NEW BMW M3 is having Transmission Failures (MDCT Transmission)!

wow! what would i do?! i would demand a new damn car!!!

— CLK63BlackSeries (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 3:20:55 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 12   

hey clk63blackseries, do u really have a CLK63 Black Series?! that is an insane car! where are u located?

i would be darn right pissed if me new m3 had a blow tranny when i just got it, shouldn't blow ever in this car.

— 007vehispy1 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 3:27:15 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

wow... yet another misleading title.

The problem was that the dealership changed it's transmission fluid with the Manual transmission fluid and the car was M-DCT which has life-time fluid. So, that was the problem, nothing mechanically.

— Hwany (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 4:58:42 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

what a crappy service dept. if that was the cause. Improper fluid I mean come on wtf.

— xlr8 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 5:27:05 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

I was going to buy an X6 but friends warned me away because of bs electrical and service probs with their BMWs.

— 993Turbo (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 6:12:53 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

that's why I'd get an M3 in a stick...

— Htay7500 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 6:47:54 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

You know, I've been seeing a lot of posts about how the quality of Autospies has taken a turn for the worse and this absolutely misleading headline does nothing to help dispel that notion. This is really sad, Autospies.

— gooch (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 7:16:10 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

You have to push for a new car. I would have been doing this from the get go.

— corelink (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 7:17:38 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

MichaelTaylor if you actually read the thread you would have noticed that this was a service department problem and could have happened at your LEXUS Dealership. So until you make informed posts please dont make them at all. Atleast with BMW they will be replacing the tranny free of cost so nothing lost.

— nolimt735 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 8:33:17 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Quality and Reliability are two different things that you're confusing...

And for the record, the interior quality of my 2001 BMW 325Ci was better than the interior of my 2008 G37 I have now. However, the G37 has shown to be far more reliable so far. It is also sportier and full of features.

On with the real topic, first at fault here was BMW NA because they should have made sure the instructions were accurate for the MDCT. Second at fault would be the technician who serviced the M3 if the tranny was labeled "lifetime" as on other BMW automatic trannies. If it doesn't say "lifetime" then it's simply BMW NA who should be fully responsible.

— SHOWTIME (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 10:19:39 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

no problems with any of the three BMWs i've owned. how many have you owned?

also, i'd rather risk a service visit to the dealer than live a hassle-free and immensely boring life behind the wheel of a tarted-up toyota. no "dismal driving dynamics" for me thank you.

— enthusiastx11 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 12:13:57 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

enthusiastx11: any car can last at least 3 years nowadays. the fact that you are impressved with you 335 not casing any troble for you so far sounded like you are living in 1990.

anyhow. BMW's realiablity has improved quite a bit. but they are far from "rock solid"

— ghosthunter (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 1:35:43 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Well than you can buy my 2006 6mt g35 sedan from me. Thats an infiniti and I have had my engine replaced twice due to oil consumption. So much for japanese quality right? The third engine is a handbuilt version and all seems well so far, but its only been 4000 miles. The other two engines consumed 1 liter of oil per 1000 miles.

— mitchelm (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 9:21:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

how nice. first the 335i was having cooling issues now the brand new M3 is having failures with its transmission. looking real nice

— KZ258 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 10:17:31 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

BMW can suffer somewhat with reliability issues, however this is not one of them. Its amazing how some people can form such wrong opinions either by not getting all the facts or just simply misinterpretting. This was probably a simple but drastic error in communication between BMW and the dealer's service dept. Although sometimes it might be that the dealer just didn't pay attention to service bulletins put out by the factory.

— golfer38 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 10:20:09 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

That sucks. They should give you a new car. This time, get a stick.

— FerrarisR4me (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 11:48:16 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

that sucks.

but is ONE guy's problem worthy of a whole entry here? seems petty.

— enthusiastx11 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 12:10:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

hey thats what you get for buying a BMW. remember, youre on the cutting edge of technology! this is just the little sacrifice you make to have to have the best. thats what the warranty is for! haha

hey enthusiastx11, did you get your fuel pumps replaced under the recall?

— gsh23 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 12:24:51 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

i second the VW/audi. a friend just lost his A4 1.8T because the engined block deformed due to overheating. toast!

— gsh23 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 1:03:53 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

Hahahaha, I told you so :) I had a gut feeling ol' BMW didn't fully test this before passing it off to its customers, the customers are their guinea pigs!

No disrespect to the M3 owner here, he should be fully covered under warranty, I just hate it when BMW does this, last time around it was the run-flat cupping fiasco and transmission failures, starting with the 2000 3-series models failing to into reverse!

— sector (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 1:30:33 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Over engineering,all German vehicles suffer from the same problem!

— autopro (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 1:55:52 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

Glad to see the resident BMW troll in full swing. What problems does MB and Audi face? Be specific.

— VISO (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 5:59:27 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

with audi? are you serious? they are the only brand that still suffers from fires that i know of.

— gsh23 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 7:00:27 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

Why are people on Autospies attributing this problem to the over engineering of BMW vehicles, when it is very apparent that this transmission failure is unrelated to the engineering of the car itself.

