[Sahil]

The BMW is entering it's 3rd year (gosh, time does fly faster than this car fly's ) She went in for service last week and several issues that have come up over the past few years were ironed out.

Problems attended to at 50k service:
-Suspension had become hard even though I am not running on RFTs: Front Suspension changed

-Vibration sound from exhaust assembly was a recurring problem and car had been sent thrice before: Exhaust assembly serviced and remounted, problem seems to have gone but only time will tell.

-Smoke on hard downshifts has been a long term(this has been blamed on traffic conditions making the car run on rich fuel mixture, a few bursts does reduce the smoke): Element and exhaust service

-Battery replaced

-iDrive hung a few times on startup: iDrive software updated after battery replacement

-Wiper blades replaced

-Regular 50k service: oil,filters etc

Total damage: 1.5Lakhs
Total damage to me: NIL . I love BSI

Other major parts replaced in the past under BSI:
-All brake pads & discs
-Engine mounts
-Turbo replacement during it's early days as oil had seeped in causing black smoke

Grievances:
-Often takes days for Navnit to schedule an appointment. BMW should ramp up the service to match their booming sales.

-Service took over a week this time as often the major parts have to be called for under BSI which causes delays

-Several smaller issues such as minor rattle from door sils and steering hardness etc do at times get overlooked when other major work is to be done

That being said, I would still stick with Navnit as they know BMW's before anyone else did in India and the biggest reason for me being a Navnit loyalist is BHPIAN Maverick who is ever so helpful and knows his machines well.

Overall experience with the car over the past 3 years:
She still has me smiling almost the same way as she did on day one, enuf said

[ajmat]

Great crisp review.

The Turbo is the weakpoint for the BMW diesel, many complaints about blown seals. Also check intake manifold swirl flaps, these can break off leading to a new engine. You can tell if something is not write if the idling is poor. I believe these can be replaced by a blanking plate but you might loose some of the efficiency - okay solution for an older car. Since you are covered by BSI, you sohuld have no worry

[luky_13]

Originally Posted by Sahil

-Suspension had become hard even though I am not running on RFTs: Front Suspension changed

I have known few other BMW owners get their front suspension overhauled within 50K kms. Although it is subjective to the kind of roads the car is driven, but considering German engineering i was expecting these overly priced monsters did much better.

-Engine mounts
-Turbo replacement during it's early days as oil had seeped in causing black smoke

I read GTO had his C220 intercooler pipes replaced within 60K. Again these are subjective to driving conditions, but within 50K Is this normal ? I have had no experience with cars in this segment, so it would be nice to update my information database.

Originally Posted by ajmat

Great crisp review.

The Turbo is the weakpoint for the BMW diesel, many complaints about blown seals. Also check intake manifold swirl flaps, these can break off leading to a new engine.

This is scary, am i missing something here? Aren't we talking about a car that costs 40~50 lakhs on road.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by Sahil

-Suspension had become hard even though I am not running on RFTs: Front Suspension changed

Meaning? the whole thing or just shocks? Good to change rear too in that case.

[Sahil]

@luky- don't dwell too much into the turbo change as there was no defect, just that I insisted on a replacement and they obliged. It made no diff for or against the problem.

@mpower- the whole thing was changed. The rear was checked to be fine I guess.

[BeamerBoy]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Total damage: 1.5Lakhs
Total damage to me: NIL . I love BSI

Other major parts replaced in the past under BSI:
-All brake pads & discs
-Engine mounts
-Turbo replacement during it's early days as oil had seeped in causing black smoke

That's a good expense. BTW, how much did you pay for that BSI on your car?

Is it time for you to upgrade your BSI package? You can now check for the 6th year BSI as well.

[Sahil]

Originally Posted by BeamerBoy

That's a good expense. BTW, how much did you pay for that BSI on your car?

Is it time for you to upgrade your BSI package? You can now check for the 6th year BSI as well.

Paid approx 2.7L for the 5yr/100,000km.

I think I'll let her go by the 5th year so don't think I'd be taking on the 6th year BSI. (Did not know they even offered it)

Infact, if I am itching to take on the pre-worshiped route. So if and when I find a sweeeet deal from segments above the 5series, I just might let her go earlier.

[PlatzdaTurbo]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Infact, if I am itching to take on the pre-worshiped route. So if and when I find a sweeeet deal from segments above the 5series, I just might let her go earlier.

In which case , we should soon start keeping an eye out for a looong and huge car with silver Reg. plates that read perhaps.....760 ???? eh Sahil ?

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by Sahil

@luky- don't dwell too much into the turbo change as there was no defect, just that I insisted on a replacement and they obliged. It made no diff for or against the problem.

