A woman who was unhappy with the quality of her BMW X5, decided the only way to get BMW’s attention was to go via the channel of mass media, because angry letters just dont work anymore!
The woman in question, Miss Ma spent 700,000rmb on buying the BMW 525i in April 2008, she quickly found that the Beemers gearbox would jump out of gear by itself, obviously indicating a possible product defect, then the cars electrical system would die for no reason. Miss Ma claims that one time when the engine cut out when she was in traffic, she nearly crashed into another car. Miss Ma says she has tried to reach an agreement with the dealership, and BMW but both refuse to change her car for a new one, so she feels she was left with no other resort but to take her 5-series to the streets of Guangzhou, particulary outside the dealership from where she bought the defective car.
At lunch time, two traffic policeman appeared and asked Miss Ma to remove the lettering from the BMW.
Miss Ma later explained her choice of Ox to tow her stricken BMW “I wanted to use a horse, but horses move too quick.” A horse would be symbolic of the Chinese name for BMW, which is lit. ‘Treasure Horse’
Once the Ox and its 5-series train reached the BMW dealership where Miss Ma bought her motor, the workers in the dealership came out to look, people stopped to take a look at the commotion, which eventually forced the BMW dealerships manager to come out and say ‘We need to talk!’, and a few moments later Miss Ma reportedley had reached an agreement with the dealership to fix her 5-series.
Click to read more about previous Ox pulled BMW’s in the PRC!
However, this approach to getting peoples attention has been done before, by a Mr. Zhao who was also unhappy with his X5, he posted his plans on a Chinese language BBS: (Translation by Danwei:)
I bought this X5 BMW in 2004. The car cost me almost one million yuan. Because I trusted the BMW brand, I bought the car thinking it would bring convenience to my commute. Instead, it has caused numerous problems over the last three years. The problems have included ignition failure, brake failure, loss of power and loss of directional control of vehicle while driving. These problems have often posted a serious threat to my safety.
These problems have existed since the day I bought the car. I have spent a lot of time and money repairing the car; the car has been repaired in Wenzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei. But each time, the same problem would reappear within a week. I complained to BMW, asking them to justify these repeated problems, and demanded they issue an explanation to affected customers. But my efforts have had no result.
Therefore, in light of BMW’s extreme irresponsibility, I make a formal statement here: I demand a new car or a full refund.
If BMW continues to ignore my requests and refuses to explain themselves, I will call for the public and the media to expose BWM’s behavior and protect my rights as a consumer. I will take following steps since no alternatives exist:
Step one: Buffalo pulling BMW
This stage will last one week. I will use the slogan “BMW is irresponsible to customers, protest against BMW’s poor quality products”. The media (all major newspapers, websites, Phoenix TV , Dagongpao) will be invited to report on the event. I have strong faith in the fairness, justice and trustworthiness of the media. If BMW still doesn’t respond, this activity will be continued for another week with more intense coverage from the media.
Step two: Smashing the car
If the BMW company still doesn’t respond, I will smash the car. The media will report the car smashing in real time to the whole country, the whole of Asia, and the whole world. At this point, I will no longer accept compensation from BMW; I will consider my loss of property the price I paid to keep other potential customers from being fooled as I was fooled.
…
I call for the consumers of the whole world to protest together: Refuse to buy BMW! Refuse to let BMW enter our countries! BWM is untrustworthy! BMW service is bad!
China Car Times, nor Danwei, are sure if Mr. Zhao ever carried out his threat to smash up his BMW X5.
Via Danwei and Southcn.com
wow 700 000 Yuan for a BMW
I guess this just highlights the general lack of after sales service and warranties from Chinese retailers. There will always be a dud or two straight off the production line but with the typical Chinese service of “Thank you for shopping, goodbye and don’t come back” it’s not difficult to understand that she has issues with BMW and that dealership. New car problems are not just related to BWM, I have seen many new cars broken down on the side of the road from all the major manufacturers…
I’ve never had a car in the mainland, but my friend in Shanghai who recently bought a Cayenne has had the dealer frequently mail brochures and events, and even send a birthday cake to his house on his birthday. But then again, I do agree this is a problem with Chinese retailers in general, although I think this is starting to trend the other way.
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As HK’ers love to say, “In today’s society, this type of service is unacceptable!” (translated back to Cantonese) as everyone starts to compete on quality vs quantity.
I think the real problem here is often the after sales is left to a local contractor. I had some problems with my Motorola phone and the service I received, waiting more than 1 hour to speak to someone etc, no American would ever have put up with.
it really highlights how evil many of the western corps are. firstly when BMW sells their cars in china there are overprice to the max (i know that there are heavy taxes on cars in china). moreover the quality are always the shitty in the world.
The article mentions X5 and 525i - the picture shows this is a car not an SUV?
BMW in the US isn’t much better. I had a 2000 MINI Cooper that lost the transmission at 5000 miles. The car was in the shop 30 days in the first 3 months that I had it. Mostly problems the dealer caused by trying to fix other things. I would have never expected a dealer to use a screwdriver on the outside of the bumper to remove a chrome strip. Then it has to be painted two times because their were runs all over it. Back to the topic. I ended up needing a lawyer to file for Lemon Law because they said nothing was wrong with the car and the new transmission would be fine. Over 30 days in the shop for a brand new car within the first 3 months is ridiculous. Anyway there was a settlement and he car was returned for cash. They offered another car with me paying an extra $4,000 and not having the car while I waited 6 months for the new one on order. No compensation. So I ended up in a Honda Element. The people at BMW don’t care about their customers. They have the same arrogant attitude that the dealerships have. I won’t ever buy any of their products again.
The transmission problem is well-known. Thanks to the manufacturer in England who caused a lot of pain for Mini drivers. Fortunately they produced the Mini transmission “just” until its facelfit.
Same goes here in Toronto, Canada. I’d a brand new 2000 E46 330ci, idiots at the dealership made razor cuts all over the windshield and rear window seals during the prep work. When they promised to fix it, the “same” idiot used a flat-head to pry them out (instead to using a plastic tool as listed in the service manual), the surrounding area left with dents and deep scratches in a brand new coupe. I spoke to BMW Canada, they’ll not respond.
It was only I published the info and pictures on the Internet, then BMW Canada and the dealer will act to put everything together, still not perfect.
Minor incidents after, like screw driver mark on trunk lid, scratches around door entrance, greasy marks on windshield and interior linings… just to name a few. And this has gone through 5 different dealerships in the city. Worse than see the shadetree mechanics.
the bottomline, whether BMW is the best vehicle maker or not, they certainly live up to the Ultimate Dreadful Experience, all because of poor aftersales service. I’ll not drive another one until I come across a competent shop that can service these machines with some passion.
Carry on with complaints against BMW like this, and I bet CCT will get another angry phone call from the anti humor dept at BMW China.
If you drive a cliche then you deserve what you get!
Those people are not easy to deal with for sure. I had all the paperwork to prove my car qualified under Lemon Law and they wouldn’t do anything until I got a lawyer and ever then they threatened to just let it go to court.
These western corps even threaten to take angry consumers to the court for “damage” to their brand image by way of pulling a car they manufactured !!!
I am driving a bmw 325 since 2 years. the beijing dealer is quite o.k. and fixed some smaller issues under warranty. You can say what you want, bmw’s are just great for driving. I am wondering if the car of this lady really had the problems she claimed or was there something else behind this show………