This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I own a 2003 745li, bought it certified used in 2006. I have so far had air conditioning problems, oil leaks, transmission failures and leaks, power window failure and so many electrical problems that they are too numerous to list. My car is literally in the shop once a month. As of July 2009 the vehicle has 63,000 miles and trust me, it has been maintained perfectly. It even passed a 160 point inspection for the ez care auto extended warranty and proceeded to break down 3 weeks later, how is that even possible? I paid close to 70K for a used vehicle. I could have bought two brand new top of the line Japanese cars.
Driving on interstate 295S in Washington DC around 11:30pm on Dec 28th 2008. All of a sudden I hear a loud bang and immediately loss control of vehicle. I swerved to the right shoulder of the interstate and stopped the vehicle. Upon inspecting vehicle I noticed my drivers side front and rear tire was flat. With the assistance of a police officer I proceeded to change the tires with a spare and another tire my family member brought from home. This is when I noticed that the rear rim was completely split and the inside ring was resting on the break assembly. Then I noticed the front rim had similar damage in that it was completely split around the inside diameter of the rim.
Family & I had been in vancouver bc for vacation. We began our return trip home, crossed the Canadian peace arch border into the us @ approximately 9pm wedsnesday evening. About 1am early Thursday morning we heard a loud noise coming from the right rear, followed by our vehicle suddenly loosing control & swerving in all 3 lanes of interstate 5 southbound. We pulled over on the left shoulder as it was the quickest route to safety. We called for help, once a state trooper arrived we inspected the vehicle & learned our right rear tire had blown, we also noticed a leaking fluid from the vehicle. Once the tow truck arrived & started to pull the vehicle onto his flatbed, we learned the right rear rim had completely split, & the entire inner lip assembly was missing. We arrived at a portland Oregon dealership around 3 am and waited in the parking lot for business to open. Once open a tech inspected the vehicle. We learned that the rear rim blew and sent metal shrapnel flying everywhere. 1 piece hit the rear strut and pierced a hole in it, leaking shock fluid everywhere. 1 piece hit the muffler and popped a hole through that. 2 pieces pierced the undercarriage of the vehicle and actually went into the trunk. 1 of the pieces in the trunk hit the battery in the right rear and decommission it. The portland Oregon BMW dealer did just emergency repairs enough to get us home. They replaced the battery, the rear strut, & did some programming required for the new battery. Once home, we noticed the smell of gas as well as error messages in the instrument cluster regarding the gas cap being open. After doing a few days of research, I learned of 2 other owners who had the exact same brand of wheels (sevas - sevasheels.com) experience the exact same problem where the rim would split in two and come apart during drive. I have also heard from multiple owners that no matter how hard their tire shop tries, they can not properly balance the tires, resulting in heavy vibration when driving.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Ridgeland, MS, USA