[rav87]

and what would be the cost for BMW to change the alloys, they r mass produced anyway, so it can't really be costing them that much to change them. just a way for them to make some $$$$ out their customers..

[ss134]

Just watched the show- well done to all who gave up their time for this. Come on BMW sort this out.

[beemerbird]

So have I missed a public document containing a statement from BMW stating that there is not a problem with these particular alloys and they are perfectly safe for everyday use by all their UK customers who have them fitted to their car??........mind you, maybe the sidewalls of the run flats are rigid enough to hold it together should an alloy crack to the point of twisting the wheel.

Gives such a warm feeling that a company obviously values its customers. Really makes me keen to return to the brand

Alan, as usual, well written post with comments.

[Hotcoupe]

Originally Posted by SiKkBaSs

I'm not being a party pooper just looking at the facts. This is after all what BMW are acting on. Us being consumers, are going to expect that we should be treated fairly, that's human nature. The thing is BMW are going to look at every loophole in the book to get out of it. This really is a difficult problem to prove for people with cracks, something BMW is retaliating with by saying it's driver error or potholes, both being out of BMWs problem. Is there a significant amount of cracking in the US? Seems to be just UK...further ammo for BMW to use in the manufacturing of the alloys being up to par and it being due to driver error.

Boils down to MASSIVE COMPANY VS A FEW CONSUMERS

Obvious who wins

Your playing Devil's advocate Sunny.

BMW are suggesting that a lot of the wheels are cracking because of driver error, either by kerbing or driving through a pothole etc.

Most of the wheels featured showed no sign of external damage (kerbing) which could be attributed to cracking the wheel. In the case of potholes, what are we expected to do swerve round everyone we see, what about ones you can't avoid/don't see?

The statements from some of the Dealers featured admitted that the wheels were unfit for purpose.

It's clear that BMW should come clean, but I can't help thinking that there was not a satisfactory conclusion from Watchdog despite there best efforts (well done all, especially PJS), and the Guy who represented the manufacturers was clearly out of his depth, and did himself no favours whatsover.

There are quite a few mentions over on the US forums about cracking wheels, so it's not just confined to the UK's third world roads!

Hopefully the programme and the subsequent public reaction will gather momentum and BMW will start to see the error of their ways, lets hope so

[Tunna_uk]

I would think that BMW must be looking at this behind closed doors as we speak...........they must surely be concerned

[AndyR]

Originally Posted by quattrogmbh

Maybe everyone should call their dealer tomorrow...
"Following the BBC Watchdog program yesterday I'm concerned regarding the safety of my vehicle and would request a wheel safety check."

If this consumes enough of their time, BMW may be forced to issue a statement regarding "potentially" affected wheels which would be a first step toward an admission of liability.

Great idea. I will be doing this tomorrow.

[AlanQS]

Originally Posted by tunna uk

I would think that BMW must be looking at this behind closed doors as we speak...........they must surely be concerned

It depresses me to think so, but I don't think they will bother their backsides about Watchdog.

If it was featured with negative publicity elsewhere, and soon, - like next week's Autocar and became a story that wouldn't go away, then pressure could be put on them.

Sadly, it needs an accident whose cause is only the wheels and can be clearly shown to be, affecting an experienced driver with an unblemished record, which for some reason makes a reasonable headline in a national paper or large provincial before they will react positively - and I for one don't want that to happen.

[SiKkBaSs]

Originally Posted by Hotcoupe

Your playing Devil's advocate Sunny.

Hopefully the programme and the subsequent public reaction will gather momentum and BMW will start to see the error of their ways, lets hope so

Just looking at it from a neutral POV Ian. Obviously I would NOT be sitting on the fence so much if this happened to me, naturally. But since it does not concern me there's always two sides to a story, I'm just looking at it through BMW scope. I don't agree with it one bit (for the record) but it seems to me its a minority in the eyes of BMW that this happens to, therefore they try and find ways of maintaining it's stuff like driver error etc.

I hope BMW realise this is a REAL issue to be bought to the UK public now, and will do all it can to sort people with cracked alloys out.

Interested to see how this progresses...

[AlanQS]

I think Sunny's quite right. It's all about numbers. Although it's a big deal here for us on the forum, the numbers are so small that it probably isn't an issue for BMW.

