[nileshbhatiaa]

I recently purchased a BMW 220i. The India spec sheet given to me at the time of sale contains a feature 'cornering light and adaptive light distribution' however after buying the car, when I found this feature was not working, the sales team appeared clueless and referred me to service center where I was told this feature was never present. When I went back to the dealer, they appeared surprised stating they have sold nearly 100 vehicles of this model till date and that no one ever came back to provide this feedback.

Not having a feature is no big deal, every car misses out on something or other, however on ground of principles, I feel cheated. What if there are other features mentioned in spec sheet but not present in the car? How do I trust the company for facts? Today they simply tell me that mention of this feature in spec sheet is human error! I don't want to let them escape with this lame excuse. What are my options?

Originally Posted by pavanmadhini

As a big fan of user research and consumer behavior studies, I'd love to talk to folks who buy the 220i over the 330i Sport.

I'm sure understanding their decision making process will be fascinating.

Meet me I always dreamt of buying a luxury car. I could at best stretch my budget to afford a 40 lac car however did little bit of further stretch to fulfill my dream of buying a BMW with 220i M Sport. Additional 6 lacs for 330i was going to be impossible for me under any circumstances and hence had to settle in for 220i. I know this is not a full BMW experience however, the pride of owning a BMW badge is second to none. The happiness of my parents sitting in a luxury segment car is beyond words can ever express.

[sid_deb]

Originally Posted by nileshbhatiaa

I don't want to let them escape with this lame excuse. What are my options?

I suggest you write to BMW India and give them this feedback. More than the dealer, it's the company who is at fault and should look to compensate you. BMW is very strict with modifications and may not change the headlight assembly, however should look to offer you complimentary BSI/BRI package at the least.

[CEF_Beasts]

Originally Posted by nileshbhatiaa

I recently purchased a BMW 220i. The India spec sheet given to me at the time of sale contains a feature 'cornering light and adaptive light distribution' however after buying the car, when I found this feature was not working, the sales team appeared clueless and referred me to service center where I was told this feature was never present. When I went back to the dealer, they appeared surprised stating they have sold nearly 100 vehicles of this model till date and that no one ever came back to provide this feedback.

The updated spec sheet still has cornering lights mentioned, only thing removed is adaptive headlights.

Please share a picture of your headlight’s internals.



Send a mail attaching the spec sheet you’ve attached to BMW India cc’ing your dealer as well.

[agambhandari]

"Adaptive headlights" in BMW speak also have the Auto high beam feature which can be seen as an extra auto button on your left steering stalk (next to the BC button), if your car doesnt have the button it doesnt have adaptive headlights. Simple as that

You can check the buildsheet of the car on a website like bimmer.work

BMW has not offered adaptive headlights on cars of this platform in India yet (not on X1/2GC). So I'm not surprised your car doesn't have it but you can try raising the issue on mail with BMW India. But I expect the fine print on the brochure to come to their rescue "Features and specs may change without prior notice ".

[GTO]

Originally Posted by nileshbhatiaa

The India spec sheet given to me at the time of sale contains a feature 'cornering light and adaptive light distribution' however after buying the car, when I found this feature was not working, the sales team appeared clueless and referred me to service center where I was told this feature was never present.

Thanks for sharing, nileshbhatiaa! Moving your post out to a new thread as this predicament might be more common than one thinks. A new thread means 100X the views & 100X the visibility in search engines, including Google. Will add to homepage later this week .

@ BHPians, if you should spot any good post in an existing thread that deserves its own new thread, please report the post and we'll move it out for greater visibility.

Thank you!

[Nithesh_M]

Check if your brochure has a disclaimer that says "specs of the product may be changed at any time without notice" or something on the lines. Car companies have been deleting features a lot lately from the initial launch day and rarely update the brochure and hence add disclaimers like that in fine print.

[Cresterk]

I'm guessing this was a feature initially offered but then silently deleted during the chip shortage and they failed to reflect it in the brochure.

These features are generally offered as customisation packages that you can pick and choose to your liking in other countries but in India, BMW/Mercedes/Audi/Volvo etc pre-selects them at the coorporate level for each model year and divides them into various trims instead. The dealership can't really do anything about it, you are better off contacting BMW directly via e-mail.

[funkydevil]

Point no 5 as mentioned on the posted specsheet - The models, equipment and possible vehicle configurations illustrated in this specsheet may differ from from vehicles supplied in the Indian Market.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Nithesh_M

Check if your brochure has a disclaimer that says "specs of the product may be changed at any time without notice" or something on the lines. Car companies have been deleting features a lot lately from the initial launch day and rarely update the brochure and hence add disclaimers like that in fine print.