Not sure what that means...

Turbo change did not solve the problem?
Or there was no problem and still turbo was changed?

[n.devdath]

Reading all this makes me think; When such are the wear and tear issues with vehicles costing INR 50.00 lacs, we shouldn't even smirk at our desi Safaris and Scorpios for their tantrums.
And Maruti sounds like the best car in the world to me now.

[FlyingSpur]

Originally Posted by Sahil

Total damage: 1.5Lakhs
Total damage to me: NIL . I love BSI

Thank you for clearing any doubts in my mind about whether the BSI was worth it !! I suppose the reason why the car took a week to sort out was because of the suspension components, what other major work was there anyway?

Going by your usage, 5y/100k is completely justified.

[anandpadhye]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

Reading all this makes me think; When such are the wear and tear issues with vehicles costing INR 50.00 lacs, we shouldn't even smirk at our desi Safaris and Scorpios for their tantrums.
And Maruti sounds like the best car in the world to me now.

You said it.
With Skoda offering Audi technology for less than half the price and Hyundai launching the Genesys like cars, it's time for reality check...

[Dippy]

A to the point and crisp review. Going by what you have put down BSI seems to be the best thing around. Mercedes wake up. They really need something like this.

have you taken the 5year BSI option for the 520 as well

Originally Posted by Sahil

Infact, if I am itching to take on the pre-worshiped route. So if and when I find a sweeeet deal from segments above the 5series, I just might let her go earlier.

I dont see anything but a 7 going into your garage. I remember how smitten you were when we were both checking it out at the F10 launch

[Sahil]

Maybe, I spoke too soon about about the car making me smile like it did from day one. This time it made me frown and how !

After the service the car worked fine, just like every other day, I took it to the office but little did I know of the shocker that was to follow. Started the car in the evening, felt the steering jam at full turn when the car was stationary, I shut the car and got out to inspect is there was any stone in the way. Restarted the car and the steering felt normal, I still did a few turns to check if all was well and then proceeded about 500 meters where I had to take a right turn into a lane, the steering almost jammed, with a car heading towards me !! Fortunately I was able to put some additional force and managed to park it at the side of the lane. There was smoke coming out of the engine bay with a peculiar smell.

Called BHPian Maverick who works at BMW Navnit Service and as always he was ever helpful to have a flat bed towing truck sent to recover the car within 2 hours.
Surprisingly it wasn't a power steering failure as I suspected but worse.The problem has been diagnosed to the engine, main belt pulley/vibration damper being cracked. It is being replaced with belts and tensioners and the car will be back this evening itself.

I have requested Maverick to escalate the matter to BMW head office as this is unpardonable. I was lucky to have been just 1km away from home, had I been on the highway this could have turned ugly,very ugly.(High possibility as my father made a day-trip to Pune yesterday but thankfully took the Fortuner instead)
In my fathers words this morning "I had built a lot of trust and love for BMW in that past 3 years but this one incident has washed it all off now." I hate to admit, but I kinda agree.

This is the second time the car has broken down, the first, which I don't completely hold against them was when the car jumped a speed-breaker and the left suspension arm clip gave way but was replaced free of cost as there were several complaints on the same.

The issue is not that the problems are being resolved free of cost thanks to BSI or BMW goodwill, it is getting increasingly annoying that the car has to frequent the workshop ever so often. And such a major part failure resulting in a break-down of a car thats just 3 years old is inexcusable. Moreover, this occuring only a few days after the car spent a week at the workshop for 50,000km service, how or why wasn't this detected ??
I had complained about engine vibration in the past and they tried every measure possible such as engine mount change etc to resolve it, the only thing left was the main pulley belt but it was not replaced because it wasn't in stock back then and also because it was too early to change the same.
Maybe BMW needs to learn that the Indian driving conditions will not let the car withstand their usual service checklist. There must be thorough checks put in to every detail as problems that are 'unusual' might be usual here.

It was disheartening to see her being towed and did some damage to BMW's image as the car was parked at a busy bandra road and many cars, several of which were high end ones slowed down in shock with a disgusted look for the car and a sympathetic look for me.

I highly doubt I will have ever get that peace of mind for this car back.

Mods- Please edit thread title accordingly.Thanks.

[lamborghini]

Hey Sahil,

Sad to hear about what happened. Also very surprised to see so many part failures in such a short span of time. I was under the impression that BMW was amongst the most reliable premium European vehicles.
Hope this is a one off case, and does not happen to other E60s.

Our 525d on the other hand has been reliable in its 2 years, 25,000 km with us so far. Hope nothing happens to her as she is the primary highway vehicle in our house, and we have no BSI to save us our money.