Paint Defect - discovered 6 weeks after buying from AUC

[dphiggins]

Hi Guys,

I bought an 18 month old 330d Msport saloon from a BMW dealer in Boston 6 weeks ago. I noticed whilst cleaning the car last week that there is a paint defect on the O/S doors and wing. I didnt notice this when picking the car up etc. Its one of those easily missed until viewed at a certain angle in a certain light.

I took to car to my local BMW dealer in Cheltenham for an assessment of the problem. Their BMW approved bodyshop said the defect is not a manufacturing defect, but a result of a poor repair job etc. Therefore, it cannot be rectified under warranty.

So I phoned the supplying dealer who does not believe the diagnosis from Cotswold BMW and has stated that as the car has had an AUC check which did not pick the fault up and because I did not pick up the fault when I collected the car, the liability to rectify the problem at a cost of £623 is not with him.

I understand from his point of view I could have have caused this problem in my 6 weeks of ownership (ie had it keyed or something and tried to get a cheap repair job )and am now trying to get BMW to resolve the issue, but this is most certainly not the case. Its one of those things that can easily be missed as proven by the AUC check and me initially.

Where do I stand on this?, what are your recommendations for moving this forward without having to pay for the reapir myself?. One of the reasons I bought an AUC is for piece of mind regarding issues like this but they dont seem to be interested in helping me.

[phelix]

The AUC check doesn't really address this sort of issue - they check to be sure the car hasn't been written off and has no outstanding finance and they perform any imminent service items. They may tart the car up by refurbing wheels and painting front stone chips but the car could well have had every panel replaced and nothing would be noted as part of the AUC. So the peace of mind is a bit of a veneer, in my opinion.

Can you find out who did the original work? Call BMW GB and ask for the service dates - they should be able to give you the date and location of every time the car entered the BMW service/repair system. Then you need to contact each dealer and find out what they did. If the work was done by a BMW approved shop you may be able to get them to fix it.

As always, polite but firm tends to get better results than threats, etc.

I had some work done under an insurance claim on a previous 3 series and took it back 3 months later because I wasn't happy with the paint match. They sorted it without issue.

Edited by phelix on Thursday 20th December 16:25

[5 wh]

Caveat emptor-let the buyer beware.Not a lot you can do if you didnt pick up on it when you bought the car.The only chance you have is a goodwill repair to put it right.
A lot of people assume that buying from a main agent(and paying a premium to do so) you will only get the best mint condition cars but its not always the case.

[jamoor]

indeed, whats the fault exactly, you maybe able to get it done cheaper from a local bodyshop and possibly to a higher standard.

[sjn2004]

All that "approved" car talk is sales talk and not much more. About 1 year ago I was looking to buy a X5 4.8is from a BMW garage in Manchester. Looked over the car in the showroom then went for a test drive. Was pretty happy with the car and was about 60seconds away from telling the guy I'd have it when I noticed silver overspray around the black plastic surrounds of the wheel arches. On closer inspection the car had had a front and rear end respray and between the gap of the rear bumper and body you could see unsprayed filler that was still rough(spatula marks). I pointed this out to the salesman who started to scatch his head saying the car had been through the approved bodyshop and was fine and how could that be and what a mix up blah blah. In the end I think he was happy that I walked as he never bothered to call me back. It was obvious that the car had had a front/rear end smash possibly repaired in a back street garage by a previous owner as to not appear on the BMW systems. However if I had driven off in this car and noticed 1 month later, how could I prove that it wasn't damage I'd inflicted?

The only way to be certain is to measure the thickness of the paint all over looking for inconsistances using a paint thickness meter.

http://www.paint-test-equipment.co.uk/Eban1000.htm

[atom111]

I had a BMW AUC car that when you removed the front mud flap the paint under their was different shade noticably so, clearly a repair had been done and they masked around the flap. When I saw this I was upset but the dealer probably didn't know and the AUC doesn't cover it.

Fortunatley I only had the car 7 days and it was towed back to a dealer and I got a refund as it was not fit for purpose, but thats another story.