BMW M 3 parked in the driveway and had been turned off for several hours I was wax the car when I noticed a puff of smoke coming out of the air condition vent so I sat in the driver seat to investigate out of habit I close the door I planed to open the windows and the convertible top to take a look the car went into antitheft mode and locked me inside the smoke became thick quickly I tried to break the window with my elbow with no luck I was getting ready to try to kick the window if I could reach it with my foot I-??m on most 70 years old so it was tough even moving I couldn-??t get out..my wife and daughter Who were in the backyard and saw what was happening they broke the window so that I could climb out of the car I sprayed the air conditioning vent with water which is also dangerous but I had to put it out I then disconnected the battery as quickly as I could I have called an insurance adjuster and had mechanics look at it apparently the LCM or the light control module for some reason caught fire I was lucky I had someone there to help me someone else might not be as lucky I did breathing a bit of the smoke and I-??ve had cough but I don-??t feel it-??s severe I will have it looked out eventually would just like the car to be evaluated by BMW engineers to see if they can figure out why it caught on fire Before I pay money to have it repaired I-??m not sure I can drive it again

- Baltimore , MD, USA

The door central lock control module fails on all of the E46 BMW models where the passenger and driver can become trapped in the vehicle because the door locks cannot be unlocked in any way because of the faulty GM5 central locking module

- Middletown, NY, USA

I am filing this complaint on behalf of myself and the countless others experiencing this potentially fatal defect in BMW's smg pump unit. I was driving on the freeway for about 5 minutes when I noticed my car immediately shifted into neutral without me making that decision. I was in the middle of changing lanes when this happened. The smg warning light came on. I put my hazards on. The car abruptly slowed as it chose to shift back to 4th gear as I was going 65mph. I tried shifting back up to gear safely get to the shoulder but with no luck as the vehicle went back into neutral. The cars behind me came very rapidly and two almost hit me as a result of this pump failure. By this time I was traveling around 40mph in a 65+ traffic zone. I finally rolled my car down the shoulder to safety. I replaced the smg relay with a spare new one I always carried in the car. I waited 10 minutes for the vehicle to cool off as I knew this was the infamous smg pump issue. The car started back up with no light and drove me almost the entire route back home. Just about a mile from my home, same thing happened. This time leaving me completely stuck in a busy intersection. Luckily, the people behind me were kind enough to help push my car out of the way. I called a friend and we pushed the car all the way back to my garage. Now this is just the first time it has happened. It happens in less than 3 minutes of driving the car just when I try to move it never breaking 15mph. Bmwna ignores our complaints as their dealerships make money hand over fist with this $4000 repair. My complaint is not with the repair amount. Us M3 owners are aware of the maintenance and repair costs for our highly specialized vehicles. However, this pump malfunction is a very real danger to all drivers. We've seen this happen to vehicles with anywhere from 15K to 120K miles on them. BMW needs to issue a recall.

- Los Angeles, CA, USA

BMW 2002 M3, remote key does not work, broken general module.

- North Bergen, NJ, USA