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Why do German manufacturers hold back on recalls?


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It's happened twice now one with BMW and now with Merc - one a cooling fault where engineer turned up with a fairly significant part reworking cooling system and the second where there was an "...outstanding software update update" which caused a total no-start failure. Neither were safety issues but both really p****d us off when new fairly expensive cars would not start. 

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On 04/05/2019 at 22:31, robbiep said:

If it's a recall then it's mandated by DVLA - they have to write to all owners informing them of the recall, etc. 

I'll ask the question : were these lease cars by any chance ?

They only have to write to all or current owners for a safety related recall

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These were not safety-related items but both resulted in us being stranded with cars which would not start. The recent incident was very distressing for my wife as she was at a funeral home with her 90yo mum (who is as mad as a bucket of frogs) who had just sorted out a funeral plan. Sadly this did not result in my M-I-L using her expensive funeral plan!

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"Most" (as in a very significant percentage) of new BMWs and Mercs are either leased or sold to company fleets of some form initially from new so they can rectify issues on the quiet as free service items without getting involved with damaging recalls.

Recalls are expensive and damaging to their image, having to arrange for hundreds of customers to bring their cars in is an admin nightmare. This way you take your car in for a service and  they say "Oh and we have fitted an upgraded exhaust sensor free of charge" and you think "Yes that impressive customer service"

its all in the way its done

Edited by Vince Green
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Three of the guys I work with have bmw 320s which have all had exhaust valve/egr cooler issues. 2 under warranty were Changed no questions asked.

The third was out of warranty and had to be changed at the owners cost before the recall was issued. He duly changed it and a month or so later got a letter advising him it had to be changed again as part of the recall 🙄 que much arguing over the the cost of the original part, the dealership didn’t want to know. he may as well have been taking to himself 🤬

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