Major Faults with bmw and feel i am not getting anywhere.

[lisaandgrahamburrows]

Firstly i am doing this on behalf of my husband, so there might be some things i miss out !

My husband is a driving instructor and he did have a good repore with BMW as this was to be his 3rd MINI . He purchased the car in december 08 , the car was a year old but still had 2 years warranty on it.in 09 he started to experience problems and went to BMW plymouth , but all they kept saying was keep a record constantly. the car was never booked in to see what the problem was. The problem being was it was losing power and using 2 litres of oil to every 600 miles. Now surely they should have had the car in and looked at what the problem was !

he went there again and again and again ( they have a record of all these visits and phone calls)

Then conveniently the car decided to stop working all together ! it was towed to BMW and as it turned out the valves had gone, ( now come on using this much oil surely the fault should have been picked by themselves ? ) .

BMW refused to pay for the whole amount ending up with us having to pay £1,872.97. plus what the oil had cost us £379.05.

so we paid the money and thought that was that. Only the car was still using large amounts of oil but BMW showed no interest in the problem , only a few days later the car decided to break down again and it turned out the valves had gone again and so had the pistons.

The problem now is the car has been sat on BMW forecourt since october 2010 it has been stripped and has rusted , it is in poor condition and they are refusing to pay for all of the work. By the way it turns out the big end has gone !! . We are only half way through the payments on finance and we are struggling as this stress had caused my husband to have a big heart attack in february.

The finance company have no interest in what we have to say and neither does the head office of BMW . they have offered to cover the cost of the valves but we still have to find £900 ( this we don't have )

I have got ombudsman involved and they say BMW are not at fault as the car is fit for purpose and basically blaming it on our usage because it is a driving school car.

We are now at a loss of what to do. I will be ringing Trading standards as they have given me so much advice ,.

In the mean time we had to purchase another car because it was our only means of income. This was our lively hood and we are gradually losing everything over one car.

I really urgently need some help and advice before we lose our home over this.

We have been adviced to carry with the finance payments meaning we are paying over £200 a month for a car we can't use.

I am wanting to claim for the payments that was made on the car when we have not used it and for the monies back for the car repairs as we know we are not at fault.

[rebel11]

Hi lisa

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

[BankFodder]

have you kept your own records of everything or are they all with the garage?

If all the records are with the garage then that is probably a bad mistake because I think that you have difficulty getting all the information from them.

 

It seems to me that you need to start taking matters into your own hands very quickly. I have no idea why you've been so patient with them. It should have been sorted ages ago.

 

You need to arrange an independent inspection of the car. In view of the value and of the problems have been caused, I would suggest that you arrange to independent inspections from very reputable organisations. Make it clear that the inspections that you are arranging should produce reports which would be required in litigation. Make it clear to the people you're pointing to carry out inspections that they may be required to attend court as an expert witness.

These kinds of inspections are not cheap but if you don't get them done, then you really are going to get anywhere at all.

 

You need to write a very detailed chronological account – in bullet pointed form – of everything that has happened with as many dates etc as possible. Make sure that it is really step-by-step and fully exclamatory – without having to go into a local waffle. In other words it should be succinct.

 

Probably best to not start alerting the garage that you are taking this kind of action so therefore may be better not start asking them the sight of all their records. However you should try to assemble all the records you have – and all the documents. Try and make sure that you have as many phone calls and visits etc long down so that later on you can match what you have against what is supplied by the garage.

You need to take photographs. You need to take photographs of the car as it is now. You will need to try and find some people who can witness to what the car was like before. Those people should be prepared to make statements and in fact you should get statement straightaway.

I think you should get a hurry on about all of this. The garage won't like the fact that you are arranging independent inspections so you will to leave these to the very last. In other words, prepare everything else and then book the inspections. Once inspections have been made, the reports will have to be given to you and as long as the report support what you say I would suggest that you write the garage a letter before action and given seven days only to sort the matter are completely – and then sue them.

You will be able to sue them in the County Court but beware that you will be on the fast track which means that you will have some limited exposure to costs if you lose.

As part of your preparations you need to make an assessment of everything you have lost. Unfortunately there is a high level of possibility that you will not be to recover anything the stress and the heart attack of your husband. I'm afraid that these might be regarded as too "consequential" – to remote and not sufficiently foreseeable.

On the other hand, I can imagine a judge feeling enormous sympathy for you and if you built in a figure for loss of enjoyment of the car then I think that you may be able to recover something there. The risk about being on the fast track is that if you claim too much, although the garage may admit liability and may be prepared to make you an offer, you might find that you end up in court not on the issue of liability but rather on the issue of what a suitable level of damages should be.

I don't know how you have brought an ombudsman into this. I'm not aware that there are any ombudsman who have the authority to deal with this kind of thing. On the other hand, I would certainly be making a complaint to BMW once the reports were completed and you found that they would support of your position.

If money is tough you are then you may have difficulty funding the reports. I can imagine that reports could easily cost £300-£400 each and that there would be further fees for attending court and giving expert evidence. If you win, you will get all of this back. If you're not prepared to get these reports then in the circumstances I don't think there is much you can do

[raydetinu]

you say you have finance on the car,HP or loan?

if HP you should of got the FC involved, it is their car!

what sort of mileage when purchased and now?

who serviced the car after it was purchased, why was the poroblem not looked at or reported during the services?

what explaination did they give for it breaking down after a major rebuild after only a few days?

If it was taken back to them and they accepted it, then they would be responable for looking after it and not let it be vandalised.

I think we need more info.

[heliosuk]

Both of the above posts are very valid but a bit over reactionary at the moment in my opinion. I worked for BMW dealers for a number of years and know that BMW are very sensitive to oil burning issues after the straight 6 and V8 debacle of the 90's. Invariably the get out clause they use in these instances is that the owners manual says that you should check the oil daily. I have seen a brand new car with 1500 mile on it seize and they used this as the get out. This is wholly irresponsible of BMW and is a reflection of the engineering crap they turn out these days. How people rate them as quality cars is beyond me. I also happen to work with a chap at the moment who was involved with the development of this engine and car and your issue certainly rings a bell with me as being one discussed between him and myself.

 

The upshot is that initially, as Ray asks, you post further details. This needs to include age and mileage together with date you bought it, mileage when first complained about, mileage at first repair and current mileage.

 

Is this the official BMW GB line or the BMW dealer line they are being fed?

 

Oddly the manufactuers take a very different view to cars that are used for driving instruction and taxi work and invariably "limit" the warranty. Potentially given your relationship with the dealer you might be able to deal with them but the general relationship between BMW dealers and BMW GB/GMBH is that they cannot go to the toilet without a process or direction so their hands are tied even though they might be on your side.

 

Best course of action is to post what is asked for here for due consideration first.