Re: Logical response
E46_Driver said:
Your argument is specious and arguably suspect. Yet I will indulge you point by point:
BMW and BMWNA have not dealt with this multi thousand-vehicle defect in an up front transparent fashion. How many of us have received a letter speaking to this issue? Most have stated that the dealer was initially evasive and unaware.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (link http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/ )
does indeed have more experience in ensuring companies abide by the recall law(s) and are charged with protecting the consumer much more than the persuasive writings of Larry_E.
You dismiss 20,000 automobiles with defective transmissions to be acceptable. How does one respond to such a silly comment? When standard and general industry accepted quality control protocols BMW and its affiliates adhere to are neglected you must logically conclude that they, BMW et al, are “rolling the dice” with their defective steptronic transmissions. Fix, repair at last choice replace transmissions that were none to be defective prior to assembly.
My business? I clean the monkey cages in the basement of the science building. Rarely hear of any mistakes. If the cages were not clean YES I would want to know so corrective action could be implemented. I would also ask if there were any other cages I might not have cleaned per spec. You see I am in business for the long haul not just for minimizing losses. I also fully understand the value of being regarded as a good citizen in business where reputation at the end of the day is all you have.
Point is you portrayed yourself as an aggrieved party at one point seeking information and describing great angst. Now you have been born again into the wonders not only accepting the excuses of BMW but now actively defending/supporting them. What’s up with that?
I did NOT and do not believe BMW/BMWNA are doing everything they can to keep us the consumer informed. Would a letter to the owners of the affected vehicles be logical Larry_E?
Look ... I'm not going to keep going back and forth with you and turn this thread into a flame war. This thread is here (and I keep updating it) to ensure that adequate communications are out there for those in need - not to fry BMW - and not for us to throw darts at one another.
So where did I say that I am dismissing 20,000 defective trannys as acceptable? I mean it's obvious that you are just LOOKING for an argument if you're making that assertion. Yes I agree that it would have been nice if BMW had sent letters. But let me suggest that you do the following: 1) is it customary to send a letter to owners when a problem is discovered, if it is not a safety recall (I have to admit that I'm not sure) 2) even if it is, how long does it typically take an automobile company to do so after discovering and correcting the problem? Remember, all evidence indicates that BMW may not have known the full extent of the problem, but more importantly, the corrective fix, until possibly sometime in December 2003. So ... it's now February, 2004.
Another thing is you really have to look at this as a businessman. So what purpose would it serve to send out notices to 20,000 people recommending that their trannys be replaced if you only have say 500 replacements (remember, the problem may not have been isolated till December ... how long does it take to mass produce something as large as a tranny with new parts?). You seem to be having a lot of trouble understanding this from a business perspective.
Hey ... these things happen. You act like they don't, but they do! There are manufacturing defects and recalls all the time on all makes of autos! It's a piece of machinery manufactured by processes designed by humans! It happens outside the auto industry also! No one is perfect. I'm sorry, but I believe in being reasonable and in giving people a chance to make amens. If you want to chastise me for that, go ahead.
Now ... if after one attempt to fix it, BMW chronically fails to correct the problem ... then I will move more towards your point of view. The Lemon Law in NY requires the car to be brought back in 4 times for the same thing. There's a good reason for that. Because the people in NY who wrote the Lemon Law understand the same thing! That things go wrong with cars, and the manufacturer deserves a chance to correct the problem. Am I happy about the fact that this was discovered on my car with 1500 miles and that I had to have my tranny replaced at 5000 miles? Of course not. Will I be very happy if this is corrected after one attempt to fix it, especially given the dealer's attitude and treatment? Yes ... I will be ecstatic ... I had one car a long time ago that had 4 trannys in it over 7K miles. Now THAT's aggravation!
Your welcome to your opinion. Good Luck!
. I'm just ok with the way they've treated me. They immediately acknowledged it ... in fact ... connected me to the shop foreman who took me through the entire matter describing the technical issue itself. Made an appt. ... they tested it right away ... called me right away confirming the problem. The only issue was it took a few days or so to iron out whether to replace the cluctch pack or the tranny ... and then as to whether the tranny would be new or rebuilt. I simply don't yet feel that need to complain. Yet. If they confirm that my replacement is bad, that may change.![[:D]](/images/smilies/biggrin.png "Big Grin [:D]")
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