[bluelodge400]

On 3/13/14 I was driving up to Tahoe and about halfway there I get the dreaded “Drivetrain Malfunction” light. The vehicle immediately loses hp and goes into limp mode. I continue driving since it is rush hour traffic and I wanted to get through Sacramento. I immediately call BMW of SF and tell them my problem. They wanted me to pullover ASAP and call a tow truck. That was not an option I was going to do! I was not going to let BMW ruin my mini vacation. I ask to make an appointment for Monday morning and he told me they were booked up for the next 4 weeks. WTF!!! So I made an appointment at another dealer for the following week.

After being in the shop for the next 2.5 weeks, the service department replaced everything from the VANOS Solenoids to control modules. Absolutely every fix they tried, the DM would return after test driving the vehicle for a few miles. I got a call back from the manager letting me know that they will be replacing the engine.

Normally, I would have been very upset but this particular dealer has handled it very well. I was informed daily about what was going on. Since this was a new vehicle, they had to go by what BMW Corporate told them they could and could not change/fix. The dealer took care of having BMW Financial waive one lease payments(they tried for 2 but BMW rejected it), allowed me to change out my loaner car to something more suitable, waived the “no dog allowed in loaner vehicle” policy(I have a 170 pound American Mastiff that comes to work with me every day.) The dealer also fixed warranty work a previous dealer would not do.

In total, it took the dealer 43 days to fix the vehicle.

After getting it back, there’s still a few problems and I dropped it back off this week for them to try and diagnose and fix.

At this point, I would just like BMW to Lemon Law the vehicle and order a new one. Has anyone done this before?

Vehicle Background: 2014 X5 50i MSport (heavily optioned)
Miles: 4,300 at time of DM Light.
Leased: Dec 20th, 2013