BMW Dealer after sales service issue, or question rather

[bullet24]

Hi Guys

This is a general question for guys out there that might be more knowledgeable in the topic than what I am, and I need advise / ammunition to back up my claims.

Before you read all this bull, or whilst reading it, the question I am asking myself is, DO I EXPECT A HIGHER STANDARD FROM A BMW DEALERSHIP?
Perhaps it should actually be made a poll question.:YesNo:

The NICE::tiptoe:
I purchased a 2013 BMW F30 330d with 58 000km's from a BMW dealer, (yeeeah) LOVE the car, had really really excellent service from a professional team that made me feel welcome and I almost want to say the way things were done years back when both the customer and the dealers word meant something.

I collected the car one beautiful Saturday morning with only seeing photos of it before, and took the word that the condition was perfect, single elderly owner etc, and heck I am buying from a BMW Dealership, so all should be in order???

The NOT so nice::thumbdo:
On the way back to Durbanville (fairly short drive) I noticed the little triangle in the corner of the centre LCD while fiddling with the new toys when filling up with diesel, checked on the iDrive system and it said 'Fog light Failure' or something, I reckoned it was a bummer but I will phone them on the Monday and depending on the procedure either just buy the bulb myself or book it in at a closer dealership or they can come fetch it... Lekker no big deal...

Upon further investigation of the fog light issue I noticed a few other gremlins I did not like nor expect from a BMW Dealership vehicle this unfolded as I got home and really inspected the car:

1. Fog light actually melted at the back (busy beeing replaced by BMW)
2. It seems the bumper have been resprayed, and badly so too, cracks showing on the same side as the fog light issue.
3. Windscreen have a small chip, but also looks almost sandblasted if driving into the sun it is very very visible.
4. Same with the lights, from further away it looks 100% but anything within a metre distance when the lights are on you see the small chips, almost sandblasted like.
4. 3 stone chips on the roof just above the windscreen.
5. About 4cm long paint off scratch right on the edge of the bonnet visible from driverside.

I have been in contact with the Sales Manager on the topics above mentioned, and the only one they were willing to assist with thus far was the replacement of the fog light, at first they wanted me to replace it and even sent me a quote for R3300 for a new fog light. The other matters seem to be not important to them, even the chip in the windscreen they shrugged off and said I must get it replaced by my insurance company and they will pay the excess, that is fraud in my opinion...

Moving on, so they came to fetch the car from me and left me a 118 to slide around in at-least, but the next day I got the call from them instead of telling me their driver is on the way back with my car they informed me that they scratched the rim whilst pulling it on the lift...
Now the car will remain with them another 4 days as they sent the rim to repair centre in the cape that will fix it and then 4 days later I should have my car back with repaired rim and all other defects still in tact.

My question to the larger audience is this:
What am I to do with the result of a repaired rim? Can I expect a BMW dealership to uphold a higher standard and replace the rim???
What am I to do with the unwillingness of the dealer management about the other issues on my list, are some of them acceptable others not so much???
What will BMW SA standard be? when you buy a car from us, we as BMW guarantee you the following...???

Yesterday a representative of BMW contacted me to find out how my experience have been and how I rate it, so I told the story, 1 hour later the dealer Relations Manager phones me and informs me they will look into it and revert back by tomorrow when the DP has had a change to go over everything.

I do not know what to expect, but I do want to be prepared because I DO EXPECT HIGHER LEVELS AND STANDARDS.
I did not buy this car from Piet Pompies Auto Sales at the corner of Blah & Blah, I bought it from BMW.

Am I expecting to much?

I will add some pics of what I have later on.

