President’s Article March 2015

One of the most underutilized member benefits provided to you as a club member, is the discounts on parts and service honored by the four BMW dealers who support our Club.

Many of our members enjoy working on their own cars, but as technology advances, it is becoming more difficult to do some of the tasks we performed in our home garages in the past. It is becoming more important to have the correct diagnostic tools to correctly repair many of the cars we love to drive.

Recently, I had the experience of the driver’s side lock actuator on our X5 become defective as it was sitting in the parking lot of my wife’s employer. It was a little upsetting when my wife called me in the middle of the day to inform me the security system was going off and would not stop no matter what she tried.

We had the same problem with our 740iL several years ago, and it was repaired in Fort Dodge since the distance to the dealer was prohibitive with a defective security system. This time, as I was driving the X5 to BMW of Des Moines, the security system shut down the fuel pump near Perry. After a long wait for the tow truck, the X5 was loaded onto a truck and delivered to BMW of Des Moines. The nice people there agreed that it was probably the door actuator and would need to spend several days there until the new part would arrive. I was given a nearly new 320xi to drive during the time the X5 would need to undergo minor surgery.

The original estimate was a little staggering. When the 740iL was repaired for the same problem, I ordered a part from one of our advertisers, had a local repair shop work on it, although he was hesitant, and still had to take the car to the dealer to have the new part “coded.”  The moral of the story is, after my BMW CCA discounts, it was cheaper to have the X5 repaired at the dealer than the 740iL in my hometown.