It was cold day, driving my car back to home from my office. Put on driver seat heater on. Suddenly, smell of smoke was felt inside the car. Never thought it was coming from the seat initially. Stopped the car, opened the hood and checked, if something went wrong in the engine. It was fine. Sat on my seat, still smelling. Opened the windows and let the smell blow out. Then realized, heat is cooling down. Then I realized it may be from my seat. All these things happened within couple of minutes (2-3 min). I put the seat heater off and drove the car to home. After I reached home, I found a burned hole on my driver side seat and back of my pant also got burned. Thankfully, with prompt action, there was no bodily injuries. It looks like anything could have had happened.
Contacted BMW, replaced my seat, but still fear to put seat heater on. Complained to BMW, Germany. Initially they were quite prompt to answer. Now they have send back my complain to BMW, NA. The customer service of BMW NA is really worst. They will not give me any kind of assurance that it may not happen in the future. If similar thing will happen in the future while driving they will not take responsibility. Because my vehicle is 7 years old. My argument is they should recover this type of vehicle and do more research to solve this problem. I am not going to drive another BMW in my lifetime and will NOT recommend to others to buy BMW.
Any suggestions will be appreciated. I do have pictures and videos of the damaged seat and my pant.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
It was cold day, driving my car back to home from my office. Put on driver seat heater on. Suddenly, smell of smoke was felt inside the car. Never thought it was coming from the seat initially. Stopped the car, opened the hood and checked, if something went wrong in the engine. It was fine. Sat on my seat, still smelling. Opened the windows and let the smell blow out. Then realized, heat is cooling down. Then I realized it may be from my seat. All these things happened within couple of minutes (2-3 min). I put the seat heater off and drove the car to home. After I reached home, I found a burned hole on my driver side seat and back of my pant also got burned. Thankfully, with prompt action, there was no bodily injuries. It looks like anything could have had happened.
Contacted BMW, replaced my seat, but still fear to put seat heater on. Complained to BMW, Germany. Initially they were quite prompt to answer. Now they have send back my complain to BMW, NA. The customer service of BMW NA is really worst. They will not give me any kind of assurance that it may not happen in the future. If similar thing will happen in the future while driving they will not take responsibility. Because my vehicle is 7 years old. My argument is they should recover this type of vehicle and do more research to solve this problem. I am not going to drive another BMW in my lifetime and will NOT recommend to others to buy BMW.
Any suggestions will be appreciated. I do have pictures and videos of the damaged seat and my pant.
- Dinesh G., Rockville, MD, US