BMW won't repair my car under warranty

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I bought a 520D Touring from Stratstone Leeds last year and over Christmas it developed an issue. On 3 separate occasions when opening the doors with the key fob, after getting into the driver's side the door would then not close/latch. To keep the door closed I would have to pull it closed and push down the door lock. Once this was done then the door would not open again for some time from either the inside or the outside. On another occasion on opening the doors with the key fob, the driver's door would not open. So today I dropped the car in to get it repaired and also told them about a vibrating noise that was coming from the driver's side to look into.

So towards the end of the day I got a call saying they had identified the problem. They said that water has got inside the door which has caused the lock and release cable to rust. They say that this issue has been caused by different speakers being fitted in the door which is also the cause of the vibrating noise. Because of this they say that the repair will not be covered under warranty. So this has p***ed me off as you can imagine! I didn't know I was buying a car that had been modified in any way and so therefore would have no idea that the warranty would have been void.- if I had know I wouldn't have bought it. How likely is it that replacing the speakers would have caused a leak which would cause the lock to fail? Where does the responsibility lie around this? For all I know, I bought the car with the fault already there - surely I can't have been expected to take the car apart to check for modifications?

So the Service department have told me that it will cost £570.85 to fix and to take it up with the Sales department. Has anyone had anything similar happen to them or know where I might stand with this? Thanks

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FWIW said:

What did the sales department say?

That's today's job. They were closing as I picked the car up yesterday

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hilly10 said:

If it’s covered by AUC then surely it’s covered as you say how are you to know the speakers have been changed. Standup to them and demand they put it right, speak to the Dealer Principal. I think they are trying it on. There is no way I would pay up.

I bought my 5 20d Touring covered by AUC in October it’s just over three years old, when I spoke to the salesman he assured me it’s as good as a new car warranty underwritten by BMW themselves

My car was 18 months old when I bought it so it's still within the original manufacturer's warranty. The dealer told me before I bought it that he knew who the original buyer was and that it had been kept in good condition. There's no way I would have expected anything to have been changed in the car.

E-bmw said:

Unfortunately in most terms & conditions on things like this have a clause saying basically that ignorance is no defence, and I am not being nasty to you in saying this.

I'm not sure how the ignorance is on my side though? The dealership purchased the car back and didn't check and probably didn't ask whether the car had been modified in any way. I'm not sure why exactly I should be punished for this?

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Thanks all, the above gives me some good arguments to go back to the sales guys with and BMW customer service if I get no luck there. I'll report back on any progress

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superlightr said:

the sticky wicket will be if BMW say that they believe the OP put in the speekers/did the work after buying the car.

I don't believe this to be strong grounds if it were argued in court as the OP sounds believable but be prepared for that. Any pics saved of the car and speakers - unlikely I know.

I'm waiting for the service department to send me over pictures they took with the door card off. I'm not worried about them arguing that I made the change. If this ever got to court there's no proof at all that I ever bought speakers or anything else to modify the car

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Smuler said:

Go straight to someone Senior. Head of Used Car Sales for example. See if their website gives names. Shows you mean business.

I'm looking for contact details now. I'm willing to kick up enough fuss with whoever I can to get it sorted!

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DanL said:

ou may have phrased this badly, but presumably you mean you didn't have different speakers fitted, rather than there just being "no proof" that this is the case?

You're right, I did phrase that badly! I meant that I'm not worried about them accusing me of replacing the speakers because I didn't and so therefore there will be no proof of this!

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CRA1G said:

Lets hope they haven't got somthing in writing to say the previous owner hadn't fit the speckers..?

There's only one previous owner so if they were to have something like this then it would just be a lie!

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Hi all, so I have an update from today. On Thursday I sent an email to the branch business manager detailing my issue and the response I had from the service department. I copied in a few other members of staff as well as customer services for BMW and Graeme Grieve (MD for BMW UK). I used several of the arguments given by you guys and insisted that I wanted the issue fixed and any other remedial work carried out to put the doors back to stock.

This morning I received an email from a customer service representative who was asked to look into it by Graeme. She subsequently chased the branch manager and told me it was being looked into and she would keep an eye on the progress. Before I received this email, I had also chased via Stratstone's Facebook page to see whether my email had been received. So inadvertently the business manager would have been prodded from a couple of sources this morning.

This afternoon I received a call from the branch assistant manager apologising for the mix up as he said it was strange that this shouldn't have been fixed in the first place under warranty. So the car is now booked in for next week to fix the door issue as well as put right anything that the previous owner might have messed up. So both doors should be looked at now.

Thanks for all your replies backing up my position! It definitely gave more more confidence in asking for the issues to be put right. I don't know how much difference it might have made copying in the MD but it certainly didn't do any harm!