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Hey all, well still trying to decide on a car! Came across a nice white BMW 318ci Coupe for sale by a dealer.

Its got 29,000 KM on it, and one expat owner. It is under warranty till Sept 2007 (60,000 KM). For sale for 107,000 Dhs.

Seems to be good and all, and I was planning on getting it checked fully at BMW before deciding. But I have also been checking on USA BMW forums and was scared by numerous (I mean many!) complaints of owners of 3 series sedans and coupes (2000+) complaining of transmission failures from as little as 20,000 KM. Most of them had failure between 50-120,000 KM though. Repairs set them back about 4-5 K USD!!!

But thats messed up. Esp for a BMW? Im wondering if anyone knows if this applies in the Gulf Spec cars as well? I read that BMW were/are still using GM trannys in their cars, so that might be the cause, not sure.

Anyways, would appreciate any advice from any BMW 3 series owners. It's just crap to think that the tranny on this car might go anytime, when they should last at least 200,000 KM or more.

Also, does anyone know anything about Gulf Warranties? Are they any good and are the warranties worth it?

Thx!
Jag

What MY is the car in question?

Gear boxes are not changed to comply with gulf specifications.

So the vehicle will be covered under gulf warranties til 2007 and not dealer/manufacturer warranty? What star rating is the warranty you are talking about? - 3/5/7? Obviously the more stars the better level of coverage.

XRW-147 wrote:What MY is the car in question?

Gear boxes are not changed to comply with gulf specifications.

So the vehicle will be covered under gulf warranties til 2007 and not dealer/manufacturer warranty? What star rating is the warranty you are talking about? - 3/5/7? Obviously the more stars the better level of coverage.

Hey, thanks for your reply. The car Im considering is 2005 model. The cars which have reported problems thus far are 2001-2004. But who knows, 05 could be a problem too.

The car is covered by factory warranty till 2007. Then I have the option to pay and add by Gulf Warranty. Am going to call them up now and check and then call up BMW.

This is the TSB for the problem I am referring to:

================================================== ===
BMW TIS 24 07 03 Dated Feb 2004:

Situation:
Customer may complain of a delayed P to D (2 to 30 seconds) during the first cold start in the morning.

Cause:
Unfavorable tolerances of C1 clutch housing causing internal transmission pressure leak after extended overnight parking

Correction:
On a customer complaint basis only after verifying the above situation, replace the transmission with the improved unit.
==================================================

Bmw would basically replace the tranny with a rebuilt one, which sucks just as bad since you dont know what you are in for with the rebuilt one or where it came from.

Aprrantly there are about 20,000 cars affected! Makes me wanna just get an Accord

P.S. You guys know anything at all about Audi A4? Loved that car too, but hear the resale sucks and many electrical glitches? Audi is selling the 2006 now for a special price of 99K.

Hmm, apparently BMW put trannys from two companies, GM and ZF. They have acknowledged that the GM Steptronic has a design flaw. Now Im gonna call them here and see whats the score.

Will post back later.

You also need to note that the reported problems are mainly US models in US conditions.

And I may not be an mechanical engineer but afaik internal pressure leaks are not caused by overnight parking - erroded seals, maybe. Its normally caused by excessive load - in gears.

all i know about bmw's (had two 3 series) that the parts are really expensive, and u have to bring them recently to service. i hope this describes all

all... of nothing.

well if thats not enough for you that ur car spends one week from every month in the service, then what is?

Avium wrote:all i know about bmw's (had two 3 series) that the parts are really expensive, and u have to bring them recently to service. i hope this describes all

Okay, point out to me where you have said ur car spends one week from every month in the service?

It also doesn't help that you have bought some lemons. Next time buy the ones that are on the tree and not rotting on the ground.

as i see u had a lot bmw's to know how trustable cars they are...

Hey XRW-147, I checked with BMW and Gulf Warranty and they said that problem was in the US spec cars only. The transmission for Gulf cars is built by ZF in Germany, so no issues with the steptronic transmissions

Also BMWs arent that bad to maintain when you do it at an independent mechanic who can service the car well... Plus preventative maintenance is key always.... But ofcourse you can get a lemon in any make or model, luck of the draw I guess...

I really love the 2005 coupe shape and the tail lights are FAB! Not really liking the new 2007 shape though.. Damn that Bangle guy!

Anyways, so will get the car checked tomrorow and see whats up and if its sound. Now only other thing left to see is if Gulf Warranty is worth it and if they cover stuff that usually goes.. They said the ext warranty would cost about 3500-3900 for two years/50,000 KM for their top of the line Gold Plan. After you reach 100K, you can go in for their silver plan only, which is about 2500 for 50K.

What do you think about the ext warranty? Worth it?

jag wrote:Hey XRW-147, I checked with BMW and Gulf Warranty and they said that problem was in the US spec cars only. The transmission for Gulf cars is built by ZF in Germany, so no issues with the steptronic transmissions

Good news then.

jag wrote:What do you think about the ext warranty? Worth it?

Gulf warranties are okay to deal with as long as you have minimum 5 star warranty. By the top of the line I presume you mean the 7 star one - its ace.

Personally I would go for the extended warranty, but bargain with the dealer for them to include it - ie they pay!

XRW-147 wrote:

jag wrote:Hey XRW-147, I checked with BMW and Gulf Warranty and they said that problem was in the US spec cars only. The transmission for Gulf cars is built by ZF in Germany, so no issues with the steptronic transmissions

Good news then.

jag wrote:What do you think about the ext warranty? Worth it?

Gulf warranties are okay to deal with as long as you have minimum 5 star warranty. By the top of the line I presume you mean the 7 star one - its ace.

Personally I would go for the extended warranty, but bargain with the dealer for them to include it - ie they pay!

Hey, actually the star rating type is for the dealers only. For consumers its called Bronze, Silver and Gold. Same difference!

The dealer unfortunately cannot include it. Why? Since the car still has a year warranty left and so Gulf Warr wont underwrite it now. They only underwrite it when your fatcory one expires

jag wrote:The dealer unfortunately cannot include it. Why? Since the car still has a year warranty left and so Gulf Warr wont underwrite it now. They only underwrite it when your fatcory one expires

No harm in having an agreement that they organize it for you at a later date - at their cost.

XRW-147 wrote:

jag wrote:The dealer unfortunately cannot include it. Why? Since the car still has a year warranty left and so Gulf Warr wont underwrite it now. They only underwrite it when your fatcory one expires

No harm in having an agreement that they organize it for you at a later date - at their cost.

Thats what I said. But apparently they have to inspect it then underwrite. Oh well...

Anyways, went for a test drive again today with the missus and fell in love again

Tomorrow I take it for the inspection before signing. Hope it gets a clean bill!

Hi Jag, I'm a member of the BMW car club in the Uk and all i have to say is that
1. ain't heard of this level of tranny failure
2. BMW's are the best car on the road

I'll give you a link to my club's web site where you'll get LOADS of info

www.bmw-board.co.uk

Have fun!!!!

Black Betty wrote:Hi Jag, I'm a member of the BMW car club in the Uk and all i have to say is that
1. ain't heard of this level of tranny failure
2. BMW's are the best car on the road

I'll give you a link to my club's web site where you'll get LOADS of info

www.bmw-board.co.uk

Have fun!!!!

Hey Black Betty, yeh I checked with loads of mechanics and they said its a damn solid car... Actually the problems affected a very smallnumber of cars and most of them were USA specs with GM trannys. BMW in UAE has not had reports of this sort of issue here so hopefully its all good. Plus Ill def be taking the extended warranty too... I pick up the car in a few hours, excited!!