Here's a story about my weekend (uber rant)

[BimmerSchnitzel]

Little background: so my warranty expired in June. I talked myself out of getting an extended warranty because I felt that the car would be solid for quite a while since we got warranty extensions on our fuel pumps and turbos/WGs (two most problematic areas). Additionally I REALLY wanted a cobb AP and did not want to chance getting a paid extended warranty voided because I wanted to have a little fun, so this past Thursday I pulled the trigger on an AP, feels good man.

The next day I drove from Madison, WI to Chicago to meet some friends to celebrate a 40th bday. This route includes 4 tolls on 90E that must be passed though. When I pulled away after paying the first toll, I noticed the car hesitated a little bit. I just wrote it off as maybe bad gas and continued on my journey. The car did the same thing at the next two tolls...bizarre. By the time I get to the last toll I'm on the Kennedy expressway at ~5:00PM, yes it was starting to become a grid locked cluster f^&k. I'm 3 cars back in the que from the toll with 200 cars behind and 500 cars in front of me when all of a sudden the yellow coolant light comes on followed by the red coolant light shortly thereafter. The car in front of me passes through the toll and my car does nothing, I hit the gas and nothing happens. At this point I'm in the toll lane with concrete barriers on each side of me so I could not get out to push the car even if I wanted to - I feel like a turd in a glass bowl. I figured out I could manipulate the starter to give me enough power to at least get the car rolling. I proceed to cut across 4 lanes of traffic right after to toll and after many honked horns and middle fingers, I made it to the shoulder. I get on the phone with Roadside assistance, give them my CC#, and after baking in the 90 heat for 1.5 hours, the tow truck shows up. Honestly not bad time considering I'm in the middle of Chicago rush hour. I get to the dealership after they close so I just dumped the car in the front with my keys, called a cab, and continued my journey to Chicago. After all this I was only 30min late to the restaurant, not too shabby but all I could think about was "how much is this going to cost me?".

The following day I have to give up the rooftop ticket I had for the Cards v. Cubs game at Wrigley to go pick up my car at the dealership. Thinking it must have been the water pump failing, I was surprised with a $1,000 bill for a replaced cooling fan :dunno: I reluctantly paid the bill and went back into the city to try to salvage my weekend.

I headed back to Madison on Sunday and to work on Monday with no excitement. All was not calm in the jungle however. On my way back home from work; once again on the highway in rush hour traffic, the yellow coolant light comes on followed by the red light and super limp mode. I go into immediate rage mode. Since my dealer was literally only 1.5 miles from me, I decided to let the car cool off on the side of the road and try to make it there as not to get hit with another towing bill. I start the car back up and drive on the shoulder a bit to determine I’m out of limp mode. As soon as I pull back on the highway, the car stalls, followed by the screeching tires of the guy behind me slamming on the brakes. I immediately pull back over and call Roadside assistance; death narrowly averted. Unlike the last time, Road side assistance was worthless. I convinced them to give me a free tow considering the events not 72 hours earlier. I was then told “only the state patrol can tow me on this stretch during rush hour “and they will only take me to the nearest exit; however, “If I ask nicely” they may take me to the dealer ship. FML. Once again I bake in the 90 degree heat waiting for the State Patrol so I can butter their ass up to take me to the dealer. After over one hour of waiting, no one shows up. By then, my car was completely cooled off and traffic had lifted so I drove the rest of the way only to have the car literally stall right in the entrance of the dealership. I said fuck it, left it there, dumped my keys with the front desk and grabbed as much free food and drink as I could possibly carry out of the showroom/wait area.

I get a call from my local dealer the next day: Water pump and thermostat failed – that will be $1400. FML x2. I’m ready to tell them just to keep the damn thing at this point. I call BMW NA in an act of desperation as well as Jose at Sonic Tuning to cancel my Accessport order  . Once I told BMW NA my story, they were very receptive to helping me, especially once I told them about the part where I nearly died on the freeway. It took them 24 hours to review my case but they picked up the bill on the water pump so that made me feel slightly better about things. Emphasis on “slightly” here. Now all is well again, except for the fact my credit card is so hot now it could burn a whole down to middle earth.
Big props to Jose at Sonic Tuning for refunding my AP, no questions asked and BMW NA for restoring my faith in customer service. Because of them, I will not have to eat beans and weenies every night for the next 2 months.

[Golden3ye]

lol that sucks man. but you did a great job of making that an entertaining read.

