2008 BMW 335XI – Fuel Delivery Lemon Story (Part 2)

By: Brenton Blawat

Part 1 – Lemon Law Over / Issue Logs

Part 2 – Contacting the Dealer / Manufacturer – UPDATED!

I apologize for taking so long to get this article posted to the internet. It has taken since January 23, 2009 till to June 2009 to come to a final resolution with BMW of North America. I am writing this article as a guide on how you can approach your dealership to assist you PRIOR to claiming a lemon on a vehicle to get a peaceful resolution.

Two IMPORTANT things to know:

1. Your dealership is NOT liable for any portion of vehicle failing when you purchase or lease a BRAND NEW vehicle. – This means that barging into your dealership demanding for a new vehicle won’t work. In fact, according to lemon law, your dispute is between the car manufacturer and yourself. – Be kind to your local dealer; they DON’T have to help you.

2. BMW is only obligated to follow the State and Federal lemon laws. Additional damages are typically not granted to anyone pursuing the lemon law. Claiming you will sue the dealership for thousands of dollars for lost time will get you no where but out the door. Stay calm and collected and the dealership will assist you.

Success! A FAIR resolution.

First, a special THANK YOU, goes out to Dan Jansen of International Autos for being patient with my relentless calls on the delivery of my new vehicle. Without Dan’s assistance and understanding, I would not have been able to receive my substitution of collateral. Thank you again!

1. Keeping Records

As shown in my earlier post, I had to keep all of the paperwork for the repairs on my vehicle. While having an issue occur 5 times, is annoying, you have to remember BMW is great at providing a replacement vehicle while you vehicle is in the shop. Keep the records so that you can prove your case to the BMW of North America. It’s about the BMW doing the right thing; not that you’ve been inconvenienced.

2. Contacting the Sales Manager at Local Dealership.

The first step is contacting the Sales Manager at the local dealership. Tell them you have been having problems with your vehicle and are interested in performing a substitution of collateral. A substitution of collateral is basically a vehicle exchange. In a substitution of collateral, BMW of North America will buy back your current vehicle and trade it out for a different vehicle on the lot. This also works for leased vehicles (such as in my case). The difference in cost of the vehicles will be charged charged to you. However, I was charged the DEALERSHIP COST difference versus the MSRP cost difference. This saved me over $3,500.00 by having the dealership extend their costs to me.

The Sales Manager will be required to contact the service manager; but keeping the sales manager as your point person will help tremendously.

3. Service Manager Sign-off

The service manger is required to review your service records to see if the reoccurring issue has to do with the same problem. The KEY component is to remain focused on the actual LEMON Law verbiage with the service manager. While the service manager may say I replaced different components each time the law states: “The dealer failed four times to fix the same defect;”. The “defects” by law are generic; not physical components. (EG Car will not maintain idle on start)
The service manager will sign off on the substitution of collateral and it will be passed back to the Sales Manager.

4. Regional BMW Representative Sign-off

In order for BMW of North America to accept the substitution of collateral, the regional BMW Representative is required to sign off on the contract. In most cases if the Sales Manager and the Service Manager sign-off on the collateral, the sign-off from the Regional BMW Representative just becomes a formality.

Once the Regional BMW Representative Signs-off the substitution of collateral paperwork is complete and the physical delivery of the vehicle can be performed.

5. (Optional) Upgrades

In 2009, BMW released a 335 with a “M Sport Package” that I opted to purchase. I purchased this upgrade at dealership cost with Paddle Shifters and a few other extras to completely trick out the vehicle.

If you are NOT interested in upgrading the vehicle, the dealership can provide you either:

a) a new vehicle off of their lot.

b) a new vehicle to be manufactured in Germany.

Since I upgraded the vehicle with a package that was not available yet, I chose “Option B” and it took an extra 60 days to deliver the substitution of collateral.

6. End Result

BMW of North America agreed continue my existing lease with a New 2009 BMW 335i X-Drive. This means that I got a 0 mile vehicle 1 year into my lease and my residual payout for the 2009 BMW 335i X-Drive is at the cost of a 2008 BMW 335XI. A GREAT DEAL, and completely FAIR to me. I still have my 45,000 miles to use in the remaining two years.

If anyone needs more details I’ll be more than happy to assist you.