2007 BMW 328xi. Electronic door locks would not unlock. No door could be unlocked from inside vehicle. No door could be opened from inside vehicle. Pulling the internal door latch repeatedly failed to unlock or open door. Pushing electronic lock/unlock button on dashboard failed to unlock doors. Lowering window and using manual key in exterior lock unlocked door but as soon as key was rotated to remove from lock door immediately electronically relocked. Key had to be held in unlock position while interior door latch was used to open the door in order to open door to exit car. Subsequently except for driver's door all doors remained inoperable locked but drivers door could be opened only manually with manual key from exterior or latch from interior without automatically re-locking. Dealer was notified and repaired. Dealer reported that a "short" had caused failure of ability to unlock. Event has not occurred again in one month.

- Cheshire, CT, USA

The doors on my 2007 BMW 328I would not open with the push button lock. I removed the manual key and was able to open the door from the outside. When I returned to my house, I reviewed the owners manual and checked to see if the setting was wrong with the key. Pushing the key, open-close button the doors locked but would not open. I had the foresight to roll my window down prior to checking the lock. If I had not done so, I would have been locked in the vehicle. This happened in Florida and could have been fatal if locked in the car without a way out in the Florida heat. Also, the gas door was locked shut and I was unable to put gas in the vehicle. I contacted the BMW dealership (quality imports- ft walton beach) and took the car to them for repairs. It took two days instead of the two hours that I was promised. Also, I found out that they had a technical repair bulletin that had been issued regarding faulty locks on this model vehicle. Besides the safety complaint I feel that I was charges when I should have been taken care of (no cost to the consumer) since this vehicle's problem was a safety issue. I have talked with corporate BMW and was told that any issue could be considered a safety issue. (I felt that I was blown off). I would like for the faulty door actuators to be considered a safety issue and not a technical bulletin issue. When asking the dealership what they meant by a technical bulletin, the response was that they knew about the problem but there was no safety problems identified. I disagree.

- Nebraska City, NE, USA

Repeated door lock actuator failure in 2007 BMW 3281. When this happens, both rear doors and the front passenger doors are impossible to open from outside or inside. This is an obvious safety hazard.

- Whitesburg, KY, USA

While driving on the highway at about 60 mph, the front passenger door opened by itself and door open warning showed up. It has happened only once on my car so far but a few other owners of similar BMW cars have had the same issue. When reported to the manufacturer's dealership service department, the standard response from the dealership is "unable to replicate problem" and they will not do anything else about it.

- Lake Jackson, TX, USA

Earlier this year I went on a weekend trip with my family: My wife on the front passenger seat, on the rear seat my sister and my two and a half year old niece on her car seat. When we arrived to our destination none of the passenger doors would open; they were completely shut and they would not open with the internal controls, the remote or in any other way. Only the drivers' door, which is also the only door that has a key hole, would open. All other doors are key-less and remained locked. My family had to climb through the windows to get out of the car. This was especially difficult with my little niece in the back seat. I took the car to the dealership and they found the problem's cause was a blown fuse. Fortunately we did not have an emergency that require a quick exit of or entry into the car. But my family and I are very concerned about the safety hazard this design represent. In the event we would have been required to leave the vehicle in a rush we could not have done it. My wife is now pregnant I am really concerned about how safe this vehicle really is. The dealership and the manufacturer argue that this is a simple malfunction and they cannot guarantee it won't happen again. They are obviously dismissing the case; I believe the system should be designed to allow for manual lock/unlock of the doors even if the fuse blows - at least from the inside. Good safety engineering policies should state that in the event of a fuse blow no system should get passengers locked inside their cars; this should not happen under any circumstance. Failure to fix this represents a passenger's casualty waiting to happen. I hope you see it this way too.

- San Francisco, CA, USA

All doors on a 2007 BMW 328I, 4-door, would not unlock for an unknown reason. All passengers were trapped inside the vehicle and had to climb out the windows to exit the vehicle.

- Whittier, CA, USA

Unable to open front passenger door and rear passenger door due to failure of fuse caused by defective door lock actuators creating an unsafe condition in the event of an accident. This is known problem by BMW as service bulletin was issued. As a technical expert in this field I believe this should be a recall. The failure mode is unsafe and can occur during driving, if failure occurs during driving passengers cannot exit the vehicle. The locking system does not comply to fmvss206 S4.1.3 as there is no ability to unlock the mechanism once the door is locked and the fuse fails.

- Northville, MI, USA

Model: 2007 BMW 328I. The electronic "door actuators" failed. As a result, it became impossible to open any door of the vehicle from the inside, except the driver's door. When these electronic door actuators fail, passengers are trapped in the vehicle, and are exposed to injury or death in the event of a fire or if the vehicle becomes submerged. The service advisor at the dealership (weatherford BMW, berkeley, California) suggested that even if the electronic door actuators were disabled the doors could still be opened by pulling twice on the opening latch. However, when this was tried, the doors still could not be opened. The service advisors did comment that this problem had occurred in other 328I models; and, in fact, another vehicle was being serviced for the identical problem. In view of this extremely serious defect which apparently exists with the 328I model, resulting in trapping passengers if the electrical system controlling the doors fails, we strongly suggest that this defect be investigated, and that the subject vehicles be recalled so that the defect can be corrected before deaths or injuries occur.

- Richmond, CA, USA

A simple fuse failure in the automatic door locking system rendered the inside door handles unusable, except for one, whose actuator caused the original electrical overload. Had something else caused the fuse to fail, we would be unable to egress the vehicle except through the windows, and, with a complete electrical failure that also would have been impossible. The BMW tech people tell me that the system is designed that way. I feel that it is a safety hazard.

- Sun City West, AZ, USA

My 2007 328I has been in the service department a total of 4 times (that I have paperwork on, it might be more). I have had major mechanical problems with the most recent being electrical. My key will not open any of the doors, I have to use the valet key to get inside. Once I get inside the button on the dash that opens and locks the doors was unresponsive as well. When this started the drivers side mirror also became unresponsive and would not adjust, I can't adjust it to see the road and have almost been in 2 accidents. The same day the air conditioning, which I had set on 60, turned itself to 84 blowing full blast. That is actually the second time this year that the air conditioning has automatically turned to the heater. Short list of other issues: Recurrent break squeaking, oil sensor and engine harness wires breaking, and problems accelerating. The computer software malfunctioned as well (another electrical issue which was causing the car to malfunction). After the brake pads & sensors were replaced, the brakes sound the same to this day, horribly squeaky almost grinding. The front driver & passenger windows have a mysterious electrical malfunction. They will cease to go up or down. I hold the window button in the "up" position, the window will roll up an inch then stop. I will have to do this several more times before the window will go up or down. My car goes in again tomorrow am. This time I even mentioned that if I did have passengers in the vehicle and we had gotten in an accident, or worse yet the car catches on fire, my passengers would be trapped. The service advisor didn't seem to care. I can't drive my friends or family anywhere for fear they will be stuck in the vehicle if an accident occurred. As well, I'm not going to ask my parents, who are in their 50's, to crawl through a window to get in or out of my vehicle. My car has been out of commission for me at least 30 days since I've owned it.

- Escondido, CA, USA