Complaint Review: BMW of North America - Nationwide

A year ago I decided to take the plunge and lease my first BMW.  Although my last car was a G37, i considered this my first "luxury" vehicle.

I knew exactly what options/features I wanted on my BMW before i even walked in.   It had to have Bluetooth, the key that remains in your pocket at all times and the garage opener built into the rearview mirror.

The dealer told me bluetooth was standard so I was good there.  For the other 2 options I took the Premium package which costs artound 3 grand.

The problems started on day 1.   

• Airbag warning light was on.  Needed to have some kind of wiring harness repaired.
• I-drive randomly rebooted.  This was fixed with a full reset.
• Door latch was stuck in the open position  again this was repaired

Here are the items that could not be repaired.  

Bluetooth - I was told my car had bluetooth with voice dialing.  It turns out it doesn't.  It has the button for it on the stearing wheel but it's inactive.  This is the first time I've ever had the button for an option I never had.  Usually I'll just see the blank spot whrre the button is supposed to be.   Different reps and techs went as far as telling me I was doing something wrong or that it was my phone.   Finally one rep knew that I just didn't have voice dialing.   Sounds pretty stupid that a safety feature such as bluetooth would require that i take my eyes off the road if I needed to make a call.  

Comfort Key -  This was the most important to me.  My G37 had it and I loved it.  I started noticing it wouldn't work all the time and I had to pull the key out of my pocket.  I then realized it wouldn't work when in the same pocket as my iPhone.  This was never an issue with my infiniti or even a Mazda 3 that i rented a while back.  you're telling me that Mazda got it to work right on a car that costs half as mine does?  BMW's response.  "If it works part of the time then it works."

Auto Start stop - This features shuts the car off at a red light to save gas.  The problem is that the feature is so violent that you feel like you're going to hit the car in front of you.   BMW knows how bad it is that they now offer to have this feature adjusted so it is not turned on when the vehicle starts free of charge.   The problem here is the car was sold with a certain MPG rating.  IF you have to have the engine's most advanced feature shut off for safety concerns then it kind of negates the whole eco thing.

USB charger triggers seatbelt chime - The newest issue I'm having with the car.  If you I place my iPad on the passenger seat it's ok.  If It's plugged into the charger while on the seat the seat belt fasten chime starts going off as if there's a human being in the chair.  BMW's response?  I should try a BMW charger as opposed to my apple charger used by almost one thrird of the world.   BTW their charger is $100 and no guaratee it will solve the issue.

To top it all off I tweeted something about my issues and a BMW rep called me.  He contacted the dealership which told all these things are normal except for the issue with the key and that I had never brought it in for that.   

I have the paperwork here in my posession showing that i did and they couldn't fix it.