— nolimt735 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 2:31:01 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

This is one of the very reason I no longer drive a BMW. Don't get me wrong, I still like their cars. At the same time, I want an everyday dependable driving car, and ny CTS has filled this role very very well!

— keyzi747 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 3:25:37 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Is this news? I've put over 200k miles total on Hondas, Acuras, and Toyotas. And there were a fair amount of problems, and more importantly the cars were built like, and drove like, crap. I've put that many miles on Audi, MB, Mercedes and Porsche and had less problems and tons more fun.

— supermoto (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 4:58:52 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Shoulda bought an Audi...

— RandyM (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 5:18:52 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

The idiots who are attributing this to BMW need to read the article, not just the title. Every other post is a sob story about how "I'll never drive another BMW," when it in fact has nothing to do with that.

— S4cabriofoxone (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 6:03:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

not suprised
its a bmw

— eric452 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 7:53:22 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4   

Sometimes even the best cars have problems. BMW isn't exempt from that.

— kut17 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 8:56:51 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

awesome that he is getting a new tranny, but it was probably only after he posted about it on the foprum and made his problems public that he got attention...

— DiamondJim (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 10:31:13 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

VISO : Do not waste yout time with amazinBimmer due he always talk with the emotions. Zero numbers, zero dialectic. He will have to dig very deep, and even if you show him evidence, he won´t accept nothimg against BMW. However I will say something in pro of BMW fans: 1 or even 2 bad cars does not means that all the cars will be bad. Just stay calm, some times things like this happens due is a brand new car and even trained people will do some mistakes with a new product. Start to be worry about if you see a trend in a big percent, for me, should be more than 5% and 2 bad cars are far away from that. Also do not blame the maintenance department, they are humans like everyone here and we do mistakes some times, and some of those very expensives. amazinBimmer I´m not sure about if you are human. >;-)

— Yonder7 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/22/2008 10:35:25 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

People really need to learn how to read the article before posting stupid comments.

— M53R (View Profile)

Posted on 5/23/2008 8:33:01 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Wow what a nasty piece of info this is! I would've driven back to the dealership after the engine cut out on & the transmission light came on...In a brand new M3 you wouldn't have to tell me twice!

— MunichRob (View Profile)

Posted on 5/23/2008 8:34:52 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

WTF with title???

Not only this is copied from forum, but c'mon, CAN YOU READ THROUGH THE WHOLE THING BEFORE POSTING???

— vladyxa (View Profile)

Posted on 5/23/2008 2:40:21 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

IMHO, this is the problem with BMWs. They are great cars, but when you venture into Ms, you are buying so much techno-wiz-bang stuff, you are bound to get some serious issues.
this is what makes Porsche so good (but they are starting to go this route, I fear). The M3 may be great in the hands of a savvy driver, but in the hands of an average driver, the secretary in the C63 will walk away at the traffic light. Too many button to press, too many performance options versus the C63 where you just step on the loud pedal and go... away... real fast!

— TybeeZ4 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/23/2008 7:37:05 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

great way to separate the wheat from the chaff!

— olscuul (View Profile)

Posted on 5/23/2008 7:38:21 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

can't you just go back and tell them that you want the next BMW M3 they've got?

— nine (View Profile)

Posted on 5/23/2008 10:40:21 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

JRobUSC : Another emotional oriented guy?....sorry for you. Any professional driver will tell you that to drive the C63 you´ll need more expertise than to drive the M3. In fact is very likely that a person like you, won´t be able to drive a C63, specialy in a winding road where the inertia of the C63 is bigger than that in the M3. Of course if the only thing that you you know is stright line acceleration, then hands down the C63 is the best choice, in fact, so good that even a old lady will kick your but. For the way that you talk, is very clear that you are the worst bimmer fan in this post, also is very likely that you have no idea on how to control the M3, which have better performer in the turns than the C63. Do not try to kill your self with a C63, that´s just for pros, (not you definitely).

— Yonder7 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/25/2008 1:35:07 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

This article will NEVER be posted by any Autospies "Agent". There should be a limit on how many articles these so-called "Agents" post here. They say the same BS over and over again, it's sickening.

— flozel1 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/25/2008 5:54:55 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

whatever happened to durability/endurance testing?

— stelvio (View Profile)

Posted on 5/25/2008 6:47:43 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Hey....waite, do not create conlusions until you get more info.

— Yonder7 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/25/2008 8:48:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Most of people here doesn´t like to wait but that´s the only way that allow you to know what´s going on. BMW or any german brand most of time does not have the Lexus reliability, but even in that case most of people here will take the M3 over the ISF. However "if" BMW is not able to stand by their products, a lot of cosumers will start to look in other azimut, but that is not gone hapen so we have to wait until they provide technical info. Sofisticated cars demand careful attention to details. Just as an example: Ferrari Enzo use an special viscosity Shell oil for the engine and it is 60.00$ a quarter and the warranty void if you do not use that oil in the engine (12 quarters= 720.00$). Expensive, yes but if you find that expensive then you don´t have the capability to afford it. M3 is using an special transmision oil and that can make a big diference but only high tech people and engineers will understand that.

— Yonder7 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/25/2008 9:31:34 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

i should have bought a Granada.Bad Men Wagon

— wanga (View Profile)

Posted on 5/30/2008 8:59:19 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1