[Nikki19899]

Hello all - I bought a 2016 x6 5.0 last year with only 9k miles on it. I signed up and paid for a BMW Assist package in late January 2020. The subscription expires late January 2021. I went to renew so I could have real time traffic and all of the other features and the website says it is not available. I called BMW Assist and they told me that as of Feb 1, 2021 NONE of the features are supported in model year 2016 and earlier. The 3rd party provider BMW uses chose to only support 5G. 2016 and earlier only has 3G. The customer service reps said they have been fielding calls from angry owners all week. I called my dealer who said he did not know about this issues and is looking into it. Has anyone heard of this, experienced it, or is anyone privy to whether a software or hardware upgrade will become available? Any information would be welcome!

 

[Doug Huffman]

When 2G was obsoleted by the networks, BMW backfit 3-4G TCU. I believe that 5G will also be a hardware upgrade if it is made. I don’t know about “3rd party provider BMW uses.”. I have noticed no changes in my limited functionality.

 

[Nikki19899]

Thanks for your response - both mine and my friend (who both bought 2016s last year) don’t have functionality in our app. And there are no traffic updates on my screen in my car.

 

[Wheels4]

Thanks for your response - both mine and my friend (who both bought 2016s last year) don’t have functionality in our app. And there are no traffic updates on my screen in my car.

My 2015 X5 connected drive has stopped working. The tech guy at my dealer sent me this. Bought CPO 2 years ago and now this. NOT HAPPY!!! They need to provide some type of upgrade or fix.

 

[Nikki19899]

I am VERY upset as well. Wondering what they are going to do with the cars in their lots that are 2016s and earlier.

 

[irianjim]

I have the same issue up here in Canada. BMW Canada offered me several years of roadside assistance or a $200 VISA card to make up for the loss of functionality. However, I raised a bit of a fuss and my dealer is going to look at it in the spring to see if anything can be done (car is in storage during winter). There is actually a fix for it, but it involves replacing a box and BMW is not keen on doing so. However, my dealer has been great on trying to get a solution on my behalf with BMW, particularly since the car has a BMW warranty on it. We will see how it goes. I can live without it if I need to, but that isn't the point.

 

[SteveinArizona]

I have the same issue up here in Canada. BMW Canada offered me several years of roadside assistance or a $200 VISA card to make up for the loss of functionality. However, I raised a bit of a fuss and my dealer is going to look at it in the spring to see if anything can be done (car is in storage during winter). There is actually a fix for it, but it involves replacing a box and BMW is not keen on doing so. However, my dealer has been great on trying to get a solution on my behalf with BMW, particularly since the car has a BMW warranty on it. We will see how it goes. I can live without it if I need to, but that isn't the point.

If BMW sold the cars with the understanding that the app will time out in a few years, I would have no problem. But they gave no such indication (I know because my previous car was a 2016 330e) and one does not expect that a function of a car is designed to time out in a few years. I would be very upset if it were me.

 

[manifester333]

I just found this out today when I went to renew my ConnectedDrive services. I was furious. I just spoke to Cameron from Customer Relations at BMWUSA. He informed me that BMW has made it clear they will NOT be offering any fix, in the form of retrofitting affected vehicles to 4G. Alienating millions of their customers seems like an extremely poor business model. The fact they failed to notify their customers, in advance, of this discontinuation of service, seems worthy of a class action lawsuit, IMO.
I bought my 2015 X5 in August of 2017, it has less than 50k miles on it. I love my X5 but without the ConnectedDrive, it's just another car, with a limited use display. With BMW unwilling to do anything for their customers, as much as I love the car, I'll never buy another BMW. They'll just do the same thing to the most recent models with 4G.

 

[manifester333]

I just found this out today when I went to renew my ConnectedDrive services. I was furious. I just spoke to Cameron from Customer Relations at BMWUSA. He informed me that BMW has made it clear they will NOT be offering any fix, in the form of retrofitting affected vehicles to 4G. Alienating millions of their customers seems like an extremely poor business model. The fact they failed to notify their customers, in advance, of this discontinuation of service, seems worthy of a class action lawsuit, IMO.
I bought my 2015 X5 in August of 2017, it has less than 50k miles on it. I love my X5 but without the ConnectedDrive, it's just another car, with a limited use display. With BMW unwilling to do anything for their customers, as much as I love the car, I'll never buy another BMW. They'll just do the same thing to the most recent models with 4G.

I filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania State Attorney General. Alot of Pennsylvanians buy BMWs in New Jersey where BMW North America is headquartered. I've been reading quite a few complaints from people that just bought their cars, after 2/1/21, and weren't told of this when they bought the car from BMW dealerships.

 

[TractorDriver]

Same story here. 2016 X5 which I use for work. Now I’m driving around in a 70k or what car and need to use waze. The turn wheel input is unusable and voice input doesn’t work even if I had a lot of time for trying. Went ballistic when they told me the first time. Today I called customer relations and filed a formal complaint. Absolutely unacceptable. This apparently unnecessary little detail will definitely prevent me from ever considering BMW again. Heck, if my brand new 5G phone can handle 3G and worse, why can’t my car? It’s also a matter of resale value. For sure I have just lost a couple of grand for not being supported anymore. No map updates, no traffic, no online POI search - the entire pint of having a large screen in front of you is lost. I’d def be in on a class action. Where do I have to sign?

 

[qqmiyataqq]

So frustrating that the services that came with my 2016 F10 cannot continue. I understand that RTT and Map updating taxes the system with 3G service, but the low-level services would still function just fine. I hope there's a class action lawsuit; count me in!