While true that most car (and other) brochures have this fine-print - it means that I should happily accept it if the dealer hands over just a jack & tommy to me at the delivery time & declares that everything else including the body, engine etc has been deleted .

If such behaviour and really poor proof-reading of documentation is happening at BMW - it puts a question mark on the premium-ness of the brand. So much for German precision.

[Comrade]

I wish you could drag bmw and the dealer to the consumer court even though its not practically possible to fight such malpractices using our judicial system. Its ridiculous to mention a feature in the brochure and not give it. Its atleast acceptable if dealer mentions before purchase that the feature is no longer available going forward. But its plain lazy that they are not even aware of the feature-deletion and didn’t make an effort to check with manufacturer. And it shows the callous nature of the dealer to say 100s of earlier customers have not complained.

[nileshbhatiaa]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

While true that most car (and other) brochures have this fine-print - it means that I should happily accept it if the dealer hands over just a jack & tommy to me at the delivery time & declares that everything else including the body, engine etc has been deleted .

If such behaviour and really poor proof-reading of documentation is happening at BMW - it puts a question mark on the premium-ness of the brand. So much for German precision.

Absolutely, how and how much do i trust the manufacturer for other invisible features functioning as expected. Will the air bags deploy tomorrow in case of an unfortunate crash?

Originally Posted by Nithesh_M

Check if your brochure has a disclaimer that says "specs of the product may be changed at any time without notice" or something on the lines. Car companies have been deleting features a lot lately from the initial launch day and rarely update the brochure and hence add disclaimers like that in fine print.

It does contain the disclaimer however i would have expected a reputed brand like BMW to at least be transparent with me at the time of pre delivery inspection by stating features mentioned in spec sheet and missing or removed in the recent models to let me make a decision if i should go ahead with my purchase.
To my surprise, neither the sales team nor service team had clarity of the feature bring present or not. While sales team kept insisting the feature does exist, the service team after diagnosis confirmed it does not exist. Upon bringing them both on a conference call they express their own helplessness. Even worse was when they later said it is a small bulb and no big deal if it is missing.
I wrote to BMW India and the matter is under investigation for last 15 days.

Originally Posted by Comrade

I wish you could drag bmw and the dealer to the consumer court even though its not practically possible to fight such malpractices using our judicial system. Its ridiculous to mention a feature in the brochure and not give it. Its atleast acceptable if dealer mentions before purchase that the feature is no longer available going forward. But its plain lazy that they are not even aware of the feature-deletion and didn’t make an effort to check with manufacturer. And it shows the callous nature of the dealer to say 100s of earlier customers have not complained.

I definitely want to fight this on grounds of principles, lack of transparency and lack of ethical behaviour from the organization. However, easy as it may sound, going to consumer courts needs of own investment in time and energy which is creating hesitation in me as someone who has never taken legal route in the past and has no legal background. Any help appreciated.

[nileshbhatiaa]

Originally Posted by Cresterk

I'm guessing this was a feature initially offered but then silently deleted during the chip shortage and they failed to reflect it in the brochure.

These features are generally offered as customisation packages that you can pick and choose to your liking in other countries but in India, BMW/Mercedes/Audi/Volvo etc pre-selects them at the coorporate level for each model year and divides them into various trims instead. The dealership can't really do anything about it, you are better off contacting BMW directly via e-mail.

The spec sheet has evidently been revised between 28th Aug to now. The updated spec sheet i downloaded today still makes a mention of cornering lights which means the Company still thinks that the cornering light feature must be present on all cars being delivered. There is definitely mismanagement in handling the India spec sheet.

[SR-71]

This is not an isolated issue, rather it seems to be a collective lethargy at BMW India’s end. You will find such issues in other model’s spec sheet too. For example, the 3 series M Sport had gesture control which was recently removed due to chip shortage. Yet you will find the spec sheet mentioning the same even today. Unless you are aware and you press for the information, SA(s) are not forthcoming. Our lax consumer protection laws do not make it any easier for buyers either.

[Dry Ice]

Did you try a VIN lookup? Some tools do provide a detailed breakup of the car’s configuration. That can help you confirm if the feature/part was skipped from the factory.

Also, you can validate the part number present on your car vs the part number of headlights where this feature exists. The service centre should be able to provide you this.

[RakishRam]

Originally Posted by nileshbhatiaa

The spec sheet has evidently been revised between 28th Aug to now. The updated spec sheet i downloaded today still makes a mention of cornering lights which means the Company still thinks that the cornering light feature must be present on all cars being delivered.
.

Did you try contacting BMW? You may use their official twitter handle as well. At least the initial response is prompt. From then it's luck if they provide a resolution or not.