I was traveling on freeway to the airport when my wife and I heard a loud boom and suddenly heard loud airflow. I pulled off to side of road and inspected car. The sunroof had exploded and shattered. The car traveling behind me also stopped to inspect his vehicle because of flying glass. The cabin door to the sunroof had luckily had been closed so as my wife and I avoided the flying glass. When we returned from our trip I took vehicle to dealer, the vehicle was under warranty. The dealer said this part was not covered and would cost $3600 to repair. We goggled bmw5 series exploding sunroofs and discovered we were not the only ones to experience exploding sunroofs. Surely BMW knows about this potentially grievous problem. We called BMW North America and filed a complaint with the resolution department. The next day BMW to my chagrin was willing to pay 50 percent of the repair cost. I expected full coverage. I needed the car back and excepted offer vowing never to buy a BMW again. I expected to become whole and not expecting BMW ignoring the problem thus endangering their drivers for economic reasons. Once again goggle BMW 5 series exploding sunroofs. I took vehicle to Lexus dealer and traded it. I wanted nothing to do with that car. Unfortunately I own another bmw5. What I want from NHTSA is to inspect the problem and I still want to be compensated for the entire cost of the problem not just 50 percent.

- San Clemente, CA, USA

Description: The front passenger side door actuator went bad. As a result, door will not unlock when handle is double-pulled. The main problem is, the door is designed such that, it cannot be unlocked manually by pulling the lock stud up... the only way to unlock the door is to pull the handle twice. Therefore, when the actuator malfunctions, the only way to unlock the door and get out of the car is by pressing the unlock button which is on the main control panel. Risk: If I am in an accident with a passenger sitting in the front passenger seat, she will not be able to open the door and get out of the car. If the passenger is a child or someone who does not know how to operate the unlock button in the main control panel, it might get very serious. Frequency: About six months ago, my driver side door actuator went bad, and was replaced under my warranty (under 50K). But, I had to put up a fight to get it covered by warranty. Now the passenger side actuator is gone. And BMW refuses to fix it under the extended warranty. Browsing online, I found quite a few people having similar issues. Here is a discussion thread I opened, and several other people complained about the same issue: www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?T=674994 also, many mentioned this article below, which might have been caused by the same issue: guardianlv.com/2013/09/14-year-old-girl-died-trapped-inside-locked-car-video/ conclusion: This happened to me twice in the same car. This happened to a lot other people. This is, in my opinion, a manufacturer defect and definitely poses grave security risk. BMW should take responsibility of the costs and get the faulty actuators replaced at no cost to the consumers.

- Chandler, AZ, USA