What ?!?!?!?! Recall Letter

[pinoyhero]

Hey guys, I just finished bringing me e46 M3 up from the states and found that I need a recall letter from BMW, stupid me, I should have ogtten this before. Anyways BMW Calgary syas they need to see the car to check the VIN plating before they can release a letter, which costs $500, WTF? Any other options for me here?

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

rofl 500 bucks to check the vin plating.

[forced_eg]

i thought recalls were free?

[pinoyhero]

Recalls are free but a letter from BMW North America stating that all recalls have been done is $500, FTL

[bennyhanna]

I thought you were able to contact the manufacture for all recall letters.

[redevil]

Directly contact BMW Canada or US to see if it has been done, they should be able to tell you and provide you proof. Not sure about the fee, that's a joke See if they can fax or mail you out a letter of confirmation. Their phone # is on the website.

[pinoyhero]

You guys are partly right, even the RIV says to contact BMW NA. however, upon contacting them I found out they have handed this function to the dealerships who state that the fee for the processing of the letter is ... $500,

[bg_27]

just curious, how much did you pay for your M3 in the US? its specs?

[funkedelic]

thats ridiculous, i called for my bmw when i imported it from the states and i contacted bmw north america and they faxed me over a copy in around 10 minutes for free

[redevil]

Don't they have to disclose that anyways since it is a recall? How else can they prove that is was done without giving you a letter or service record of the work being done. I figured it should be free, I think the dealership or who ever you talked to is scamming you.

[Justing]

^^ my GUESS is that dealerships pushed for this to happen. Probably because they were pissed that so many ppl were importing.
When i did mine, it was hassle free and free of charge. This must be a new policy.

Good luck! hopefully you find a way to get around it.

[benyl]

you should have gotten the recall letter from a US dealer before you came back. It is free from them.

[GT4rally]

I got my letter directly from BMW NA about one year ago... also for free.
If BMW's policy has changed, you need to do some serious complaining... and I mean tear a strip off of them!!!

Since when can a car company, making record profits in the North American market and selling more cars than they could have ever dreamt possible, think that loyal BMW customers are going to put up with crap like a $500 "fuck you" tax, just because we imported from the U.S.?

Might be time to go back to Audi!

[scat19]

Defintaley pop into a states dealer before coming up....

[Weapon_R]

Call the seller and ask him to get you one from the dealership there. That might work

[Ekliptix]

I requested mine from Subaru America over the phone after I got back to Canada. No charge.

That sucks BMW is trying to money grab on this.

[benyl]

It isn't a money grab. Think about how much money they are losing in Canada now with all these imports. They are just trying to recover some money.

They could be real assholes like Toyota and not honour warranty on the newer BMWs. Or they could be assholes like MB and make it really hard to import cars.

[FiveFreshFish]

Anyone know if VW charges for providing this letter? Or if a VW US warranty is honoured here?

[JAYMEZ]

BMW is catching on hahah... Oh well you saved thousands on the car , they just want some $$ from it

[Ekliptix]

Hopefully the manfs will adjust their canadian prices to dealerships to close the gap between our prices and the US's. I don't think they can get away with raising the US dealer prices.