i bought a new 323i in yr 2000 and put 40k miles on it till now. Yestreday the car didnot move when i put it on reverse. I took it to the dealer today and he says that the transmission needs to be replaced. and it costs $ 4125 USD. To my bad fate, the warranty just expired 8 weeks ago.

Being a BMW i didnt expect the transmission to go bad so soon, ie 40k miles?. has anybody experienced this before. Do u all think i am being ripped?. How do i make sure that the dealer is actually putting a "real" brand new Transmission after coughing $4125 USD. I am kinda feeling cheated adn that the BMW shud cover this right?

Any sugegstions/inputs greatly appereciated,


Thanks in advance for any info,

Regards,
Prabhu

IF you've followed the 'Maintanence Schedule' to the letter, AT the dealer [hopefully the same dealer], complain immediately to the Service Manager, AND find out from him/her how to contact the District Service Rep. AT ONCE.
Warrantees are warrantees, but 8 weeks and @ 40K, COME ON ! ! ! [not you, BMW]. This isn't unheard of but I've known of people who've complained loud enough [ after giving the dealer a chance to get it covered under 'Goodwill' ]. A local dealer even replaced a gentleman's V8 on his just purchased '94 540i even though the engine turned out NOT to be the problem........long story.......anyway, give them a couple of days then raise hell ! !

Jeff: Thank you for the response,
What did u mean by people having complained loud enough? and what did u mean when u said raise hell?. I would like to do the same thing

I am just trying to measure the degree of "complaining" required so that its effective enough to get it the job done. I also know the "if u dont ask u done get" prinicple.

BTW, unfortunately the car was bought while i was in texas and now im in florida.

Also teh split up dealer gave me was; $3200 for parts and $925 for labor.

This is unbelievable, my 2000 323 which has 57000 miles has just started showing the same symptoms you described. Did you notice the engine reving higher when you would reverse before is actually failed completely? Or was this a complete failure all at once? My only advice on the price is to join the Car Club of America, most dealers will give you at least 10% of on parts. Let me know how you progress with the complaining. This will be the second major repair I have had to make since the warranty expired.

'pvp4010', hummmm, The chances of a 'Goodwill' repair from BMWNA are always better if you've had a steady relationship with a dealer, which you haven't, and this is understandable under any circumstances today with the 'quality' of many dealer service departments. They're not all bad, but......
Have they offered you anything in the way of 'compassion', monetary or otherwise??
Since it's the weekend, you might be well served spending sometime reviewing past posts on this forum concerning this type of situation. I've only been on this forum a few months but I recall other posts and stories of this type.
Unfortunately, some include problems with vehicles still under warranty that dealers hadn't yet been able to resolve. These might be funny if they weren't so tragic.
The more info you can share the more help I, or someone else, might be.
I think some plan for you before monday's advisible................jeff b.

Well here is some relief for me: today saturday i got a call from the dealer. After ihad pestered them enough yesterday, looks like in the back stage they were trying to contact BMW (i donno know who in BMW district manager/sales ??), and that the dealer now says that BMW will cover for the part and i need to cover the labor- 1000USD approx.

I dont know if its a mind game(like u tella person first that it costs 4000 and then call him next day and tell him its only cost him 1000 so that the customer feels he was "very fortunate" and signs up for 1000 dollars...u know what i am saying).

Jeff: do u know how many hrs of labor do they typically charge for this ?. The dealer is going to keep my car for a week atleast.? I am trying to figure if they are ripping me on labor charges?.

This is unbelievable, my 2000 323 which has 57000 miles has just started showing the same symptoms you described. Did you notice the engine reving higher when you would reverse before is actually failed completely? Or was this a complete failure all at once? My only advice on the price is to join the Car Club of America, most dealers will give you at least 10% of on parts. Let me know how you progress with the complaining. This will be the second major repair I have had to make since the warranty expired.


I didnot observe engine reving higher.

I hardly use the acccelarator in reverse gear. usually i put it in reverse and the car starts to move and i take the turn and get out of parking lot. never had to accelerate till now(atleast in past 4 months)/ so i donot know whether it was already going bad . But recently even when i put it in reverse gear it didnt move , (even if i pressed the accelarator). So i dont think it was a sudden stop issue. Probably i didnt notice it degrading on daily basis.

Why dont you have them do the software update that is supposed to correct that issue before replacing the trans. it cant hurt to try.

the labor is 6-7 hrs. I'll check on 'crash's idea tues. but don't remember a reprogram that covers this.....but I've been wrong before [more than once]...[more than twice...........jeff b.

There's about 7 bullentins for your trans., natually none covered your failure. Once cars are 'out' or 'close' to being out of warranty, BMW and most others stop issueing SIB's except in extreme circumstances or for safety issues, for financial reasons I think...........