 

[r0ckf1re]

Personally I think since it's a used car you do get damage, it varies in scales and is either acceptable or not depending on the buyer. The buyer needs to view the car prior to purchase and make a decision based on findings whether to haggle for a better price, accept the car as is at the selling price or walk away and find a car better suited. My opinion is that bmw is not doing aything out of ordinary. Regarding your rim, if it's just a scratch and if sent to a reputable repairer you won't even tell if it's been fixed.
Good luck, hope you get your desired outcome.
Let's see what others have to say.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[TurboLlew]

The main thing I would be worrying about is how the repair was done on the car if the paint quality is poor and the fog had melted. Did the car have a comment? If you bought it from BMW and there is an obvious repair but no comment, then someone at BMW HQ will surely be very interested in this...

There was another guy on the forum who had the car catch on fire after coming back from repairs...

On the wheel? These things do happen and at least they are repairing it as opposed to saying 'it was there already'. If there was a structural repair required, then BMW normally does replace (I've been told).

The sandblasting effect depends on how and where the previous owner drove it. The chip on the windscreen however should have been picked up by them when trading the car in (They even found a tiny divot - not even a crack - on one of my cars before) and accounted for it when they traded the car. If you picked this up before buying the car they would have zero excuses. However they are probably agreeing to pay the excess since they could say it happened after you took delivery and giving you benefit of the doubt (I am not saying this happened, but again I suppose better than just saying 'go to your insurance'.).

Stone chips at 50000+km are pretty normal. The 'touch up' or airbrushing that some dealers do is worse than having the chips there in some instances. My guess is that this is what they might agree to do.

With a lot of that list it is buyer beware I'm afraid - learned the hard way over many years - especially with a used car. Check and double check - make them change whatever you don't like BEFORE you sign on the dotted line and take delivery.

However I do feel like if there was an obvious repair on the car with no comments then you can explore that angle.

 

[bullet24]

Thanks for the replies so far guys, I am less worried about the rim they scratched although I have never scratched a rim on any of my cars in 18 years of driving. Like mentioned they are fixing it so I need to settle with that.

The 'sandblasting' effect I am referring to is also something I need to live with as it is NOT a new car and they will not replace the lights due to that, but it seems they went thru trouble to get the bonnet and bumper done to hide the rest of the effect.

I am more concerned about the fact that they hid that from me, not once did they inform me the car had any cosmetic work larger work done to it, in my opinion they mislead me to believe the car was in EXCELLENT condition.

Pulling wool over my eyes is something I would expect from Piet Pompies, not from BMW.

---

Back of the fog light

Front of thr fog light

Windscreen

Chips and scratch

The car

 

[r0ckf1re]

Car looks great. Scratch could be attributed to car wash, the window washer may have caused that damage.

The rest of the stuff is really common with use.

Maybe the incorrect bulb was used (too high wattage/amps) that caused the holder to melt. As long as they fix it, you should be fine.

I do agree with Llew, shoddy of bmw to have eluded to point this out, they good at spotting these things on trades. They have a check on all the bmw approved cars and the windscreen and fog should have been rectified.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[bullet24]

The scratch on the rim:

 

[cOlDFuSiOn]

Car looks great. Scratch could be attributed to car wash, the window washer may have caused that damage.

The rest of the stuff is really common with use.

Maybe the incorrect bulb was used (too high wattage/amps) that caused the holder to melt. As long as they fix it, you should be fine.

I do agree with Llew, shoddy of bmw to have eluded to point this out, they good at spotting these things on trades. They have a check on all the bmw approved cars and the windscreen and fog should have been rectified.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Fairly common damage on the F30. You should move the wipers with the stalk to the half position to lift up, lifting the driver's wiper up hits the bonnet.

Overall car looks good. I assume there were aftermarket bulbs in the fogs.. Which shorted out.. Did a fellow forum member not have serious issue with a similar issue when a fog system caught fire on his F30? I remember something like that.. Hmm

 

[Blueskys]

This could have been prevented if you had done a thorough inspection before deciding to buy, that's when you have real leverage. I see these flaws, fix them or fix the price or I walk away. Sad to have to relearn the this lesson the hard way as many of us have, do the due diligence beforehand and the go for it if it all lines up.

