The BMW recall

[Welly]

On the News last night BMW are recalling 300,000 1 series, 3 series and Z4'S made between 2007 and 2011 due to a 'dangerous' sudden power loss fault.

Apparently the car will lose all electrical power affecting the engine, brakes, steering and all lighting.

I'd imagine owners will be pretty concerned about it. Cost-wise even if it costs BMW ~ £30.00 per car that's £9m

Fair play to them though honoring faults on cars between 7 and 11 years old, can't argue with that.

[PeterN]

I can't see why a car loosing power would cause an accident though unless the car behind is to close or not paying attention, its happened to me a number of times and providing you can still steer and brake I can't really see the problem. I can appreciate that you could loose power steering and brakes and I can't see them designing a car in such a way that it won't brake or steer at all.

Well done to BMW though, although I think the publicity has rather forced them into it.

Peter

[steve_earwig]

It's nothing new, I had an ashtray recalled (slight possibility of water running into brake master cylinder reservoir) and it was at least 10 years old, the yoyo was just recalled (for the Takata airbag fiasco) and that's just turned 10, so I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. I think, after some of the antics Ford got up to, car co's are keen to be seen to be doing something, rather than face bad publicity/enormous lawsuits. There's probably even legislation in place that says they're still responsible for major safety defects way down the line.

[Welly]

There were some horrific cover ups in the States in the past, I'm sure there were stories of manufacturers NOT performing recalls because it was cheaper to wait for the law suits to come in when people got killed etc

[GingerMagic]

Ford Pinto anyone...??

Google wrote..
Reports range from 27 to 180 deaths as a result of rear-impact-related fuel tank fires in the Pinto, but given the volume of more than 2.2 million vehicles sold, the death rate was not substantially different from that of vehicles by Ford's competitors. The far more damaging result for Ford was the PR disaster.

[steve_earwig]

There's something similar with the Exploder, Ford decided that the best way to cure instability was to increase tyre pressures, with the result that tyres explode on the highway and people died. Ford are blaming the tyres. Also the Ranger which, if taken off road, collects grass around the cat, which then catches fire.