NHTSA Complaint #10472519 — 2008 BMW 135I

MY ISSUE: ONE MORNING I STARTED MY CAR TO LEAVE FOR WORK. WHEN IDLING IT FELT A LITTLE ROUGH BUT STOPPED AFTER JUST A MINUTE OR TWO. THE NEXT DAY IT ALSO WAS ROUGH BUT ESCALATED TO A SHAKING AND THE CHECK ENGINE & THE SERVICE ENGINE SOON LIGHT BOTH CAME ON. I TOOK IT TO A EUROPEAN AUTO MECHANIC TO HAVE IT CHECKED OUT. THEIR CODE READER SAID THERE WERE TWO CYLINDERS MISFIRING. WHAT THEY TOLD ME IS THERE IS NO WAY AT 52K MILES THERE ARE BAD INJECTORS, IT MUST BE THE GAS STATION I HAD USED. THEY RECOMMENDED I RUN A TAKE OF GAS FROM A CHEVRON OR SHELL AND ALL SHOULD BE GOOD. THAT IS WHAT I DID. THE PROBLEM PERSISTED. I THEN TOOK IT TO THE SERVICE CENTER AT CHAPMAN BMW ON CAMELBACK IN PHOENIX. I LEFT MY CAR THERE ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON (LUCKILY THERE ARE COURTESY VEHICLES), I GOT A CALL MONDAY FROM MY SERVICE ADVISOR. HE LET ME KNOW THAT I HAVE 4 BAD INJECTORS BUT RECOMMENDS TO REPLACE ALL 6 BECAUSE THERE HAS BEEN AN UPDATED INJECTOR FOR THIS ENGINE. HE ALSO INFORMED ME THAT THERE WAS PREVIOUSLY A RECALL FOR THE INJECTORS IN THIS ENGINE THAT INCLUDED ONLY SELECT CARS. MINE WAS APPARENTLY NOT ONE OF THEM. I WAS WITHOUT MY CAR FOR 5 DAYS AND I HAD TO PAY $2,106.10 TO REPLACE INJECTORS ON A CAR WITH ONLY 52 THOUSAND MILES. FROM WHAT I KNOW AND HAVE HEARD ABOUT BMW, THE INJECTORS SHOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE UNTIL AT LEAST THE 100K MILE MARK. MY QUESTION IS, HOW IS IT ETHICAL FOR A COMPANY CAN MAKE A CUSTOMER PAY $2100 ON A REPAIR THAT THEY KNOW IS AN ISSUE? IF IT WASN'T AN ISSUE THERE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A RECALL ON SOME CARS. THE FACT THAT MY CAR IS ONLY 2 THOUSAND MILES OUT OF WARRANTY ADDS TO THE FRUSTRATION, CLEARLY, MINE SHOULD HAVE BEEN INCLUDED IN THE RECALL. *TR