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Be glad you don't own a Beemer.......a battery failure and they need the car to make sure it's not the stater motor or alternator. Mine have had all 3 replaced less than 10,000 miles ago under warranty by bmw. I am in dispute with bmw head office at the mo with a car that's only done 34,000 . A battery ffs it shows is buggereed ....what are my dealer going to add????

Dealer

We need to have the car to check all is working.........yeah right the battery is buggered
Car is an mot failure won't start as battery is flat.....please pick it up
No we have no transport to do this......aghhhhhh
They are not moving over this and all for a battery less than 2 yrs old in warranty with receipt and under £180

I have converted to the dark side and bought myself a 2007 E61 530d touring. After hearing some of the stories on the BMW forums about the dealers they are the last place I would ever take it! They seem to be even worse than some Audi dealers! On a more positive note I feel like a C5 owner as my gearbox which is a ZF has started playing up. Lol

Have you asked them if they coded the new battery to the car as his must be done otherwise the car won't charge it correctly and wreck it pretty quickly.

It's up to your roadside assistance to sort the car, it may only have 34,000 miles, but it is what, 10 years old? And it is parked up doing nothing most of the time, so the battery is not treated to normal conditions. Under the terms of their parts warranty (exactly the same as Audi's) they need to identify themselves that the battery is faulty, to do that, get it up to them, that's a job for your roadside, not them. What they're saying is completely reasonable, they're not going to just come out and replace the battery, HQ require they diagnose it, or the dealership is left with the bill, unfortunately, they can't just take your word for it. Once they've confirmed a faulty battery, they can log it with BMW UK and get a replacement sorted, it's simple, and the same across most manufacturers, including Audi. Now get on the phone to the AA, and stop whinging.

Batfinnk wrote:I have converted to the dark side and bought myself a 2007 E61 530d touring. After hearing some of the stories on the BMW forums about the dealers they are the last place I would ever take it! They seem to be even worse than some Audi dealers! On a more positive note I feel like a C5 owner as my gearbox which is a ZF has started playing up. Lol

Is yours an LCI model? If it isn't, the ZF6HP26 was know for having a few issues, mainly with the torque converter. The later ZF6HP28 in the LCI cars was pretty reliable from what I've read.

I had a pre-LCI 535d touring and that gearbox was irritating as he'll and had a mind of its own.
The C5 has it's moments where it becomes slightly confused but nowhere near as often as the BM.

Sorry for taking this slightly off topic.

H

It is a post LCi. Have found out the previous owner had the oil and filter changed back in jan by a local garage. Has been diagnosed as refilled incorrectly so going to get it topped up and all should be well again

Batfinnk wrote:It is a post LCi. Have found out the previous owner had the oil and filter changed back in jan by a local garage. Has been diagnosed as refilled incorrectly so going to get it topped up and all should be well again

Ah good stuff. Hopefully all will be well after then.

Update!
Dealer came down and picked the Beemer up, kept it overnight and returned it next day with a new battery under warranty.......mot has now been passed and car is road legal

A battery... under warranty... that's madness.

bam_bam wrote:A battery... under warranty... that's madness.

No, the battery is warranted for 2 years by bmw .......it failed within in the 2 yrs so it has now been replaced FOC under their warranty terms

But you could've been using the battery to torture American POWs in a Vietnamese death camp, then shipped it back to the UK where you've just swapped it out under warranty... How is there money in that? Good customer service, yes, but there are so many factors to failure.

I've had a battery replaced under warranty at Euro Car Parts. Just took it back with reciept within the year and no questions asked.
We have a fair few batteries fail under warranty through work, we have to do a few test before they are swapped though.

That looks like fairly good Customer Service to me.

My experience with BMW C/S through my F10 M5 rejection was nothing but excellent (if i forget they were quite poor at keeping me informed). Got a better (much) than expected result & they acted swiftly.

I think it all depends on the individual who's managing the case & i'd suggest it's no better/worse than their competitors.

W8PMC wrote:That looks like fairly good Customer Service to me.

My experience with BMW C/S through my F10 M5 rejection was nothing but excellent (if i forget they were quite poor at keeping me informed). Got a better (much) than expected result & they acted swiftly.

I think it all depends on the individual who's managing the case & i'd suggest it's no better/worse than their competitors.

Paul still regrets not buying another Audi though I am sure......


....otherwise he wouldn't be on an Audi forum complaining about BMW.....

VARSITY wrote:"Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."

Never argue with an idiot, they will dragrace you down to their level and beat you with repetition.

FIXED.