10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 1 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 21,500 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
2009 BMW 328I with 17K miles malfunctioned caught fire and exploded. I was injured by the fire getting out. It was a total loss vehicle fire causing personal injury. In addition to the cost of the car there was additional 20K personal property damage. It was not caused by collision or operator error. On 15 Nov 2010 approx 7: 30pm after about 8 mins of driving my car started to lose power and the ses light came on. It acted as if it was running out of gas I pulled over off of the shoulder in the grass. The car died and would not start back up I took my flash light and looked under the hood.I did not see anything or notice anything unusual. After a little time the car started back up, the ses light did not come back on. It was dark outside, I was out of state and BMW was closed so I turned back. I drove approx 1 block to a driveway where I stopped and called my husband to say I would not come home until my car could be seen. I began to drive back towards longview, tx. I entered the highway on the other side of the road at about 50 mph my car began losing power. The engine made a load noise and the RPM gauge went up to 7000 rpms I was in traffic and needed to pull over. I put the car in neutral and coasted at approx 40 mph I put the car in 4th gear and it redlined again. I put it back into neutral the clutch went to the floor. Still coasting in traffic I got off the road as soon as I could. It died on top of a bridge with a narrow shoulder. I turned off the car and called roadside assistance, while talking to them I seen flames coming from the drivers front wheel area. Without a second thought I got out of the car I undid my seat belt opened the drivers door and jumped out only my cell in hand. There was a wall of flames taller than me I got burned getting away from the car I ran through the flames into on coming traffic and was almost hit by an 18 wheeler. I was in the middle of the bridge when I heard the 1st explosion and the 2nd as I ran off of the bridge.
- Ok, OK, USA
2009 BMW 335I, high pressure fuel pump failure. 9500 miles on vehicle. Engine is slow to start. While driving and RPM above 3000, check engine light comes on and engine reduces power significantly. If pump were to fail completely, engine would die, leaving driver without power steering. This could be a major safety problem on highways with dense traffic. After reading internet blogs on vehicle, this is a known defect for BMW N54 engines. Some drivers have had the pump replaced multiple times with same outcome each time.
- Alexandria, VA, USA
- Chicago, IL, USA