano Neri

I am not a BMW fan anymore.

Their cars are still amazing, but I now have two main problems with them:

Reliability : I have been in contact with so many X3 and X5 owners that experimented stories similar to mine, that I came to the conclusion that these cars are too fragile. Their lack of reliability makes me doubt that I will look for another BMW.
BMW France Client service : my experience with BMW France (and with BMW Velizy in particular) has been awful:
- They push back systematically each client requests, even when their responsibility is blatant (see my reparation story #2 above)
- they clearly do not have “client satisfaction” as ultimate objective, but rather post-sales revenue maximization
- Their opaque management of BMW France contribution to reparations expenses makes me doubt how they manage this budget (as explained above in three occasions they sent me a check that was 10% lower than what BMW France proposed).

Few month ago, I was planning to buy a new one. BMW France could have offer me a deal for a new car to solve my last issue and close the case. I made it explicit to their post sales service, on the phone and in writing, before BMW France refused to provide a contribution to reparation #5. They have never responded to this request. This gives you a measure of how bad is their client service; they do not even follow up on new sales opportunities.

I hope this page provides you a clear picture of why you should be very careful before to buy a BMW in France.

BMW reliability: how to pay 15000 euro in repairs in 5 years

Are BMW cars reliable?

Author Archives: Massimiliano Neri