3 years ago
X1 on FIRE after battery replacement at DEALRSHIP
X1 on FIRE after battery replacement at DEALRSHIP
On December 15, 2020 I have battery replaced on my 2015 X1 at BMW London Dealership. After the batter was replaced the shuttle picked me up around noon to drive me back to dealership to pick up the car.
I started the car and ABS light went off and the car had difficult time turning on. I shut it down and restart the car and it was ok. I thought I will stop at the store to buy something and see if it is going to repeat. After I was done in the store I started the car and it had difficult time turning the engine again so I decided to go back to the dealership. I drove back and as I was pulling in the bay at the dealership, I noticed a heavy smoke in the trunk. I opened the trunk and the battery, battery s cover and plastic on the top were on FIRE. I run into dealership and told them the car is on the fire. It took them a minute to get the fire distinguisher and put out the fire. They loaned me new X3 and kept the car to fix it.
After nobody called me from dealership for three days I called them on December 18 and talked to Sean Finn The service manager. Apparently they suspended mechanic who connected the wires wrong and he did apologize. However, he said that car will be fixed and I can pick up the car at the end of the month. I told him, the car was on fire and as such, the resale value of the car now is zero. Nobody would buy BMW 2015 with 72K on it that was on fire. On the top of it, I cannot drive that car anymore. I have nightmares since that happened.
They don t understand, if I did not returned to the dealership, the battery explosion would more likely kill me and more likely somebody else. Also the battery is next to the tank, which was full. The insurance would go after them, police and firefighters with the bill for their services. Not to mention how many lawsuits they would go through.
I tried to negotiate a trade in for the car but they are not willing to work with me.
The bottom line is: I gave them the car to replace batter and I would like to have my car back - minus fire. In my opinion the car is worthless - nobody would buy the car with electrical fire. I will escalate the issue with BMW North America, report to BBB, meeting with lawyer on December 29 and see what my next steps are. Will post updates as they come here so everybody can see. If you can buy car somewhere else, do it. This dealership is not worth your time and effort. They never heard about the customer satisfaction, o wait, they first need to learn how to replace battery without causing the fire.