[SHARMAATL]

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Can anyone provide any insight into the BMW Trade Assist program? It was mentioned on the other thread about the brake recall issue going on.

Long story short, the brake system failed on my X7 just over 3 weeks ago while my pregnant wife and I were on the way back from the hospital after an ultrasound. To say I was panicked seeing the brake system fail notification on the screen would be an understatement! Thankfully, the parking brake worked and we were at a low enough speed close to our house.

It has been with the dealer here in Atlanta for 3 straight weeks now, no fix in sight, and the service advisor says they've involved their manager but no fix is approved by BMW yet.

I spoke to a rep at BMW NA and have a case opened with them.

Can anyone let me know how Trade Assist works? I got the X7 in Oct 2023, and I think I'm about 10k underwater on it given depreciation. Will BMW just pay what I owe, pay the current market value as if I'm trading using KBB/Black book values, or something else?

Thank you in advance.

[blutob2]

Not sure on BMW but I've dealt with both Nissan and Hyundai on lemons. I used BBB for both after failing to resolve the issue directly with the manufacturer. Once I rolled in BBB to help, I was able to resolve both cases. For the Nissan, I was given a brand new model (2 yrs newer) and kept my existing loan. It was literally an even swap. For the Hyundai, they offered a buyback and it was essentially what I paid for the car + the add ons such as tint, PPF and powder coating wheels. However, I was also able to negotiate a cash settlement so took that instead and kept the car and later traded it in for the X7. It was not a safety or mechanical issue.

[jphcbpa]

Originally Posted by SHARMAATL

Can anyone provide any insight into the BMW Trade Assist program? It was mentioned on the other thread about the brake recall issue going on.

Long story short, the brake system failed on my X7 just over 3 weeks ago while my pregnant wife and I were on the way back from the hospital after an ultrasound. To say I was panicked seeing the brake system fail notification on the screen would be an understatement! Thankfully, the parking brake worked and we were at a low enough speed close to our house.

It has been with the dealer here in Atlanta for 3 straight weeks now, no fix in sight, and the service advisor says they've involved their manager but no fix is approved by BMW yet.

I spoke to a rep at BMW NA and have a case opened with them.

Can anyone let me know how Trade Assist works? I got the X7 in Oct 2023, and I think I'm about 10k underwater on it given depreciation. Will BMW just pay what I owe, pay the current market value as if I'm trading using KBB/Black book values, or something else?

Thank you in advance.

My limited understanding is they give you a good number on your current vehicle as a trade in and put you in a new bmw. being that you are 10K under, that might help you get out of it better. I think the vehicle has to be in the shop for 30 consecutive days or 30 days total for the same issue (if it goes back in the shop). I am not sure if you initiate the trade assist with BMWNA or your local dealer.

[rjabend]

Originally Posted by blutob2

Not sure on BMW but I've dealt with both Nissan and Hyundai on lemons. I used BBB for both after failing to resolve the issue directly with the manufacturer. Once I rolled in BBB to help, I was able to resolve both cases. For the Nissan, I was given a brand new model (2 yrs newer) and kept my existing loan. It was literally an even swap. For the Hyundai, they offered a buyback and it was essentially what I paid for the car + the add ons such as tint, PPF and powder coating wheels. However, I was also able to negotiate a cash settlement so took that instead and kept the car and later traded it in for the X7. It was not a safety or mechanical issue.

I was wondering how helpful BBB was in resolving the matter or was it just the threat of having the BBB involved? Their rating on BBB is "F", but that may just be because they are not a BBB member.

https://www.bbb.org/us/il/schaumburg...337/complaints

[blutob2]

Originally Posted by rjabend

I was wondering how helpful BBB was in resolving the matter or was it just the threat of having the BBB involved? Their rating on BBB is "F", but that may just be because they are not a BBB member.

https://www.bbb.org/us/il/schaumburg...337/complaints

They helped significantly in my other cases, but I guess if BMW isn't even a member then maybe BBB won't be that useful.

[SHARMAATL]

I'm still waiting on my BMW case person to reach out. I imagine it'll be another day or so. The issue is compounded by the fact that, when I visited my local dealer where my car is currently sitting, they told me there's a stop sale on all of their X5/6/7/XB7/XM vehicles for the same issue so there isn't really another SUV for them to "trade assist" me into.

However, I spoke to the service manager over the weekend who told me that they have a fix but there are not currently available the parts for said fix. Bit of a conundrum for me is that even if the fix is there, my even-more-pregnant wife is not enthused with the idea of getting back into a vehicle that had a complete brake system failure while we were in it.

This X7 was my third BMW purchase since 2019, and we'd like to stay with the brand, so I'm hoping those factors play into whatever BMW NA plans to do for us, but I also understand that quite a few other people have also had similar issues so they may not end up being able to practically do too much.

[themama]

Trade assist, if approved gives you credit of your purchase price to get another vehicle. I haven't had to go thru it, but have seen couple cars that were available for sale via trade assist and manager explained how it worked.
Don't think you have to worry about depreciation or loan amount.

[SHARMAATL]

To update, I spoke with the BMW NA rep today. She basically said that since they do have a fix, even though the parts are not yet available, BMW will not do a trade assist or any sort of buy back. They will however reimburse me for the time I didn't have my car once I do get it back, which at the moment is just some indefinite amount of time waiting for the parts.

Not the answer I wanted to hear, but some reimbursement I suppose is better than none. I may look to move on from the brand. I also have an SL63 and have always wanted a G Wagon.

[SHARMAATL]

Well, turns out I actually gave my car to the dealer for this issue on March 27, off by almost a week from what I thought (lots of travel since then so the dates got fuzzy).

Since there's no parts in sight for the fix, I've filed a Georgia Lemon Law claim. We'll see what happens.

[SHARMAATL]

Surprisingly got my car back yesterday, just in time to take it on a 400 mile road trip. No issues.

I'm currently trying to get BMW to reimburse me for the 30 days it was out of commission.