[Mark444444]

I have owned my 2014 535 m sport for three years now and until Saturday, it was by far the best car I have ever owned, and I've owned many in my 30 years. While driving to a meeting my car started throwing up warnings that my battery was not charging and that I should immediately take it to a dealer. I took it to West German BMW in Fort Washington, PA. They graciously provided me with a loaner so I could go about my day. I called to check on the status and they told me that they were sure it was just the battery and so they replaced it and told me to come get it. On my way to pick up the vehicle I received a call from the service advisor, Gary who told me that the battery didn't solve the problem and that it was most likely an alternator. Somehow, during the diagnostic for which they charged me $150, this never arose as a possibility. More likely (since I have had these things tested before on other cars and know that it is possible to get a read on both battery and alternator life easily) I believe that the dealer wanted to turn a profit on a battery for good measure.

Nonetheless, I was handed my keys at which time I asked the service advisor several times whether I would be OK to take my car on a 1.5 hour trip for work. I was given many assurances that my car was fine with the new battery for the trip. Twenty miles into my trip my car had a meltdown. It started with battery warnings, continued with chassis failure, loss of power steering, and transmission failure. Finally, the car shut down on the Atlantic City Expressway, where my fiancée and I had to get out with cars flying past us going 70-80 mph. I have a very hard time believing that a simple alternator issue would cause this outrageous sequence of failures in every system of my car. I am inclined to think that the coding on the car was done haphazardly and carelessly.

After the car completely shut down, I called the dealer and was continuously bounced between departments where nobody answered their phones, or put me on hold mid-sentence just to leave me there. (I was told to call BMW roadside and pay out of pocket to have the car towed back to them because my roadside expired less than a month ago. Two roadside rows cancelled, the third took one look at my car and abruptly left because he didn't know how to get the car into neutral without any battery life. Finally, the New Jersey turnpike police sent a tow truck to my car because it was in a problematic place and charged me $150 to tow it a half mile to a parking lot, but not before I was the one who had to limp it onto their flatbed while the car was hooked via jumper cables to a second rescue truck. After this, the truck with the cables left and I spent another two hours trying to figure out how to get the car off of the truck. Finally, the owner of the tow company showed up where against my wishes, he dragged my car off of the flatbed with his pickup, something you can imagine, is not good for an all wheel drive car, and definitely not good for the expensive tires this car requires. At this point I was instructed to call BMW roadside and pay for a third attempt at a tow. My first call to them was placed at 3:35 after West German told me they could not help me in any way from where I was. By this time, it was 7:06 and the tow did not come until 9 pm. Because the fourth tow driver opened my passenger window while the car was being jumped, for some inexplicable reason, and the totally dead battery wouldn't allow me to close it after all the tows left, I could not leave my car and was forced to sit there for two hours in 90 degree temps, with no water, no ability to eat anything, and a dying cell phone. As a quick aside, while my experience with West German ensures that I will never ever bring one of my cars to them again, the gentleman named Jeremy who I was speaking with (he might have been in sales as the service department was nowhere to be found) was helpful in setting up a loaner and staying after hours until my friend was able to get to the shop to pick up the key and sign for the car.

When I placed the last roadside call, I told the dispatcher that the truck that was sent to me needed to have jumper cables and a way to safely get my car on the flatbed. Instead, I was sent the same exact tow driver who left without performing the tow hours earlier. After expressing his dissatisfaction with having to deal with my car again, the best solution he could come up with was to lubricate the tires with soap and water in order to ease the effects of dragging my car on and off the bed again. My ordeal ended at around 10:30. Now I am forced to wait and hope that the same service department which so poorly performed my battery installation and sent me out in a car that was not safe to drive correctly diagnoses what the problem is. At the very least the car will need a new battery and an alternator and quite frankly, and the thought of paying the approximately $1200 I was quoted for that service and also another battery makes me sick to my stomach, especially considering my total lack of faith in the competence of the technicians who will be performing installing the two parts. There is also the very good possibility that the means by which my car had to be towed and the total inexperience of the tow drivers which BMW dispatched to handle my almost $80,000 car resulted in far more severe and costly damage to the drivetrain. I am hoping that is not the case but any potential future failure of any major drivetrain components will force me to question the details of this incident and their consequences as they pertain to the reliability of my car going forward.

