Just as my BMW tech hinted, BMW refused to cover the repair under warranty, well sort of... After a few weeks of repeated calls to a woman named Zoila at the BMWNA Executive Office, with no answers, the assistant service manager of my dealer finally called one afternoon in September and said "BMW is refusing to cover the repair under warranty." They asked me to return the loaner vehicle, which of course left me without a car to get to work. As you can imagine, I was not happy.
I called persistently until I reached Zoila and asked whether it was true that BMW was refusing to repair the vehicle pursuant to the New Vehicle Warranty. She replied "No, we are not saying that we won't repair your vehicle under the New Vehicle Warranty. We are saying that we cannot inspect or diagnose your vehicle until you return it to factory specifications." I replied, "could you please put this in writing because the dealer is saying one thing and you are saying another and I just want to get a straight answer." So she sent me a letter (attached), which says a couple of things. First, it says that their new vehicle warranty does not cover malfunctions caused by among other listed things modification, which was highlighted. It also says that their inspection of my vehicle revealed modification and use of aftermarket parts. What it does not say is that those aftermarket parts or modification is the cause of the malfunction. It also says that if I would like BMW to consider "cost assistance" towards "any future repair", I should call her after bringing the vehicle back to original specifications.
So, my car had been sitting at the dealer for almost two months, with the top end of the motor completely disassembled and BMW wanted me to return the vehicle to "original specifications." So, I went over to the dealer and spoke to the assistant service manager and my tech. Both told me that in returning the vehicle back to factory specifications, I should simply remove the supercharger and leave the already disassembled engine parts to them (which they had in the shop in a box). You can see the attached photos for what the motor looked like with the top end disassembled.
After removing the supercharger from the car on a hot weekend (the dealer was very nice to allow me to do it in their parking lot), I called Zoila back to tell her (which of course required tremendous persistence to actually get her to speak to me on the phone). Her reply was "well I cannot guarantee you when someone can get out to to inspect your car again." I knew what they were doing, they were slow rolling me so that I would pay for a new motor out my pocket because I needed a car to get to work. This is a common tactic employed by large corporations today. Just like when they make you wait hours to get tech support for your operating system on your computer, they hope you will eventually just go away and/or give up. You see, most people just decide it's not worth the effort to fight back. Well, I am not most people. To begin with, as a member of the military, I just don't have $17,000+ dollars lying around, especially for a "malfunction" that BMW knows all too well has been happening on a large number of E46 M3s, the overwhelming majority of which were/are not modified or using aftermarket parts. But more importantly, it's a matter of principle -- people expect an automobile company like BMW to stand solidly behind their products and treat their customers (especially someone who had purchased and/or leased 3 of their cars in the past decade without any major warranty claims) fairly and honestly.
No, I was not going to just sit back and take it. I was going to fight back!
The final straw was a call from the assistant service manager at the dealer during which she told me that I had to come pick up my vehicle or they would start charging me a daily storage fee. I went to see her, and she told me that she was again under the impression that BMW was refusing to repair the vehicle under warranty. I asked her, "did anyone come to inspect the car again?" She said, "no." So I connected her with Zoila, who also told her that "BMW was not refusing to repair the vehicle under warranty." Apparently Zoila also told her that it could be a long time before somebody came back to inspect the car. I said to her "so what am I supposed to do? Tow my BMW back to my driveway? Will someone put my motor back together again before I tow it? And why would someone spend all of those hours putting my motor back together again if all of that stuff either has to be installed on a new motor, or removed again to rebuild this motor?" The assistant service manager told me that she did not know what to do, because the new factory rep had apparently informed the dealer that BMW was refusing to repair the vehicle under warranty, but this person Zoila was telling her something different. Beyond frustrated, I told her "I have rights under federal law to terminate the lease early and I was going to do so."
During the next week or two (on or about mid-October), I finally got in touch with the right office at BMW Financial Services and sent in the supporting documents required to terminate my lease early pursuant to federal law. I called back a few days later and confirmed BMW Financial Services' receipt of the notice to terminate the lease early. So, it was done. I had severed my relationship with my dream car, not because I wanted to, but because BMW was playing a wait-me-out-game that they knew I could not afford to play on my government salary.
Stay tuned for "Dude where's my car?" and "The $18k bill for "collection fees.""
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