Front bumper trim flaps - covered by warranty?

[thurst0509]

One of the front bumper trim pieces fell off my car a couple of weeks ago. I'm assuming it happened when we took a road trip down to Galveston because I noticed it right after we got back. It looks like a towing eye or something underneath where the flap fell off. See attachment for a picture of which piece I'm talking about.

Does anyone know if this item would be covered by BMW's warranty? I'm hoping I don't have to buy this piece since it was painted to match the body and probably wouldn't come cheap as a result.

[larryn]

I had mine replaced on the e90, back in 2007. Same thing happened.

[thurst0509]

Yeah, it seems like it would be a common problem with a number of these little trim flaps all over the car.

Warranty covered it when it happened on your 3'er?

[imdanomite]

most likely they will not cover it. it's not a defective part. it fell off. now, if the dealer is really nice, maybe they'll replace it for you. but i highly doubt it.

[Call]

If it fell off it was defective...unless you have had an accident that was the cause which this does not appear to be the case. They will replace it at no charge.

Call

[thurst0509]

Update.

Dealer is telling me they will not replace it since it was possible that it was stolen. He agreed with me that it is unacceptable for it to have fallen off on its own. I argued that by refusing to consider warrantying it, essentially they are assuming that it must have been stolen, since the other option of it falling off should be their responsibility. He insisted that they are not making a judgment either way but that their policy is that they cannot warranty any type of missing part.

Do I have any recourse? I'm not looking forward to buying the new piece myself - it's likely to be rather expensive since it needs to be painted. My only idea at the moment is to ask them to meet me in the middle and sell it to me at a discount or at cost.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Originally Posted by thurst0509

Update.

Dealer is telling me they will not replace it since it was possible that it was stolen. He agreed with me that it is unacceptable for it to have fallen off on its own. I argued that by refusing to consider warrantying it, essentially they are assuming that it must have been stolen, since the other option of it falling off should be their responsibility. He insisted that they are not making a judgment either way but that their policy is that they cannot warranty any type of missing part.

Do I have any recourse? I'm not looking forward to buying the new piece myself - it's likely to be rather expensive since it needs to be painted. My only idea at the moment is to ask them to meet me in the middle and sell it to me at a discount or at cost.

Ok, well the question is how much will it cost? You may be driving yourself nuts about a $20 part.

[thurst0509]

I dunno. It looks like the part sells for about $10 online, unpainted. Probably a significant markup from that if bought through the dealer. I have no idea whether the dealer would be able to order pre-painted parts or if they'd do the painting in-house.

Either way though, I'd expect it to be at least $20 for a pre-painted part purchased through the dealer, and maybe as much as $50-75 if the dealer has to paint it themselves.

[BlackjackMulligan]

Try a forum dealer, they can probably hook you up.

But I agree, the dealer should cover this for you out of goodwill.

[penny]

Which dealership are you dealing with? Classic or Dallas?

[thurst0509]

Dallas - it's where I bought the car since Classic wouldn't do Euro Delivery on a 1er. I was hoping to have it serviced there since I already had a purchase relationship with them and figured they'd be more likely to help out in "grey area" situations like this.

Perhaps I should just switch over to Classic though, since so far Dallas doesn't really seem to care. Classic is a bit more convenient location to me anyway, and I was always treated well at their old location with my last Bimmer.

[sparoz]

Originally Posted by thurst0509

Update.

Dealer is telling me they will not replace it since it was possible that it was stolen. He agreed with me that it is unacceptable for it to have fallen off on its own. I argued that by refusing to consider warrantying it, essentially they are assuming that it must have been stolen, since the other option of it falling off should be their responsibility. He insisted that they are not making a judgment either way but that their policy is that they cannot warranty any type of missing part.

Do I have any recourse? I'm not looking forward to buying the new piece myself - it's likely to be rather expensive since it needs to be painted. My only idea at the moment is to ask them to meet me in the middle and sell it to me at a discount or at cost.

That's really strange as the dealers usually have the benefit of the doubt going to the customer as they just charge BMW for warranty work. When my brother was driving my car, he had the steering wheel, shifter and handbrake replace because there's the tiniest run on the stitching (I am not that fussy). We got a loan car and everything as well, and a wash after words. So you should find a dealer that would do that for you.