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| - RE: Service department
My X6 died on the Freeway on I17 on my way back from Flagstaff without any warning so I had it towed to the dealership where I bought it from. There, I was assured that the only problem was that I needed a 600$ battery. The same battery you get at Autozone for 150$ but BMW has a racket going where they make you buy their brand, which has to be registered to the car.
3 Months later the same thing happened again. This time on SR51. The way this car dies when the battery goes out is all electronic systems including transmission go out. That is incredibly dangerous on a freeway. Being stuck and without the ability to signal that the car died is horrible.
Back in the dealership, they say the alternator is out, which they couldn't detect the last time I took it in. Now they want 2200 to replace it in addition to the 600 I already paid to have the battery replaced, which didn't really need to be replaced. I got the alternator fixed somewhere else for under 600 with a lifetime warranty alternator.
The positive outcome was that I wasn't charged again for diagnosing the alternator issue, seeing that I'm out of warranty.
UPDATE:
Chapman Manager contacted me to explain that it was not their fault that they couldn't diagnose the bad alternator when it went out the first time because alternators don't show up bad right away.
During the call I asked about the airbag recall that I have on my car, for which BMW has no parts to fix, and which affects the trade-in value of my BMW. Seeing that I still owe money on it, I would have to take a 7K loss on if trading it in for an non-BMW. If I was to buy another BMW, they have incentives to cover the recall-driven depreciation, but I'm no longer interested in anything that has to do with vehicles out of München.
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