Driver's Corner > Bikes

Follow Up to a story in September issue of Top Gear

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cherokee123:
Dear Readers:
    This a a list of corrections and explanations to a story which appears on page 32 of Top Gears September issue. On or around December 15, 2005 I purchased a BMW CL 1200 CC motorcycle from BMW Autohaus. From the first ride the horn stopped working and so did the radio/CD player. My family and I were going on Christmas vacation so BMW Picked up the bike and said it would be repaired by the time we arrived back in Manila on the 29th. Numerous other items continued to happen and I ask BMW to either replece the motorcycle with something else or refund my Php870,000. On February 12, 2005 BMW Philippines had made arrangements with BMW Autozentrium, in Alabang, to take the CL as a trade in and I paid out some more Pesos for what I thought was a 2005 K1200 LT. Supposeabily BMW's Flagship Motorcycle. From the very beginning this motorcycle had a lot of problems and spent more time in the shop than it was ever ridden. For all most two years BMW Autozentrium and Autohaus both took turns trying to correct poor performance, exessive smoking, running hot and running very rich. BMW Autohaus changed the oil and plugs about six times in less than three months. From the begining the battery was change in the first month, the tires were worn out in less than 6,000 KM and the rims were damaged as the result of the bad tires. I replaced the tires, at my own expense, one rim was replaced by my insurance company and the other rim was repaired. BMW did not cover anything even though the bike was under warranty.

On January 20th, 2007, I decided to take a ride at about 10:00 in the morning. I had no destination in mind as I left Alabang and headed down the South Expressway. About three weeks prior to that morning BMW had decided that they would change the Control Module on the K1200 LT. From the information I recieved from Autohaus this was directed by BMW Germany as an attempt to correct all the above mentioned problems. When they returned the bike I made three phone calls to BMW Autohaus and BMW Philippines. My comment to them was that I was smelling raw gas and their comment to me was one question, do you see any puddles?, my answer to them was no, there were no puddles present. Their comment after hearing my answer was to ride the motorcycle as much as I could because BMW Germany wanted the new Control Module to create a new enviroment in the engine and remove all the old enviroment. I decided to go to Puerto Azul and have lunch on the beach. When I arrived at Puerto Azul I rode all the way through the area, turned around and was heading back up the hill when the bike started to act as if I was riding in the wrong gear, I then smelled raw gas and then I smelled something buring. I pulled over to the side of the road, got off the bike and raised the seat. When I raised the seat the engine was on fire so I quickly got a towel from the bike and started to try and put the fire out. When the towel caught fire I ran as the flames had gotten bigger and I was afraid the gas tank would explode. A car passed by and gave me a lift to the resort area where I asked them to call the police and fire departments. When I got back to where the motorcycle was at there was nothing left. A call to both BMW Autohaus and BMW Philippines to inform them the bike was now completely destroyed prompted them to send a truck to my location to pick up the remains.

The next day I started doing some research on K1200 LT and found out that there have been numerous fires on LT's because of the gas systems quik disconnects. There have been recalls on every year since 2001. In addition I discovered that the 2005 K1200 LT I had been sold, and even registered by BMW,  was in fact a 2003 year model. After discovering this information I now had a better understanding of why the tires wore out so quickly and why the battery had to be replaced within the first 2 months. The tires were dry rotted and the battery was just plain old. After discovering this I demanded that BMW replace the motorcycle with a brand new K1200 LT. Not because of the fire but because of the fraud and deciet commited by BMW. My insurance company did pay for my loss.

The fact that Top Gear related to an incident that I had with Ford Alabang over a brand new Ford Everest that I purchased is not part of this story. I will say that if the Philippines had a Lemon Law there would never had been story. What the article failed to mention was that the Everest did indeed have problems and Ford Alabang actually replaced the rear differential.

In closing, When you purchase anything from a dealer you should not expect to be taken advantage of, especially with the reputation BMW tries to portray.

vbsarne:

Good day, sir. I'm assuming you are Mr Bill Smith. I hope you didn't take it against us or our columnist if we also presented the side of BMW. We consulted with our lawyer and we were advised to give space to both sides in the spirit of fairness. We are not taking sides. In fact, we admit we are clueless as to what really happened. But again, we owe it to our readers to give them both sides of the story before publishing anything. We hope your issue with BMW will be resolved soon.

cherokee123:
You are correct and this is Bill Smith. I do not hold anything against anyone, even BMW. This story will continue to get more interesting as time goes on. I do not like the fact that your magazine article starts the story by asking Victim or Scammer? and ends the story by making refference to modus operandi. For two years this bike was in the shop because BMW could not fix the problems. The bike smoked worse than most tricycles, had poor performance and lots of other problems. The President of BMW Philippines addmitted to myself and my wife that the mechanics here in the Philippines were not trained yo work on the LT. Then why sell one and offer service?

For your magazine to print comments about my previous expierence with Ford Alabang over the Everest that I purchased was again very poor judgement. An agreement my wife and I signed with Ford Alabang forbide any discussion about the matter. Apparently Ford Alaband did not see fit to honor that agreement.

The subject of the Criminal case against BMW is for the Fraud and deceit for selling me a 2003 motorcycle and calling it a 2005. The amount I paid for my 2003 was only 30,000 pesos less than the real 2005 that is here in the Philippines. I would have never paid the price I paid if I had known that the motorcycle was in fact two years old when I bought it.

In closing, BMW may be one of your big sponsors with lots of ads in your magazine however you should have written the story based on truth and facts and not attempted to make it look like it was my normal  modus operandi.     

vbsarne:

I respect your views, sir. However, let me just make it clear that BMW is not a regular advertiser of Top Gear. Check out the very issue where your story came out (September 2007). If my memory serves me well, I believe there's no BMW ad there. In fact, in all the 17 Top Gear issues I have put to bed as editor, only once did BMW place an ad with us (August 2007). We don't tailor the magazine to please advertisers, if that's what you're hinting at.

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