2007 BMW 550I, automatic transmission, about 48,000 miles. After a period of highway driving, if reverse is selected (e.g., in a parking lot, a U-turn that requires backing up), the transmission will go into neutral for several seconds rather than immediately engaging. Scenario 1 (common): Pulling into parking lot after 22 minute highway commute to work. I start to go by an open spot and need to engage reverse in order to pull in. I put the car in reverse, but the transmission goes into neutral. After about 3-5 seconds, reverse finally engages. This is a recent phenomenon. Previously, engagement was immediate. Incident 1 (6 June 2011): After driving for a period of time at freeway speeds, a tight U-turn was required. Coming out of the U-turn, the road was downhill. I needed to put the car in reverse in order to make the tight U-turn. I put the shifter in reverse, and stepped on the gas. The engine revved and the car rolled forward. Obviously, it was in neutral. I put the car in drive, then reverse. Same thing. I put the car in park, then reverse, same problem. Ultimately, I had to turn off the car, then start it again. Now, reverse engaged. Unfortunately, I ran into a fixture at very low speed, causing no damage to the fixture and cosmetic damage to my front fender. Incident 2 (10 June 2011): After driving for about an hour at freeway speeds, I was pulling into a hotel parking lot. I needed to engage reverse in order to pull in as I drove slightly past the entrance to the parking lot. I put the car in reverse and stepped on the gas. The engine revved and did not move. The transmission was in neutral. I again had to turn off the vehicle, then turn on the vehicle before I could engage reverse.

- Redwood City, CA, USA

I leased a BMW 328I on 02/07/07. It is a brand new model with a new engine than BMW 325, according to the salesman. On 02/16/07, while I stopped the vehicle at the red light, I found out that the vehicle would not start moving when the green light was on. The car was stopped on the road and I had no idea what was going on. Lots of cars were behind me and speeding past my car. I was very upset and I got the 800 toll free number for BMW's free towing service from my sales person via phone. The first lady who answered the phone told me to call 911 after a five minutes talking to me with lots of questions. A nice gentleman helped me to push my car to a safety stores parking lot. So I called 800 BMW tow line number again. The car was actually towed to the dealership by BMW 1-800 free tow line after a 3-hour's waiting time. The salesman had to send his assistance to deliver me another used car due to I was in a hurry to pick up my son from school. I was then told on 02/17/07 from the sales person that the fuel sensor is a manufacture defect. It will stop its sensor function at the last quarter of the fuel indicator. So I was driving the vehicle without knowing there was no more fuel inside the car because I thought it still had a quarter fuel in the tank. I was so scared to hear it and I told him that this fuel sensor defect might kill my life if I was driving the car on the freeway at that time when the car suddenly stopped. So I refused to take back the vehicle and requested for exchanging for another car. But BMW rejected my request because "it's just a minor problem and they already fixed it, " according to the sales person's message to me on my cell phone last night. I don't want to be tested for BMW to see if they really fixed the fuel sensor problem. It's very risky to use my life to test for BMW whether new sensor put on my vehicle is another defect or not. Now I want to cancel my leasing agreement asap. I am hoping BMW to recall all the 328I.

- Diamond Bar, CA, USA