This morning I got a call from the service advisor (Gary) who claimed that he never told me that my car would hold up on this trip and told me that according to our conversation, I didn't have the money to spend on the alternator. This is a flat out lie which he compounded by telling me that I wasn't listening to what he was saying on the phone and that's why I misunderstood him when he said the car was safe. My fiancée who heard the call over Bluetooth can confirm that he is spinning his own story. Long story short, neither the dealership nor BMW of NA will consider admitting some culpability for the incident or even so much as offering an apology. My last bit of hope is that the dealer records their phone conversations and that I can somehow obtain them to confirm what was said to me.

Any further advice would be appreciated!

Mark

[BlackWidow]

I personally wouldn’t have took the car when the dealer diagnosed the alternator as another issue...both can be bad, especially if the alternator died first.

Your car died the first time and the dealer mentioned the battery didn’t fix the issue but you took the car anyway. Sorry to say but at that point the liability is on you, they can’t tell you that you can’t take your car. Despite what your service advisor says word of mouth, he’s not the technician, the tech most likely documented on your service order that the problem still persists and customer declined replacement. Driving with a bad alternator is a recipe for shutdown and kills your battery, so you probably would have to buy another battery too or drastically shortened the lifespan.

The tow driver who dragged your car off the flatbed against your will would've been paying your repair costs for the chassis but I wouldn’t have willingly dragged it a second and third time though....

[NinetyEight740]

All the “failures “ you are claiming is due to low voltage in the vehicle. You were made aware of the alternator failure and chose to take car. How is this the dealers fault? If the alternator failed and thus took all the voltage from the battery and failed it, that has to be replaced as the first step.

It’s like a you call out a plumber and say that the kitchen faucet is leaking but the water main is broken into the house.

[Pito11213]

Originally Posted by NinetyEight740

All the "failures " you are claiming is due to low voltage in the vehicle. You were made aware of the alternator failure and chose to take car. How is this the dealers fault? If the alternator failed and thus took all the voltage from the battery and failed it, that has to be replaced as the first step.

It's like a you call out a plumber and say that the kitchen faucet is leaking but the water main is broken into the house.

What does your release paper work from the dealer say? As far as work performed or not?

[Stück]

It was irresponsible of the dealer to release the vehicle back to you without a functioning charging system, more so without stressing to you the gravity of the decision you were making to decline repairs. When clients decline repairs at the shop I run and I've tried to explain the safety concerns only to be met with decline again I have a prefab document that outlines these real world concerns in writing with expected possible outcomes of said decision and ask them to sign it. A shop/law cannot lawfully hold your vehicle no matter how unsafe it is, but for some reason they can be held legally liable for releasing it if you cause harm to yourself or others in the process. Ridiculous if you ask me but I digress...

Its irresponsible of you as a car owner to place the full blame on the dealership for the situation you placed yourself and your fiance in by declining recommended repairs.

Batteries are storage devices. The alternator is tasked with supplying power to all electrical consumers while the engine is running and recharging the battery in between starts with the excess.

If the alternator is not charging, or charging at reduced capacity the battery will progressively deplete. As it does deplete various electrical consumers will be switched off by the vehicles intelligent battery system, and or will go offline on their own due to insufficient voltage. Different systems have differing thresholds for absolute minimums. This is why you saw one warning after another after another, and for some reason kept driving.

Pretty much all routine repairs on this platform involve a comma in the price tag, and this is especially true when you bring it to the dealer. Either position yourself to better afford maintenance and upkeep on your vehicle, or get yourself a credit card to give you time to deal with an unexpected repair.

You don't need a new battery again, they can be recharged....