scfishnman

I was unhappy with the BMW the day I took it home. The car hesitated when starting off normally. The hesitation would be followed by an abrupt acceleration. Of course, if you tried to start off rapidly you did not notice it. My wife constantly complained of the my causing the car to jerk her neck. Initially, the dealer said the car would adjust to my driving style. It didn't. The service dept. checked it, and said there was nothing wrong. Then the check engine light came on. Service had to order the part to fix that. One day after it was fixed, the check engine light came on again. Then the engine malfunction-operating at reduced power light came on. Shortly after that the engine quit when pulling out into heavy traffic. This time the service department claimed to have fixed the hesitation problem (which they previously had claimed did not exist). The cause of the engine failure was a tube coming disconnected from the turbo. They told me the factory rep. looked at the car and stated that he was seeing that problem in several 2011 535i's. The next day I received a factory recall notice for a faulty fuel guage sensor. I told the dealer I was through with this car and asked what he could do for me to replace it. He did not respond. So, I called the MB/BMW dealer in another town and traded it in on the E550. I am very happy with the E550.

bzliteyear

I wouldn't go so far as to say "respect" on BMW for not budging. I think the early production/fewer units(probably to get out the kinks) is why many dealers don't have that many 5-series now and why there's less discounting.

We had the first year X5 back in 2000 and I vowed never to buy first year of new car design - yeah, there's good reason why it's an emotional issue, LOL. bottom line, in 2 years, the new 5-series will be just another mid-size luxury sports car...and you'll be able to find 3 yr old ones for 50% off MSRP(that's what 2008 5-series are going for).

PL

scfishnman

My 2011 535i listed for slightly over $63k. I paid $60k. (dealer had none in stock and manged to get this one from a dealer in Rhode Island (we are in SC)). I got $50k for it on a trade 3 months later, to a MB/BMW dealer. The $50k was actually what he paid me for it -- we settled on the sales price of the Mercedes before any offer was made on the trade. The dealer still had it after 6 weeks and advertised it for $50,950 (make an offer). He finally sold it. Doesn't say much for demand or retention of value does it.

petee1997

I think you were not well served by your BMW dealer. He should have had you in a loaner and made sure your car was perfect before returning it to you. I can see why you are frustrated, bad service plus you took one hell of a bath on the car. That would keep me away from BMW. In my case when I switched to BMW for a few years, my dealer owned both franchises and always looked after me.