 

[dbrenner]

I filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania State Attorney General. Alot of Pennsylvanians buy BMWs in New Jersey where BMW North America is headquartered. I've been reading quite a few complaints from people that just bought their cars, after 2/1/21, and weren't told of this when they bought the car from BMW dealerships.

I generally don't favor getting involved in class actions, but this is a legitimate cases for one. Making it the responsibility of the carrier is bologna. We paid BMW, they are responsible for it working. This is a not any different from any other product the purchase, put in a car and then it breaks. They are responsible for engineering a fix.

 

[dmadrion]

I am VERY upset as well. Wondering what they are going to do with the cars in their lots that are 2016s and earlier.

They will find people like me who bought a 2015 X1 without asking enough questions.

 

[targaone]

My girlfriend is on her 6th X5 purchased new. She would have considered replacement of it but has not used it much in the last 18 months w covid. She also was told new cars were not available with any choices 6 months ago with chip issues. She got the news in january her communications and driver assist was not able to be kept alive and she is angry. Her family buys new bmws about every 5 years for mom and dad and her sister and hers. She has stayed loyal thru engine failures and computer failures and transmission issues on her last 3 X5 cars. The fact is she considerers this poor customer service and the loss of a safety function of her car. She normally buys a new car at 4 or 5 years. But a 5 year old car being considered too old to update when it was 93 grand new is just the end. I have talked to her about the new porsche cayanne's and the new mercedes suvs.
I have owned porsche and bmw cars but much older and more used and cheaper.
I think her experience is going to cost them her familys business. So thats four or 5 new cars every 5 years or so. Dont know if bmw cares. Seems like a bad group of people to lose to me.

 

[targaone]

I am VERY upset as well. Wondering what they are going to do with the cars in their lots that are 2016s and earlier.

Well with current new and used car shortages I bet there are not many cars sitting around to be purchased.

 

[ErnestHouse]

BMW is not lifting a finger to help the 60% of owners affected but not offered the free fix. Well, actually they are lifting a finger; THE MIDDLE ONE.

Not that it will do much if anything, if she wants to try, she and her family should each call Customer Relations at 1-800-831-1117, explain why her X5 is now less safe and that you are willing to pay for a fix. Ask them what they have put together that owners can purchase to make their cars safe again. Listen politely to their "We're sorry" and ask to file a complaint. Then, email [email protected] explaining why the car is less safe, that they've lost you as a customer but could get them back with a paid fix from BMW. You will get a canned response same day like this one:

Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting BMW Assist Customer Care. We sincerely apologize that we are unable to continue to offer those services to you in your current BMW. Please contact BMW Customer Relations at 1-800-831-1117 for further information regarding this issue.
Sincerely,
ConnectedDrive Services Customer Care

When you get the canned response, reply including the previous emails. Thank them politely but firmly that you already called the number and want to escalate their refusal to provide a fix to BMW North America. Repeat the bit about losing them as a a customer because BMW isn't offering a fix. It's important to include all those words and mention safety. Keep a log of doing this so in the event of a lawsuit, you have documentation to add. You are now creating a paper trail that can be subpoena'd. There are two fixes I think BMW could easily provide (for a price) but they didn't and aren't. Yet.

Spread the word.

 

[ErnestHouse]

According to this article, Tesla is working on packaging retrofits for its Model S customers for $200, $1500 or $2000 depending on how the car is equipped.

The NavTuning solution for losing RTTI in the US unlocks RTTI immediately and adds a Bluetooth tethering option to your iDrive configuration screen for connected devices. RTTI is then 3G sunset proof.

If an outside company can remotely enable RTTI and implement it via BT tethering, why didn't BMW North America have such a thing up and running when the sunset was announced and they turned off RTTI this past February?

And, why isn't BMW North America offering a fix for RTTI, Send To Car and Online Search the same way via its myBMW app?

 

[Cwlsnct1]

I own a 2016 X5 50i and 2018 430i. About 2 months ago I realized my X5 was no longer proving traffic updates and other remote functions such as Connected Drive Messages (i.e., destinations). After back and forth over several weeks (with some rants about being a BMW CCA member and proud owner since 2001 and 14 BMWs later) I expressed my strong displeasure over the issue and BMWs poor response. They finally got the real time updates repaired and offered me a refund of $100 which I've not received almost 2 months later. I wrote BMW Assist/Connected Drive support regarding the absent refund and they've not responded. As it was time for my sister to buy a new vehicle and considering an X5, I stared her to Audi and she bought a Q7. Neither of us are impressed with it's instrumentation design, navigation and other key features, I feeI BMW has been taking customers for granted and I'm not having it! There's no reason why a retrofit could not be designed given BMWs engineering capabilities. When the lawsuit comes, I'm in line!

 

[ErnestHouse]

Well said. It doesn't help that fellow owners excuse BMW.

I also use Send To Car frequently which should still work for you but is going away Feb 2022. You might want to take your $100 refund and give it to the Navtuning folks before Feb 2022 comes along. They are working on adding more features to their product that are also going away. I asked about Send to Car but they said there's a significant technical roadblock. There are others they think they can provide however.

Meanwhile, Tesla is appears to be working on providing a way for its customers to upgrade.

 

[KempsterX5]

Thanks for your response - both mine and my friend (who both bought 2016s last year) don’t have functionality in our app. And there are no traffic updates on my screen in my car.

As of 2/1/22 my connected drive stopped working and I am no longer allowed to connect to app.