I emailed BMW of Arlington on [XXX] detailing the critical safety issue I experienced with my BMW X3 2012 on Sunday [XXX]. I was driving on the tollway northbound from [XXX] in Grand Prairie in the pouring rain with my wipers on, and the car suddenly started braking and decelerating from the 70 mph cruising speed to 40 mph in seconds. The car behind me nearly hit my vehicle, and since it kept doing that, I had to turn on my hazard lights till I exited. The car was doing that irrespective of whether it was on cruise control or my driving speed. I discovered by googling it that this is a known defect in BMWs since their shop foremen and certified technicians who know more than me think I am dreaming this up [XXX] -. Driving this car on the highways in Dallas regularly is extremely dangerous as I could end up in a major multivehicle MVA pileup. Also, the previous time I had this issue before I brought it in on [XXX], it wasn't raining, and it started with the car not even moving when I put it in reverse and pressed the gas. Then it suddenly started decelerating on the road, backfired, and shook violently at normal speeds. The car overheated as the radiator coolant leaked, and I had to replenish it. CarShield, the Auto Warranty company, and I paid approximately $7,000 to BMW Mini of Arlington between June 2023 and today (see attached invoices_receipts_diagnosis reports). The last two times ([XXX] and [XXX]), their multi-point diagnosis on my vehicle identified no issues that need attention. Two of their service advisors who worked on my car in June and October 2023 quit immediately after completing it. The dealership does not respond to the BBB or my calls, emails, faxes, etc. BMW USA advised me to contact NHTSA. On June [XXX], while driving on city streets, the brakes were squealing even without engaging, and the car overheated/ backfired again/ almost caught fire. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) The dealer finally responded stating their diagnosis did not d

- Grand Prairie, TX, USA

Engine failure at 70155 miles. Connecting rod bearing is spun.

- Boston, MA, USA

Situation when starting a cold engine, a 'plume of blue smoke' can be seen emitting from the exhaust tailpipe for approximately 10-20 seconds. There is no engine malfunction light illuminated (no' turbocharger boost faults are stored) and no drivability issues are detected. Cause when the vehicle is parked overnight the engine oil pressure will equalize, this may cause engine oil to leak past the turbocharger 'exhaust side' turbine seal due to carbonization of the turbocharger sealing ring. This is the same issue impacting BMW N20 engines that BMW has issued a technical service bulletin and extended warranty 10 years/ 100,000 miles. The N55 engine (6 cylinder, turbo) has not been included in this extended warranty although defect is the same and may impact emissions.

- La Habra, CA, USA

I was driving 60 miles an hour on a highway and the engine in my 2012 BMW X3 35I seized and went into neutral. I had to glide off to the side of the road into the grass. I have been told by the BMW dealer (laurel BMW westmont) that the car needs a new engine which would cost $22K. BMW usa offered to pay 60% of the cost and would not discuss the safety issues. The car has 59.5K miles and was well maintained.

- Riverside, IL, USA

Bolts holding the variable camshaft timing vanos housing are defective. This is a known issue and BMW notified NHTSA of a recall in 2014 for 156000 vehicles. However, I have the same exact problem and BMW says I must pay almost $4,000 because it is not part of the recall...even though this is a known problem.

- Indian River, MI, USA

The contact owns a 2012 BMW X3. The contact stated that while driving at 65 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the bolt housing for the cam shaft detached and needed to be repaired. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 95,000. The VIN was not available.

- Chicago, IL, USA

I was have issues with the vehicle hesitating and jerking, and generally not operating as expected. I took it in to be checked as I was concerned for operating it safely. The dealership indicated that it requires a software patch, as their is a code error, but they will only fix it if I pay for the patch. I told them that if it is a patch that seems like a recall - software is not hardware, software does not just stop working if it is good to begin with. If we allow car dealers to make us pay for patches when they mess up software we will all be paying hundreds and thousands of dollars for their coding errors going forward as the technology continues to innovate. I am all for innovation, but I should not be paying for their coding error. My car worked a few months ago, I took it in for service under warranty for a different issue, they did work to the onboard software that likely caused this issue, and now that it is out of warranty they have decided that is my problem to fix what they broke. This is a precedent that I do not think we should allow auto makers to set. A car is not a pc that we replace in 4 years - it cost exponentially more. When microsoft requires us to upgrade or they will not patch anymore it is on a pc that cost $1-2K at max, we are talking about a much larger investment and BMW should not be allowed to just stop fixing their code and charging consumers for errors that are potential safety concerns. I do not care if the code is original or installed at my last service visit. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. I would feel different if I had some custom modification, then I think they could blame me for hacking it, but I did not do so, therefore I should not be penalized.

- Houston, TX, USA

Spontaneous engine fire while parked on a city street. Coolant pump replaced the morning of Nov 8th 2017. One hour after picking up the vehicle from the dealer and a few short trips, vehicle was parked, shut off and locked. It drove normally and there were no warning lights. 15-20 min later engine was on fire.

- Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Engine failure at 55K miles when the car was less than years old.

- Pasadena, CA, USA

In 3 occasions (within 2 years duration) when I braked the car (brand new 2012 X3 2.8I) gently to stop it, it slowed down firstly but all in a sudden it accelerated with engine revved up (with noticeable engine noise), the brake seemed losing power at all. The first two times I could be able to stop it (by flooring the brake) before hitting the roadblock and the carpark entrance gate, the third time I could do nothing but hit into another car in the carpark due to the short distance. I'm sure that I was not pressing the gas pedal accidentally for I was in the process of pressing the brake to stop the car in all three cases. I found a similar recalls fm my local transportation auth (ref: www.td.gov.hk/filemanager/en/content_1179/10000456_E.pdf and www.td.gov.hk/filemanager/en/content_1179/10000457_E.pdf) which may relevant to my issue, but unfortunately my car not in the listed VIN recall. I had talked with the local BMW service guy and she denied the problems are relevant (which costed around us$15,000 to do the auto repair eventually, covered by ins).

- -, AL, USA

We stopped for a light and the car started to accelerate while your foot is on the brake. The RPM gauge went up to around 3500 and the car was extremely hard to keep from going forward. This happened several times, the car was brought in for diagnostics but they could not find anything wrong. It happened recently and we are taking the car in again to try to resolve the problem.

- Woodside , NY, USA