Transportation Damage

[pschenck2]

We have all seen the pics of when catastrophic damage has occurred to cars aboard ship, but what about smaller bumps and scrapes? They pack those cars onto the ship as tightly as possible.

How often do they occur and are they required to tell you? Reason I asked is that on our last lease turn in the inspector meticulously went over our car with their little meter measuring the paint thickness and whether there was damage that had been repaired. I knew there was none but what if there was some damage before I got it, how would I prove it?

Other question I have always had is, shouldn’t they check the alignment of every car as soon as it comes off the ship? They compress the suspension with the tie downs then the car gets tossed about in heavy seas just seems like there is a possibility of damage or at least throwing the car out of alignment and the first thing you are going to see is premature wear on you$1800 tires.

Thanks,

[SARAFIL]

We have all seen the pics of when catastrophic damage has occurred to cars aboard ship, but what about smaller bumps and scrapes? They pack those cars onto the ship as tightly as possible.

How often do they occur and are they required to tell you? Reason I asked is that on our last lease turn in the inspector meticulously went over our car with their little meter measuring the paint thickness and whether there was damage that had been repaired. I knew there was none but what if there was some damage before I got it, how would I prove it?

Other question I have always had is, shouldn’t they check the alignment of every car as soon as it comes off the ship? They compress the suspension with the tie downs then the car gets tossed about in heavy seas just seems like there is a possibility of damage or at least throwing the car out of alignment and the first thing you are going to see is premature wear on you$1800 tires.

Thanks,

BMWNA discloses ANY repair that is made to a car at the VPC to the dealer. After a repair order is opened at the processing center to repair the car, it is flagged with a "D" (damage disclosure) in the dealer's DCS system. It might might not show up immediately while the car is still sitting at the VPC (which can lead a dealer to wonder why a car is delayed), but it will be on there before the car is released to the dealer. It is ultimately up to the dealer to pass that info on to the consumer, but if they tell you that BMW never told them about a repair they are lying.

After the cost of the repair exceeds a certain threshold (I honestly can't remember the number, it was either 3% or 5% of MSRP), BMW will not sell the car as a new car-- they'll pull it back from the dealer's pipeline and replace it with another allocation, and then they'll use the damaged car as a company car and later sell it as used.

[pschenck2]

What about the idea that the alignment could be thrown out during shipping and should be checked upon receipt?

[SARAFIL]

What about the idea that the alignment could be thrown out during shipping and should be checked upon receipt?

alignment is covered under warranty for the first 2,000 miles, which basically covers you if you notice a problem shortly after taking delivery.

[David1]

What about the idea that the alignment could be thrown out during shipping and should be checked upon receipt?

Thats BS. Don't worry about it. There is very little to no adjustment anyways.

[pschenck2]

We had an X5 that showed poor alignment wear after 14,000 even though you could take your hands from the wheel and the X would still track resonably well. Having driven it 100% of the time I knew nothing was ever hit that would have thrown it out of alignment.

So it was either poorly aligned at the factory, thrown out of alignement in shipping or "fell" out of alignement during those 14,000 miles.

Happen to run into a rep from Hunter engineering yesterday who told me that he always has his new cars aligned as part of the delivery process. He said an alignement issue that is impossible to detect through normal driving could easily cause your tires to wear out 5,000 prematurely.

His advice for getting the maximum wear out of your tires was to get your car aligned fresh off the lot then once a year. He also suggested inventorying your wheel weight so as to know if and when you throw one although that is not as important with the adhesive weights since they leave a residue from the double sided tape.

[tlm999]

Happen to run into a rep from Hunter engineering yesterday who told me that he always has his new cars aligned as part of the delivery process. He said an alignement issue that is impossible to detect through normal driving could easily cause your tires to wear out 5,000 prematurely.

His advice for getting the maximum wear out of your tires was to get your car aligned fresh off the lot then once a year. He also suggested inventorying your wheel weight so as to know if and when you throw one although that is not as important with the adhesive weights since they leave a residue from the double sided tape.

And the cost of those annual alignments vs. the (possible) cost of tires wearing out a bit early is.......

I haven't paid for an alignment in many years on a BMW and have always had good mileage on my tires. The cost of initial and annual alignments would have been far greater than all the tires I have had to prematurely replace in the last 20+ years.

[SARAFIL]

And the cost of those annual alignments vs. the (possible) cost of tires wearing out a bit early is.......

I haven't paid for an alignment in many years on a BMW and have always had good mileage on my tires. The cost of initial and annual alignments would have been far greater than all the tires I have had to prematurely replace in the last 20+ years.

Yeah, I was going to say... depending on your annual mileage and the average life you get out of your tires, I don't know if it is worth it for many people to get an annual alignment to save 5,000-10,000 miles of use on the tires.

[Orient330iNYC]

We had an X5 that showed poor alignment wear after 14,000 even though you could take your hands from the wheel and the X would still track resonably well. Having driven it 100% of the time I knew nothing was ever hit that would have thrown it out of alignment.

So it was either poorly aligned at the factory, thrown out of alignement in shipping or "fell" out of alignement during those 14,000 miles.

Happen to run into a rep from Hunter engineering yesterday who told me that he always has his new cars aligned as part of the delivery process. He said an alignement issue that is impossible to detect through normal driving could easily cause your tires to wear out 5,000 prematurely.

His advice for getting the maximum wear out of your tires was to get your car aligned fresh off the lot then once a year. He also suggested inventorying your wheel weight so as to know if and when you throw one although that is not as important with the adhesive weights since they leave a residue from the double sided tape.

hmm, a rep selling alignment equipment recommending alignments.....

[SARAFIL]

hmm, a rep selling alignment equipment recommending alignments.....

what, you mean he'd try and talk him into something that he didn't really need? :yikes:

:angel:

[pschenck2]

not sure about your dealer but mine gives you a fancy report listing the before and after for all 4 wheels and the amount of weight placed in each seat.

if it is all for naught I will know that too.