Car Dealership refunds the cost of repairs to BMW 530e plug-in hybrid

Have you been told you can’t claim from the selling dealer the cost of unauthorised car repairs by a main dealer?

The idea behind this is twofold:

Some car dealers and their lawyers have interpreted the law to mean that they have a right to repair a car which is become faulty after 30 days and within 6 months and this right means they don’t have to pay for repairs they haven’t authorised.

Secondly, that they don’t have top the cost of main dealers and repairs should be carried out by independent repairers.

This case of the BMW 530e plug-in hybrid shows how dealers can get it wrong.

The relevant facts

Mr G bought the BMW 530e plug-in hybrid from Big Motoring World  and an extended warranty for about £20,000.

Within a couple of weeks of buying it the air conditioning stopped working properly and the dealer told him to get it re-gassed, which he did, but this didn’t fix it, so Big Motoring World   booked the car in for inspection at a third-party garage.

The air conditioning compressor and other parts were replaced under warranty

After collecting the car and on the way home it broke down and was returned to the repairing garage. From there the car was transported to the Snodland branch and from their to a BMW main dealer.

A report by Independent Vehicle Inspection Services confirmed the car is faulty but that they did not consider the defect to have been developing at that point.of sale although further investigation by an EV specialist would be necessary.

Mr G was then told that the repairs were not covered by the warranty and the car was delivered back to him.

The car was sent to Berry BMW who diagnosed the vehicle High voltage cable, EME module, KLE and electric motor replaced costing £10,000 which with hire car cost and diagnostics totalled around £11,500, which Mr G had no choice but to pay.

Our Instructions

Following legal advice in conference Mr G first instructed Stormcatcher to recover the cost of the repairs and his costs from Big Motoring World. We prepared a lengthy analysis of the engineering evidence assessing how it is the EV parts came to need replacement so soon after delivery.

This cast some doubt as to how the BMW could have passed a 200 point check before sale with an electrical fault, suggesting that the dealer did not possess the expertise and equipment to check the EV battery and associated components.

It seemed to us that the vehicle schematics supported the air conditioning fault was symptomatic of an underlying defect which manifested itself after the attempted repair.

This in turn supported the conclusion that Mr G had been misled and this was itself corroborated by the warranties 2000 warranty.

Conclusion

While the dealer engaged with the process, it took some considerable time to reach a conclusion but after negotiating, Big Motoring World agreed to pay Mr G the cost of the BMW repairs along with compensation for his costs and loss of use of the car.