BMW dealership wrecks M5 during service

This is one of those dealer horror stories. Cliff notes:
[LIST][*]Guy takes his M5 in for oil and brake service.[*]28 year old dealer "technician" runs it into a curb while "test driving" it (which meant all the BMW electronic nannies were turned off). It hit so hard it cracked open then front left strut, and bent the steering assembly. It is suspected estimated that the "technician" were going twice that of the posted speed limit.[*]Dealer lies and lies again. Claims they will fix it and won't take but $2500 in parts. It just so happens their insurance deductible is $2500. They refuse all other options, including buying it back for blue book value and selling owner a new M5 at cost.[*]Owner gets it towed to another dealer who digs deeper and finds $30,000+ in damages.[/LIST]
This pisses me off to the extent that I want to call BMWNA and be a whiny little b*tch about it.

Thread (pictures posted on page 28): [url="http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60-m5-e61-m5-touring-discussion/162450-dealership-rags-my-car-wrecks-test-drive.html"]Dealership rags my car and wrecks it on a test drive! - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)[/url]

Well it's the DEALER who's screwing this guy over, not BMW.
US law prevents BMW selling to you guys direct, so welcome to dodgy dealers risk :(
Whine to the dealer and by all means ask BMW to review the franchise.
But BMW can't actually legally do ANYTHING iirc, beyond "review" and remove franchise.
So by all means ask BMWNA to do that, but they'll be looking at it already if the owner had any sense and informed them.
But, yeah you want to whine then go into the dealership and say it out loud whiel the sales guys are trying to close a deal with a customer :) :)

[quote=Matra et Alpine;946808]Well it's the DEALER who's screwing this guy over, not BMW.
US law prevents BMW selling to you guys direct, so welcome to dodgy dealers risk :(
Whine to the dealer and by all means ask BMW to review the franchise.
But BMW can't actually legally do ANYTHING iirc, beyond "review" and remove franchise.
So by all means ask BMWNA to do that, but they'll be looking at it already if the owner had any sense and informed them.
But, yeah you want to whine then go into the dealership and say it out loud whiel the sales guys are trying to close a deal with a customer :) :)[/quote]

By all means, the whole purpose of bitching to BMWNA was to get them to look over the dealership license and business standards, as was done in the Canadian Mazda6 case.

Or the owner could always park the damaged car outside on a trailer with a sign that said "It only went in for an oil change.."

i've got a similar story, will find link eventually
friend takes his modified GT2 into a suspension shop.
gives specific instructions that it is not to be driven in the wet given it's nature and track bias (on slicks etc etc), but understands that some test driving is necessary once the work is done.
two shop technicians drive it in the wet.
lose control, jump median strip and end up under a truck in many pieces.
shop blames 'widowmaker' characteristics, maintains that both men were 'professionals'.
i laugh, get banned off different forum for calling them out, threatened with defamation case. continue to laugh.

[quote=Rasmus;946817], as was done in the Canadian Mazda6 case.[/quote]
Isn't it the Motor Dealers Act that that type of action is taken under ?
Used to be you guys were like the UK with VERY close ties from manufacturer to dealer.
We're now very much the US model where a dealer determines the relationship they will have or not with a manufacturer and it's at arms length.

One of Tre reasons why I have an accessport tune for my car, you can limit revs to 3k for trips to the dealer or others where you don't drive the car.

That's a nightmare. It makes you wonder what your dealer does with your car. I can imagine that after a day of servicing Civics and Camrys, getting a sports car in would be a bit of a treat...and you don't know how they're driving it. I personally am extremely anal about my car, refusing to let anyone else drive it (friends, family, anyone), and refusing to push it hard more than every so often. The thought of some mechanic (or his apprentice) taking it out, hitting 7k RPM and shredding the tyres is just a nightmare. And the little bits of damage that you don't see immediately, like the driver scraping a gutter, scraping your bumper over a driveway, or tyre damage...You might not notice for a month, and once you do there's no way you can trace it back to them.

Let's hope it ends up better than this guy's 5-series: [url="http://www.kenrockwell.com/bmw/540-cpo.htm"]BMW CPO certified pre-owned[/url]

[quote=kingofthering;946896]Let's hope it ends up better than this guy's 5-series: [url="http://www.kenrockwell.com/bmw/540-cpo.htm"]BMW CPO certified pre-owned[/url][/quote]

Wow. I'd be [I]pissed[/I].

[quote=Article] It's a little worse than being robbed or having your child raped.[/quote]

And lol.


I had an experience similar to that, but not as bad. I took my Jeep in with a full tank for some work, and when I got it back it was almost empty (20 gallon tank) and had some new mud on it and the front right fender looked like it had been bent even further. I asked what happened to the gas, and they said they'd had to drive it to evaluate it. I asked why it had taken several hundred miles (at least) to evaluate it, and they denied any such thing had happened. Said they'd just driven it around the city.

There's a popular place to go offroading in that area which usually requires about that much gas for a full days trip, which combined with the new mud (it's also about the only place in the area where you can find mud that time of year) made me pretty suspicious, especially since they were obviously lying to start with. Fortunately my grandmother is friends with the former owner of the place, who's the father of the current owner and things got straightened out pretty fast once they talked. They apologized, bought me a new tank of gas (the parts I really cared about) and fixed the fender as good as new.