2018 F31 LCI 330d xdrive Front camber out of spec

What, so they check every wheel in their AUC checks, bullsh1t. I’ve had many a used BMW at similar age to yours with faults that should have been picked up, i’d be surprised if they even look at the outside of the wheels.

 

AUC wheel check

One on each corner.....pass
Reasonably round....pass
Got allegedly 3mm tread....pass. If not replace with the cheapest tyre you can find and pass

Have you actually agreed to pay for any repairs or been told how much ?

 

i’ve now received a breakdown of the costs for the repair which is £2.5 retail and they brought down to £1.5k and expecting me to pay.

i have no intention of paying and will be quoting the Consumer Rights Act this afternoon and giving them one opportunity to resolve at their expense to my satisfaction.

Has anyone else on the forum been charged a usage fee per mile so in the event i ask for a refund then i can get a gauge of what is a reasonable charge that the dealer would deduct from my refund.

 

Did the dealer provide a courtesy car for those 9 days to keep you mobile? If not it might be worth using that as a bargaining ploy

I've formally rejected 3 cars in my 40 years driving experience

W reg Golf GTI, bought new. It went back to the dealer at least a dozen times with various faults, within the first few months. VW got involved and it was replaced at no cost

Audi TT, again bought new. Forever back to the dealer. Eventually replaced and ithink I was charged 10 pence a mile (cost me virtually nothing as it had spent most of it's time at the dealership)

Audi A4 (bit of a VAG theme developing) bought as an AUC 3 months old from a main dealer. Warning lights came on before I got home. Dealer collected it the following day. Dropped off an A4 courtesy car. They had it about two weeks during which time I heard nothing. Spoke to the DP and suggested I was considering rejecting it. He immediately agreed an offered me a refund and return of my 320d, which they still had awaiting DVLA to process the cherished transfer. Quite painless

Vowed then never to have another VW or Audi.

As far as I can recall HMRC allow a claim of 45 p per mile if using your own car for employers work....that figure includes fuel, wear and tear, depreciation, insurance etc. I'd be suggesting to the dealer a full refund and reimbursement for your time, trouble, and inconvenience etc but be prepared to accept a no cost solution. Put it all in an email to the DP

 

Thanks for the advice and sharing your experiences.

I’ve had use of a loan car for the duration.

I am sending an email to the dealer principle requesting a full refund and let’s see what he comes back with.

Legally I have to give them an opportunity to fix, so if they do that for free then that may be a reasonable outcome.

Tony Bones at Wheels in Motion (he did the original alignment check) is happy to validate the dealerships Alignment check for free again, so that will give me some piece of mind if I got down that route.

I’ll keep this post updated as things move forward.

 

My 535i wore the rear tyres on the inside edge and I had the car from new and it had never been hit.

The first set of rear tyres were borderline illegal as the vast majority of the tyre was fine. I replaced the rears and forgot about it, but shortly before I sold the car, I had it serviced and my dealer advised a 4 wheel alignment as the inside edge, was again way lower than the rest of the tyre.

It wasn't tyre pressures, as I checked them regularly.

I think the alignment had been out from new, so nothing would surprise me...

 

I’m stuck in a bit of of limbo at the moment. Dealer principle is not returning my calls or responding to my emails.

I’ve raised a customer complaint with BMW UK although not holding out much hope as the issue is with this dealer.

See attached list of components to replace.

What are people’s views on the cause of this damage. Looking at other forums people have had similar issues when driving into a kerb or having an accident.

If I don’t get anywhere in the week it looks like my next step is to report the dealership to the Motor ombudsman.

As always peoples views and opinions welcome.

 

That's not good. I would have thought that BMW UK would put some pressure on the dealer to rectify this, especially as you had the car less than a month before discovering the problem. Definitely not the kind of problem you expect when buying an Approved Used car.

I hope that you get it sorted.

 

Do you have any way to contact the previous owner to see if the car had been in an accident? Maybe the supplying dealer repaired it (or not) before sale? I would have thought it’s at least had a new wheel if the impact is big enough to damage the suspension, is there any record of this? There is a number you can phone to give you the complete service/repair history, I believe the number is on the BMW website and it’s £1 per minute, but it may show up something from previous.

 

Re the history of this vehicle, when I purchased it used from the dealer the sales person advised that it was ex demo of theirs. However during a recent discussion with the sales manager recently he wasn’t sure. it’s definitely something I’ll try to pursue and try the phone number suggested.

 

Have you signed up and logged into the Connected Drive web site? On there you may find the details of the services etc in the electronic history section. A long shot but if the car has had some official BMW dealer work it should have been logged in there.

 

Dont worry about the DP not returning your calls /emails, it normally takes them a few days. Give it a few days then ring the dealership, ask for the DP, if not available ask to speak to the senior member of management who is working that day.

Then ask them to get hold of the DP.

Do you still have "a hostage" in the courtesy car ? Accepting they also have a hostage

 

The phone number is
0906 209 0001

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, having their courtesy car gives me some leverage and some interest from the dealer to get to a resolution.

 

Thanks I’ll try that number.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, but unfortunately it just shows no history available.

 

Given that I understand you have had the car less than 6 months, the the 2015 Consumer Rights Act should come into force here. Any fault appearing in the 1st 6 months is deemed under the act to have been pre-existing at the time of sale unless the dealer can prove otherwise. Basically, you're entitled to a repair paid for by the supplying dealer if the car is faulty. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/buying-or-repairing-a-car/problems-with-a-used-car/ and https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/a...e-consumer-work/the-consumer-rights-act-2015/
If they said it was an ex-demo at the time of sale and subsequently confirm that it is not, you've got them on that as well, misrepresentation.

 

Thanks for the information,I was aware of that. I believe that I can also invoke Section 75 of the Consumer Credit act as I paid a deposit on my credit card.

The dealerships position is that through their inspection they’ve identified the wheel is buckled and therefore they are pinning it on me, that it happened whilst I’ve owned the vehicle.

The dealership maintains that there was no wheel buckle at the point of sale (AUC checklist) so these issues must have occurred during my ownership of the vehicle. Hence why were in a bit of a stand off at the moment and this is their evidence against a consumer rights act claim. Very tenuous I know.

At the point of sale, I insisted they share a copy of their AUC checklist for this vehicle and of course everything was fine. I can’t see anything on the checklist that would identify a wheel buckle and the dealer has already agreed that the suspension issues are not noticeable on a test drive.

Other forums members have quite rightly pointed out that those checks are not that comprehensive.

I’ll be pushing the dealer principle next week for a solution.

 

Quick update. The dealer principle is not accepting liability for this as their used car checks were completed.

I’ve now gone back through to BMW UK and escalated it that route as this dealership is actually owned by BMW UK.

Looks like i might have to go via the a Motor Ombudsman route.

It really feels like i’ve been out in my own in a limb on this one (with the exception of this forum of course).

 

I assume the dealership are saying this is "sccidental damage" and therefore not covered by any warranty as it is nor a manufacturing defect ?

How soon after purchase did you notice the problem and inform the dealers....the longer the period of time / more miles driven by you the harder it will be to prove that the damage was present at point of sale !