Daily driving a BMW M340i; 3 challenges faced after 22,000 km

My M340i is still well within warranty and has a maintenance package for 2 more years.

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It's been quite some time since the last update, courtesy the super hectic time I've been having at work.

However, that hasn't prevented me from enjoying this beast every day. The car is now 22,696 km and 459 days old - an average of about 50 km a day. I've done road trips to Kerala twice, Bangalore, Mount Abu and of course multiple trips to nearby locations such as Karjat, Lonavla, Pune etc. Despite having a Tiago EV as my daily driver, I find myself driving the M340i to the office on several days, simply because it helps my day start on a great note.

There have been 2 engine oil/oil filter changes - both times prompted by the car. Both were covered under BSI+ and there were no hassles whatsoever.

So far, there have been 3 challenges with the car:

1. Ground Clearance: The GC of the car is understandably low - this is something I knew when I bought the car. The issue is that speedbreakers in India seldom follow any regulation or logic. As such, climbing over these mini-mountains on roads is challenging. Even with a crab crawl, I've found myself scraping out several times in Mumbai. Haven't had this issue in any other city though.
2. The tyres!: The Pirelli RFTs the car comes with are not at all meant for Indian road conditions. Any undulation or small potholes on the road will cause it to get sidewall bulges. I've had the misfortune to have 4 sidewall bulges in the first year of ownership. 3 times, the front tyres were changed under Secure Advance. The 4th time, the back tyre had a bulge and I promptly changed both back tyres to Michelin PS4S tubeless ones. Sourcing tyres of this size is again another challenge, with the black market claiming as high as 30k per tyre!
3. Rattles: Well, it sounds quite ludicrous that a car costing 85 lacs OTR Mumbai (when I bought it) should develop rattles in such a short period of time and distance. The rattles seem to come from the sunroof and the area below the headliner. I've not had similar issues in any of the cars I've owned before.

On the third point, I did approach Infinity BMW in Turbhe to get it resolved. Imagine my surprise when they came with an estimate of ₹30,000/- to get rattles fixed. I mean, I know BMWs are expensive, but that doesn't mean you agree to get ripped off! I escalated the matter to BMW and a week later, they came back with a revised quote of ₹15k+. Still not a solution that can be considered acceptable, given that all manufacturers - right from Maruti to Honda to Tata to Skoda (cars I've owned in the past) rectify rattles as part of warranty or maintenance package.

My M340i is still well within warranty and has a maintenance package for 2 more years. The service centre even went so far as to say that rattles are caused as a result of road conditions, and therefore not covered in warranty. My view to that was that the car is made in India for sale and use in India. Do they expect owners to drive it on EU roads?

In any case, this is a premium vehicle and definitely shouldn’t be rattling like a bullock cart 1 year and 4 months into ownership.

If it is, it’s a testament to poor build quality by BMW - something I truly did not expect and am absolutely disappointed with.

If BMW feels this isn’t indicative of BMW’s quality standards, then the other rationale can be that this is a defect - which then should be covered by warranty.

Post further escalation, BMW has now asked me to submit the car at the service centre, where they will disassemble and inspect the headliner (what they were charging me 30k for in the first place) and suggest a replacement if required.

I'd be doing that this Saturday, but the whole experience has been underwhelming. BMW has been penny-wise pound foolish in this instance, in my opinion. Especially given I'm probably a customer from whom they're making more money through BSI+ (0 brake pad or even wiper changes in 1.4 years). A premium car should come with a premium ownership experience as well, and haggling on the cost of fixing rattles isn't premium.

That unsavoury experience notwithstanding, the car itself has been absolutely brilliant. I absolutely love it and am super glad I bought this when I did.

As parting shots, sharing a few pictures from my journeys so far.

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