But I can't stop wondering; there's lots of people who buy Bimmers for the badge and know little about the heritage - or care. These people probably just stump for new wheels without a word of protest.

[dxb335d]

just get ya tits out woman.

[AlanQS]

Er, wrong thread Carl!

[M3-FAST]

Originally Posted by dxb335d

just get ya tits out woman.

?? wrong thread Carlos?

[dxb335d]

The woman on the programe? i aint seen it though!

[Tunna_uk]

Originally Posted by dxb335d

just get ya tits out woman.

He fancies Ann Robinson

[dxb335d]

Er no thanks

[Tunna_uk]

I get the impression you are up for anything in a skirt excluding scotsman

[rav87]

don't u mean the guy with man boobs

[dxb335d]

Nag not at all mate, just presumed some young bit of stuff on there.

[zedman]

shout out to you 19'' boys for getting it this far, very impressive. i personally didn't understand why AR didn't ask the SMMT guy the question as to his opinion as to why there are no such problems with any other manufacturers 19'' rims on ANY other cars and why it is confined to BMW, surely his response would have had to have been that they are possibly not 'fit for purpose',

hope one of you or all of you takes this up with this SMMT thing that he was going on about, once you've got to the end of that road they cant ignore you forever

FIGHT THE POWER!!

[Tunna_uk]

Originally Posted by zedman

shout out to you 19'' boys for getting it this far, very impressive. i personally didn't understand why AR didn't ask the SMMT guy the question as to his opinion as to why there are no such problems with any other manufacturers 19'' rims on ANY other cars and why it is confined to BMW, surely his response would have had to have been that they are possibly not 'fit for purpose',

hope one of you or all of you takes this up with this SMMT thing that he was going on about, once you've got to the end of that road they cant ignore you forever

FIGHT THE POWER!!

Agree, this should be pushed all the way. The only alloys that I heard of that crack are cheapo chinglish copy alloys , do BMW want their genuine alloys to be called cheap?????

[NFS]

Originally Posted by SiKkBaSs

Did he really set precedent? He must of gone through a lot of time, money hassle to achieve his "goodwill gesture" something a lot of people would not be willing to go through (Due to lack of knowledge in knowing what to do etc). Don't think BMW actually said that they admitted liablilty of the poor manufacturing of the alloys...

What stands out in the case of Dr Khan is the amount of the goodwill payment. It was rather more than the costs he had incurred.

It makes you wonder what would happen if more people affected pursued this via small claims court backed up by the MIRA report.

Originally Posted by AlanQS

Look at the Watchdog web sit and click on "BMW tyres" (sic). There is a statement from BMW which spins quite well but then they claim this has affected about 100 cars out of 1.3 million BMWs on British roads.

This is a really key fact. If this number is correct just one in 13000 BMW drivers have experienced this problem.

If the issue is potholes and the quality of British roads, why is it not more common?

More importantly, what is the profile of those 100 affected people. How many had one particular type of wheel?

I have never heard of this happening on any car before (and neither had the 'expert' on Watchdog), but we seem to have a small number of cases, concentrated on a particular wheel in a particular size in the 3 series range.

That's statistically significant. If we haven't done so already I would recommend that someone uses the forum to establish as much statistical data about the failures as possible.

I don't know the numbers involved, but if the forum is able to gather data on a significant number of those affected (maybe 30 out of the 100 cases) there is then an opportunity for a group representation to BMW UK, to point out the statistical trend and make it abundantly clear that a manufacturing defect is a VERY likely cause.

Group action is the way forward. We just need someone with an interest in the subject to take the lead.

[zedman]

talking of fighting the power and all, if there is a contact within BMW (UK) who is responsible for this, why dont we all write a letter requesting them to have an independant check done on the 19'' rims by MIRA to see if they are fit for UK roads. They clearly won't but if we can enough BMW drivers to request this then they may at least have to say that there is no problem with wheels, which will at least make them look really stupid when someone has an accident from a crack induced blowout oneday.

It's deffo more common than we think, there was a dude from DW who was painting his 230's and had to replace one cos it was cracked, there was an X5 on mtorque where the wheels had cracked too. The salesman at stratstone near me was saying a car he took in part ex had cracked rims too....