The following experience and advise was posted to the UCanImport blog and we have placed it here as a new post for those of you who are sitting on the fence about importing a BMW vehicle from the United States.
Please, review the information below and search this blog for other BMW posts.
If you are interested in sharing your story or joining the lawsuit against BMW, please visit this blog - http://autolawsuit.blogspot.com/
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UCanImport reader post dated October 22, 2009
Guys, I want to let you know what I did to bypass BMW Canada intervention for owner who import. I can say now, that I would have taken my car for service at BMW, but now the car will NEVER.. EVER.. see a BMW dealership.
They hold you hostage. "Do these unnecessary modifications to your car that we require to make some money or you don't get your recall letter."
I just imported a BMW 5 series and here is what they told me needed to be done.
New Instrument Cluster - $1590 + $125 Programing
I said to them, why do I need a new cluster when it has KM/H on the cluster and that is OK with the RIV.
IHKA Heating Module - $1060 + $125 Programing
They told my the IHKA Module is for Canadian emissions standards... I said to them, the car already passed drive clean, it meets the standards.
Daytime Runners - $375
This is a requirement, but you'll note my costs to have this done below.
Car Inspection - $187
CASH GRAB.. This is to verify all of the VIN, which CDN Tire does with their FREE Government inspection.
RECALL LETTER - $500
Finally I am "allowed" to have the honor to pay for this letter, which is free with most car manufactures.
Grand Total with Tax: $4,477.06
Here's what I did...
Contacted Unity Auto - http://www.unityauto.com/licensing.php They supply you with the letter for $400
Went to TechMax Auto - http://www.techmax.ca/ To get my Daytime lights activated - $100
Grand Total with Tax: $500
That's almost $4,000 in savings.
The changes BMW requires are unlawful and not required by law to certify the car in Canada. Canadian Tire is the certified shop that determines the requirements + your provincial standard inspection. Which my car meets every single requirement.
I called BMW's head office and was told that there are several lawsuits pending right now due to these charges, and I'm not surprised. I've heard stories of the dealers telling people they cannot activate Daytime Runners unless the cluster is replaced which is falsifying the truth and highly illegal.
As a final note, my car is out of it's warranty period, so having BMW Canada support me is not required for myself, and now I have $4,000 to give to the indy mechanic TechMax for any repairs I need. If you do go this route and have a very new BMW with lots of warranty you're stuck the 5K way as far as I know, and I can understand the modifications and letter fees are for them to re-coupe costs they will incur fixing your car under warranty for years. But if you're importing a car that has no warranty this is the route to go IMO.
I hope that this really helps out a lot of people. I found out all of this information by doing hours of searching the net, so I wanted to add my contribution back. If you're looking for a local dealer to set up your daytime lights, just google your area and European Independent Mechanic.
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UCanImport suggests the following:
1. Ask the seller to obtain the Warranty Vehicle Inquiry report from their BMW dealership in the US. This is a screen capture that also shows if any recalls are outstanding on the vehicle.
2. Submit this report to recall@riv.ca and have them review it and if okay, approve it.
3. Have the DRLs activated in the US! Folks, this is the one that gets most BMW importers. Most people are just happy to get the recall printout that they forget to ask for the DRL activation.
4. Take your vehicle to a Federal Inspection Center once you receive Form 2 from RIV and bypass BMW entirely.
This is a strategy that has been used by hundreds of UCanImport subscribers and they have successfully avoided the BMW money-grab.
And, finally, don't sit silent while these practices continue. Tell us your stories at http://autolawsuit.blogspot.com/ and sign up for the lawsuit if you have been at the receiving end of these money-grabbing policies.
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5 comments:
If you live near the US, which many Canadians do, they will honour the warranty on the American side of the border. So you can still save the money in modifications if you're willing to travel to the states to have any warranty work done.
Some vehicles (lexus?) also come with servicing for the first couple of years. The US will also honour these free services if they won't on this side of the border.
It's just ridiculous.
Acceptable Aternative to RECALL LETTER from BMW/MINI
I spent almost 2 months trying to get a recall letter for my MINI. I called MINI Canada and MINI US severval times. I contaced MINI dealers in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland Oregon where I purchaced my MINI 2 years ago. The only way I could get a recall letter was to have the $2500.00 worth of modificatios and than pay $500.00 for them to issue a recall letter.
What I fianlly did and it worked was to go to the Dealer and have them Print out the Warrenty Info on my Vheicle, you have to do this at the dealer, they insert your key into a docking station and retrive the information. On top of the print out it states Not TO BE USES OR RELIED UPON FOR IMPORT OR EXPORT PURPOSES AND IS NOT TO DISTRIBUTED OR SHARED WITH THIRD PARTIES (EXCEPT FOR SPECIFIC INFORMATION THAT MAY BE REQUIRRED BY LAW).
Under the RECALL Summary it stated "No Open Campaigns". RIV accepted this in place of a recall letter. I had the MINI inspected. NO MODIFICATIONS WERE REQUIRED.
I recently imported an X5. Was quoted $3500.00 to make compliant by BMW dealership. After a bit of research I realized that the only modifications required were the odometer, and running lights. Both were simple options on the on board computer that I was able to easily change to kms. and turn on running lights myself.
I was also provided the recall letter from a U.S. BMW dealer for free.
The cost for what the BMW dealer quoted me was $0.00.
Disgusting
Just reading some of the anonymous notes. Re: The MINI from Portland,OR. I'm just learning and what was said about visiting the dealer with "key",didn't make any sense at all.....? How does the visit physically change daytime running lights, speedometer, odometer, etc.
I believe the key is for accessing the Warranty Inquiry Printout from BMW.
If you would clarify your question related to modifications, perhaps we can help.
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