Advice : BMW warranty claim

[fourspoons]

e21Mark said:

Good news fella! Really pleased for you.

Maybe a dedicated track car would be a good idea?

Ironically I've had dedicated track cars for years and just recently downsized my fleet and bought the 235 as a car that would be good on the road and track....

[fourspoons]

General Fluff said:

I can't believe this is as simple as Dealer bad, BMW good. The dealer must be incentivised by BMW to resist claims or else why would they have done so? Making the customer work to get the claim approved seems to be standard practice.

You're right it isn't that simple and the dealer don't reject the claims themselves, they present the claim to BMW UK, who make the decision. But of course how they present the claim has a huge effect. But in the end, it was BMW UK that sorted me out, not the dealer, nor did they make any attempt.

[fourspoons]

Deerfoot said:

I take it you've retained the courtesy car?

I have. Its a 320d from Enterprise, it comes from BMW Emergency Services, not the dealer.

[fourspoons]

User33678888 said:

Have they sorted this out because they accept that it should be under their warranty? Or because they want to look good on this thread? Call me a sceptic, but I'm sure I'm not the only M enthusiast to have a distinct lack of trust for official dealer servicing.

They simply stated that since the event was not competitive the damage was covered under the warranty and they should not have rejected the claim.

They didn't mention if any of the publicity had influenced their decision. In all honesty I doubt if the people involved in making the decision had time to be browsing forums but you never know. I do expect they consulted their legal team for advice on the wording though.

[fourspoons]

M6L11 said:

So are they actually going to update/clarify the wording this time, as was promised to getcarter? At least it'd stop this kind of main dealer tomfoolery recurring.

ETA: On reflection, it's in their interests not to. For every getcarter and fourspoons, another hundred people probably take it on the chin and don't bother to fight. Overall the PR damage v cost savings is probably worth it to them. Who knows? If they were really bothered I think they'd have changed it last time they promised to.

I really hope they don't make any changes. I would say the wording is perfectly clear. There is no exclusion for trackdays at all and by not changing the wording after GetCarter's case many years ago, they have made a conscious decision to cover trackdays under the warranty. This may be influenced by the number of cars they sell to track experience companies and their own fleet they use on BMW organised trackdays and press events....

Edited by fourspoons on Thursday 5th February 12:18

[fourspoons]

Durzel said:

I'm more cynical, and agree with M6L11. It's in their interests to leave the wording open to interpretation, because for every one challenging it as you and GetCarter have, there will be others who will be told what the dealer told you - and suck it up and pay for the repairs. They could be more explicit, if they wanted to. I suspect the wording chosen has been done so with deliberate (and legally minded) care.

"Competitive" is a word that is open to interpretation. I'd presume that you were keen to see how your car compared to others that were there on the day, even if you weren't racing them or even overtaking. Is that not competitive track-specific behaviour?

Being a cynic I'd say that they aren't excluding trackdays from cover, but they aren't interested (or likely keen) to explicitly tell their customers that they have full coverage, so as to give themselves the option to reject claims out of hand, as in this case.

Had you accepted the rejection from the dealer you'd be looking at a big repair bill to pay, BMW would not have volunteered to repair the car.

Edited by Durzel on Thursday 5th February 12:33

Perhaps, but I can't believe there is anyone that would suck up £13k without at least a little bit of a fight, especially since the wording is so clearly in favour.

[fourspoons]

Also, I don't think 'competitive' is open for interpretation at all. It is very clearly defined by the trackday organiser, the circuit, trackday insurance policies that are available and so on. Any competitive activity on a trackday is strictly prohibited.

You can't compare your car to others on the track on a trackday. I was overtaking 911 GT3s driven by novices and Lewis Hamilton in a mini would have gone past me...

Edited by fourspoons on Thursday 5th February 12:51

Edited by fourspoons on Thursday 5th February 12:52

[fourspoons]

Jon_Bmw said:

So the big question:

Will you track it again?

You are within your rights to of course, but will you?

Yes absolutely.

[fourspoons]

Driver101 said:

Yes.

Apart from the obvious differences, how would you say a track day doesn't come close to racing?

People are still on track driving their cars as fast as they possible can.

To a point I agree with you, but it doesn't matter. One is competitive, the other is not, that's all that matters. That's the distinction BMW want to use in their warranty wording and that's what they are held to.

If the exclusion was 'driving very fast on a track' they could have refused.

Edited by fourspoons on Thursday 5th February 15:55

[fourspoons]

Megaflow said:

It's unlikely we will ever know. The dealership won't investigate it, the engine will be put in the crate the new one comes in and it will be sent back to the factory where it was assembled for forensic diagnosis.

Yes, that's exactly what they told me would happen. I don't think I'll ever know the root cause.

[fourspoons]

Just a minor update to say that the dealerships' initial estimates on a repair time frame were wildly optimistic.

It'll be 3 weeks since the breakdown this weekend. Apparently the new engine is in but there have been problems with a few other bits and a new fuel pump has gone on and some sensor has been ordered.

The car still hasn't actually moved so they still don't know if the gearbox is knackered or not yet.

Still, if I am looking on the positive side, 3 weeks in a manual 320d has at least totally reaffirmed by decision to buy a petrol automatic.

[fourspoons]

ging84 said:

And probably saved you £50 a week in fuel

Well it would if I did a significant number of miles of course. But my 100 miles per week, not so much.

[fourspoons]

I could try I suppose but after the initial saga that might be pushing my luck a bit too far?
After waiting for authorisation and then delivery of the engine, they have only really been working on it for 2 weeks which I don't think is unreasonable for the amount of work involved...

[fourspoons]

OK well good news. I have the car back today and everything appears to be running nicely.
Despite the initial 'problems' the service I've had since BMW authorised the work has been very good.
They even took some pictures of the damage for me. I'm no expert so I'm not sure exactly what's occurred.

[fourspoons]

fushion julz said:

I know my car is different (E30 M3), but I ran a bearing a few years ago on a trackday at Brands Hatch...My car was obviously well out of any warranty so I had no basis for any sort of claim, but I did a bit of research as to why the bearing failed.
I discovered the primary cause was oil starvation in (principally) left hand corners. The sump in the S14 motor is quite small (4.5litres) and is totally unbaffled. Oil surge if the oil level falls too low...a simple (bolt in) addition to the sump to provide a baffle around the pump pick-up cured the issue.

A conrod letting go is likely to be caused by a failed bearing (or possibly a failed big end cap bolt) and this is likely to be caused by oil starvation. Personally, if I was going to use the car on a track again I'd be looking at baffling the sump...cost is minimal and benifits are huge!

Thanks for that. Interestingly Silverstone is mostly right hand corners.
Ironically if I modified the sump they would invalidate my warranty in a heartbeat but I can keep getting free engine replacements for 3 years