Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzounis
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.
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Man it's hard to say what to do. Yes it will seem sketchy as hell with the extended warranty. I'd go as far to say they won't cover it. I'd try to get the dealership to give the part for free and you do the work if they are really worried about money. And it is something as small as the air filter not being replaced to know they didn't check the car over like they said. They cleaned it up, did an oil change (maybe) and let it slide. But if you have a second car for the time being maybe drive that and try the warranty. I really don't have a clue. I know when I had my extended warranty it was 90 days before i could claim anything. But it never helps to wait the 60 days and then claim and if they ask say the car failed in 6 weeks you've had the inconvenience of driving it around for 2 months before you can make the claim. That is why you bought an extended warranty....to pay for crap like this. The actuator issue is one of the MAJOR issues people are concerned about with the E9x M3. The plastic/nylon gears are shit and need to be recalled to have aluminum ones installed in my opinion. I see with the e9x M3 BMW is really shy away from the known problems and not issuing recalls like they should be. To make the part probably cost $100 at best.and labor they are only losing what they pay their techs per hour not the normal shop rate of $125 per hour. I'd raise hell and not be Mr nice guy about this. They knew this before hand...they had to.