Can you believe it.. I breakdown and decide to purchase a $45,000 car since my current vehicle is unstable, only to come out one morning and find anti-freeze on my garage floor..
VERY disappointing to say the least... I love the car but how could this happen? The car had 4000 miles and I had it 3 weeks and added another 1000 miles..
In the shop for two days.
Just hope it's not the start of a downward lemon spiral..
Actually, since it failed with so few miles it's most likely it was just a bad part, and has no significance in predicting other problems with the car. Lost a water pump on my SUV about the same mileage, and now after 15 years, no other problems except I have to keep replacing things that wear out.
Think of it like the first parking lot ding - now the car has it 'out of its system', so it doesn't need another failure.
Frank
No, its not. The transmission control mechanism failed on my 2003 325 after only 2000 miles. The only parts since then have been O2 sensors, but those things are very fragile. O yes, it now has 24000 miles. Jim
And the stories go on...
Some years ago my new another-famous-German-brand car and I were poodling down the motorway one fine summer's evening on our way to Paris. Suddenly there was a bang and an awful noise emanated from the engine. I crept into the nearest petrol station.
After a man from the local breakdown organisation turned up he asked me to turn on the engine. He immediately said I should turn it off and slapped a large "DO NOT DRIVE" notice on the windscreen. In short, engine failure.
At 2000 miles.
(If you're wondering, the nice man from the AA took me to a car-hire place so that I could continue my journey. And it took months to get back onto the road because a lengthy German metalworkers' strike affecting the whole autmobile industry had started and there were no spare engines in the system.)
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
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First off, a blown thermostat would not cause this, but... something went wrong for sure.
Huh? You bought it "used" with 4000 miles on it? But I would not get overly concerned. It was probably just something loose or an infantile failure of the waterpump or something like that. Not a big deal.
For what? Certainly not a blown thermostat. 2 days is a lot of fixin'
There really is no such thing as a "lemon" car, only "lemon" repair facilities. If they can't fix it right the first time (or after a reasonable time depending on the problem at hand), be smart enough to seek repairs elsewhere. I'm already suspicious after a quote of 2 days...
I'm not concerned about service center capabilities. This is probably THE largest BMW dealer in the NE and probably the country and a few towns from BMW NA headquarters. It's in good hands...
They told me that the leak was from the thermostat and the reason it's taking (2) days, well actually 32 hours is that it's an 2006 and they had to order the part yesterday. I brought the car in yesterday morning and I'm getting it back tonight, so the turnaround isn't that bad... when they change the thermostat, they are also checking the entire cooling system, etc.
thanks.
OK, so long as you are confident in them. Personally, I am most suspicious of the big stealerships. They turn over wrenches like crazy and the new guys get all the "easy" jobs.
Perhaps a cracked t-stat housing then? I'll bet they still make them out of plastic...
OK, so the time was mostly waiting on a part. That makes sense. It does make you wonder though, if this is such a big dealership and this is a current production model, what exactly *do* they have in parts stock?
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