I purchased a 1996 318i BMW in with 44,000 Miles on it. The car runs great, no problems mechanically.
After about 1 year I noticed the clear coat starting to peel off around the left rear quarter panel, near the top where the trunk is. I though nothing of it at first. Then it got worse. It slowly spread.
I noticed it was starting to ppel off the roof of the care ans also on the hood. I took it to three prefessional auto/body shops, that specialized in painting, and all of them said that this should not happen. All of them agreed that it was a bad paint/clear coat job, and that BMW should pay to have it repainted/new clearcoat.
I went to Leith BMW in Raleigh and they looked at my car. Of course, the piant is not covered in the warranty. I exlpained to them that It is an eyesore, and that there are cars 20 years older than mine that do not have this problem. THey came back to me and said that because I was not the original owner of the car, there is nothing they will do abou it.
THe sad thing is folks, when I approached them about this problem, I was polite, complimented on how well-built their cars were, that I did not have any major problems with their cars, and that I always kept up with the services, etc. Etc. I tried to say that you know this car just had a bad paint job, thats all.
They didnt budge. I went up the chain, thought about filing a lawsuit, but my lawyer said it would be better to get a class action suit. So if anybody out there has had the same problem, please contact me.
Now my car, which still runs well, has most of its clear coat peeling off like a bad sunburn, and I will have to paint it myself to make it look halfway re-sellable.
You would think that a company such as BMW would have the best Customer Service..
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