That being said I'm sure you may have a foot to stand on, was the car sold as BMW approved used?

Because I'm assuming as you probably did that a BMW approved used vehicle shouldn't have those kinds of flaws, especially poor paint repairs or anything that makes a vehicle appear substandard, sand blasted windscreen and headlights definitely included in that.

If you get no joy with the dealer, which you very well might because often dealers are only to happy to offload a flawed vehicle to the first unwitting client, then take it to the head office, focusing the dialogue on what they believe you should expect a BMW approved vehicle condition to be like.

I wouldn't be surprised if they came to the party, the issues aren't major and I would think they are valid.

 

[Quick///M]

The problem is the excitement of buying a car often causes one to overlook doing a proper check on the vehicle (Yes this happened to me). I do however feel that BMW have a lot of used car volumes to push out to the point where they sell their cars as is, in reality they are not going to fix every minor fault on every used car. Some owners buy cars with faults and let it slide others are more paranoid (Like me).

The other day I walked into a BMW Northcliff saw a nice M5 on the floor it had a deep scratch at the rear bumper and it really saddened me to see this, then walked over to a kitted up hot looking 4 series convertible and had a very ugly scratch on the front bumper. I don't think this dealership was even bothered to fix these minor issues. The pre owned BMW segment is gone to the dogs if you ask me and the dealerships don't have a passion to give customers immaculate cars, its the kind of passion we as BMW buyers expect.

I feel the used car side of BMW is not given enough attention its seems to me they are try to push sales by volumes and they could not give a cr@p about what the cars look or drive like. My advice to people who are looking at pre owned cars is to check it out thoroughly because it does not mean you are buying it from a BMW dealership you are going to get the best car in the best shape.

Sorry to say but BMW pre owned segment is lacking big time. Its money for them and tears for some customers. To the OP you are well within your right to ask to have your issues fixed I bet that car is by no means cheap.

Also OP use the below against BMW which is published on their website

https://www.bmw.co.za/en/topics/fascination-bmw/approved-used-cars/overview.html


My 2c, if its worth anything!!!

 

[tman]

"Approved used" lol. That word means nothing.

Step 1. Skip the sales manager and go directly to DP.
if you get nowhere, to to BMWSA.

In all honesty, it's a 2nd hand car, so expect some reasonable cosmetic damage. The fog light, and bumper respray is not acceptable tho. Get them to foot the bill for the chipped windscreen too.

Sent on the move via Tapatalk

 

[Quick///M]

"Approved used" lol. That word means nothing.

Step 1. Skip the sales manager and go directly to DP.
if you get nowhere, to to BMWSA.

In all honesty, it's a 2nd hand car, so expect some reasonable cosmetic damage. The fog light, and bumper respray is not acceptable tho. Get them to foot the bill for the chipped windscreen too.

Sent on the move via Tapatalk

I skipped everyone and went to BMWSA:hammerhead:

 

[ShaunAshley]

Been having the same "After Sales" issue.

Bought car at North Cliff Auto, after driving out the dealer I saw the windscreen had many large chips. It also had weird spots all over that you can only see when the sun shines through, which I thought would go away after a thorough wash, which it did not.

I mentioned that the windscreen is badly chipped. (has at least 8 large chips).
They then said this cannot be as the car went for roadworthy etc.
I sent them pictures and when the car went in for a bulb replacement after 3 days of having the car, they said they would sort it out.

I received the car back with the fault fixed, but they did not fix the windscreen.
I was then told the chips had been “filled”.

This is not what I expect from aftersales from BMW. The chips are still as bad as before, but the dealer says: ‘they won’t get worse’?

My friend who works at Scuderia South Africa, took a look at the chips on the windscreen and he advised that there is no way that the car could have passed road worthy.

Quite upset, but will have to email BMW SA direct I guess.
Goodluck.