Hope everything works out for you

[Purgatory]

Good read, glad things worked out for you and props to BMW NA for making things right with you.

[1911A145]

Thought I was reading a suspense novel. lol


Sucks man. Our cars are nice, but problems WILL happen eventually to all of us. Good luck with the car going forward.

[Dackelone]

Good story with a happy ending. I especially liked the "beans and weenies" part!

[135Pats]

That's brutal, how many miles does your car have on it? My car is CPO'd until early 2015, but I must admit i'm quite scared about what could go wrong after that. Unreal these cars still have water pump issues....

[doublevanosrc]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

That's brutal, how many miles does your car have on it? My car is CPO'd until early 2015, but I must admit i'm quite scared about what could go wrong after that. Unreal these cars still have water pump issues....

Yeah more info on your car like mileage and if its stock or what?

[BimmerSchnitzel]

Originally Posted by doublevanosrc

Yeah more info on your car like mileage and if its stock or what?

Car is a 2008 135i with ~42,000miles. The Cobb AP would have my first true modification to the car (car currently only has the BMW PE).
Even after all this I think the extended warranty would be a bad investment. I'm just saving away $85 / month as "repair money". If I don't need it (hopefully I won't), then it's just cash in the bank.

What's truly scarry about these cars is how smart they are. If they don't wan't to run because additional damage may result, they just stop. Not to big of a deal if your in town, but if you're in a foreign area, it's kinda scary. It's going to be awhile before I trust this car again for a long road trip.

[ken1137]

Yeah, there is nothing worse in Chicago than a stalled car during rush hour, none the less in a toll area. Glad to hear BMW NA stepped up. I hope the dealer in Chicago wasn't Perillo (?) I hear nothing but horror stories about them. You'd be better off dropping the car in the hood and walking away

[BimmerEnthusiast99]

Good job of writing there, glad it all worked out safely for you.

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by BimmerSchnitzel

Car is a 2008 135i with ~42,000miles. The Cobb AP would have my first true modification to the car (car currently only has the BMW PE).
Even after all this I think the extended warranty would be a bad investment. I'm just saving away $85 / month as "repair money". If I don't need it (hopefully I won't), then it's just cash in the bank.

What's truly scarry about these cars is how smart they are. If they don't wan't to run because additional damage may result, they just stop. Not to big of a deal if your in town, but if you're in a foreign area, it's kinda scary. It's going to be awhile before I trust this car again for a long road trip.

My car has about 34k on the odo, and to be frank I still don't trust it on drives much over 100 miles. My issues have been minor, but the thought of a multi-thousand dollar repair always enter my mind

42k isn't exactly high mileage, that's to have those types of issues

[Judge]

Good story if unfortunate you had to go through all that. Anytime I have to take my car in for service I don't leave without at least a bagel and two Cokes to compensate for my being inconvenience. Makes me feel a little better to know I'm cutting into their bottom line.

[BimmerSchnitzel]

Originally Posted by ken1137

Yeah, there is nothing worse in Chicago than a stalled car during rush hour, none the less in a toll area. Glad to hear BMW NA stepped up. I hope the dealer in Chicago wasn't Perillo (?) I hear nothing but horror stories about them. You'd be better off dropping the car in the hood and walking away

It was Laurel BMW in Westmont. It was right across the street from a Lamborghini dealership so it's got to be legit right?

Makes me feel a little better to know I'm cutting into their bottom line.

Exactly!

[ken1137]

Originally Posted by BimmerSchnitzel

It was Laurel BMW in Westmont. It was right across the street from a Lamborghini dealership so it's got to be legit right?



Exactly!

Yep, BMW Westmont is legit.

[Zombie1]

Great write up, don't know what I would have done sire...good luck hope the baby's ok

[jo]

damn, that sucks. strangely, i trust my '08 for long road trips instead of routine trips to target... which is when my water pump just died. just over 40k miles. thank goodness for the CPO extended warranty, but seems kind of early for such an essential part to be dying, especially when there is no clear schedule for replacement (some places online say 80k, but this is WAY before 80k....!).

[P1]

Sucks mate. My friend has an X5 that went out of warranty, a 2009. He debated also on an extended warranty but spun the dice... and LOST! Not even two months after his warranty expired he had about $2K worth of repairs and another 3 months later and $2K. He's kicking himself but I learned a lesson from him: never own these cars without some kind of warranty.