Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnetic Fusion
Oh gosh....they cleared the codes and sold the car. They knew it had a problem. You probably drove it 100+ miles and the lights popped on. That's a $4k issue. They need to fix that and make sure they don't lie to you and say that wasn't like that before you both it. I can clear codes with my cellphone. Yes I will stay tuned
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That's exactly what I am beginning to think happened. I will preface this by saying that I'm a sales manager at a franchise dealership and run the used car department. I called and dealt directly with the general sales manager of the BMW dealer (who I won't disclose just yet) to negotiate my purchase, as I am four hours away. He told me what he had in it, how much money he'd like to make on it, and I agreed the price he was giving me was fair and gave him a deposit. He looked the car over for me and texted me detailed pictures of certain areas that I asked about, and disclosed the stitching coming apart on top of the rear seat. He told me told me about the previous owner buying it CPO from them and having it regularly serviced there (which the Carfax confirmed), etc.
There were a few cosmetic issues that weren't disclosed that I noticed when I looked the car over in person, but I wasn't too concerned because I can get most of it fixed for free (curb rash, rock chips, dent in the center of the hood). I was more concerned that the car was
mechanically sound! I even halfway sarcastically asked the service manager if I needed to take it my local BMW dealer to get a PPI. I met him because the driver's seat would not fold back to the normal position and he came to look into it. A penny was evidently lodged in it somehow. His answer was less than reassuring. I expected him to either laugh or even get offended, but he gave a soft no. I also bought the car AS/IS (2008 81k miles, they wanted like $800 for a 3 month/3k mile powertrain warranty). I drove the car home last Thurs, and got the dash lights on Sunday after a total of about 400 miles (most were highway). They go on and off intermittently, but anytime I stab the throttle it goes into limp mode now.
I texted him a pic of the messages, got the code read by one of my technicians and it's P155E/2B26 bank 2 throttle valve actuator. I finally talked to him and told him what it was and how much the part is. I gave him the part number so he could see what his cost is, which he texted me this morning that "the price is $1543.12 and I'll pay half if that helps you". I was hoping to get the part for free. I deal with issues like this on a daily basis and in my world if all someone wanted was the part for free I would gladly do it. If I were a normal retail customer I would have taken it to my BMW dealer and it been given a cost of $3-4k. When poking around under the hood I checked the air filter and it definitely wasn't changed when they serviced it, so that told me right there that if they weren't going to replace a $40 part they certainly weren't going to spend the money to replace a throttle actuator if they knew about it beforehand.
I haven't responded to his text from this morning because I wanted to think about it until Monday and see what you guys thought. I bought a 2yr/24k mi extended powertrain warranty with a $100 deductible through my dealership at cost, but can't use it for 30 days and even then it would look kind of sketchy since I just bought the car. I will basically have to drive it for two months with limp mode always looming until I get it fixed. If he gives me the part for free, I can pay one of my technicians $100 to help me and I can replace it myself.