Dealer drove my car hard for 11 miles during Running In Service

[Mistahsleepy]

Hi Guys,

I had a very irritating experience and wanted everyone's input on how to proceed.

I picked up a MY17 M4 ZCP on 6/30 of this year. It is a fantastic vehicle and an absolute dream. I scheduled the 1200 mile running in service Monday 7/24 and dropped the vehicle off with 1300 miles on the odo and slightly less than 1/2 tank of gas.

My car was pulling slightly to the right at all speeds so I ask my SA if they can perform an alignment check. They agree to this and tell me that the alignment is off so it would take them a few more hours. I grab a loaner and go to work, in the afternoon my SA calls me and says that they performed the alignment but the car still pulls to the right and per BMW they need to reprogram the car which would take more time. I am told I will be able to pick up my car the following day.

The next day I get a call that my car is ready for pick-up. Through the BMW connected drive app I notice that the car has been driven 11 miles but what's surprising is that it only had 3 gallons left in the tank with estimated range of 85 miles. This was very odd as last when I checked after dropping the car off it had 5 gallons and around 160 miles range.

Upon getting in my car the first thing I do is check the mpg, it is a shocking 8.1 mpg based on previous 2.7 miles driven when it was last reset. I take a picture of this which I have attached to this thread, also notice that the car now has a qtr tank of gas. They literally burned through a qtr tank of gas in 11 miles.

All of this points to the car being driven extremely hard while it was at the dealer. I understand that to test alignment you would need to drive it, even though 11 miles seems a bit high I can understand. I cannot understand why the car needed to be driven so hard for these 11 miles to return 8.1 mpg and burn through a qtr tank of gas.

I spoke with someone about this and they had the service manager give me a call. He was very apologetic and said they would launch an internal investigation regarding the technician that worked on my car.

What's everyone's opinion regarding this incident? Am I overreacting? I just feel very wronged that someone took my car and drove it that hard, I haven't even had the chance to drive it hard enough to return single digit MPG!

Any advice or experience with how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

[noone]

Sounds like they took your car for a joyride. Sucks that they wailed on it rather than you. Good thinking on checking or resetting the MPG and noting the in mileage on the odo. Let us know how this turns out. When I last test drove a new M3, it had less than 100 miles on it and I wailed on it hard. How else are you supposed to test drive it? I don't think there is any permanent damage. At a minimum, I don't think they will fack with you in the future, that's for sure.

I think a highly visible dash cam would prevent these types of shenanigans because the techs would think it is on recording what they were doing.

[AchtungF80]

They also could've test driven it to check the alignment multiple times and left your car sit idling outside or in the shop for some period of time. That will drop your avg MPG rating.
Its under warranty so I would not worry. If you care that much - I would invest in a dashcam.

[IK6SPEED]

I dont think even WOT for 11 miles will burn a 1/4 of a tank. You're definitely over reacting. 11 miles to figure out how your car drives is not excessive, you cant drive 100ft and know if car tracks straight, you need to find a smooth and level road and test the car there.
Regarding your MPG and fuel level, they most likely left the car idling while working on it and reprogramming it.

[noone]

This is probably what they did during that 11 miles.

[calbears]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

I dont think even WOT for 11 miles will burn a 1/4 of a tank. You're definitely over reacting. 11 miles to figure out how your car drives is not excessive, you cant drive 100ft and know if car tracks straight, you need to find a smooth and level road and test the car there.
Regarding your MPG and fuel level, they most likely left the car idling while working on it and reprogramming it.

Burned 1/2 a tank of gas at M School on the south palms circuit at WOT for about 15-20 minutes

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by calbears

Burned 1/2 a tank of gas at M School on the south palms circuit at WOT for about 15-20 minutes

Im sure that was a lot more than 22 miles wasnt it? and you cant drive in a city how you can on a track. WOT in 1-2 gear and your already over 60, why would you drive WOT in 2nd gear for 11 miles? go into 3rd and do WOT and then your way above the speed limit, would be hard to find an open road during the day in the city i think to allow for that type of driving. I just dont see how yo can drive 11 miles and burn 1/4 tank in city driving. Sure you can get on the freeway and hit 150 and do WOT and in 10 min you might go through 1/4 of a tank but 150mph for 10 minutes will be 25 miles of distance. The math doesnt add up anyway you put it.

[gqambitions]

Originally Posted by noone

This is probably what they did during that 11 miles.

I think you just gave him a heart attack with that vid lol

[Encanto]

Originally Posted by AchtungF80

They also could've test driven it to check the alignment multiple times and left your car sit idling outside or in the shop for some period of time. That will drop your avg MPG rating.
Its under warranty so I would not worry. If you care that much - I would invest in a dashcam.

[skyline408]

1. You're relying on the dash's mpg counter to validate how the car was driven.
2. You really need to let things like that go. Coming at the SA and making a stink will surely put your name in the 'bad customer' pot.

[Munichm3]

When I had my alignment done, they drove it 1 mile..

[AchtungF80]

Originally Posted by Munichm3

When I had my alignment done, they drove it 1 mile..

When my 1200 mile service was done, 10 miles were added to my car.
Maybe launch control was triggered 10 times?

I also complained about a rock in the brake rotor shield also.

[IK6SPEED]

Originally Posted by Munichm3

When I had my alignment done, they drove it 1 mile..

my last alignment they drove it 50 ft, from parking spot onto the alignment machine, and guess what? still pulled right.
Id rather them drive my car 20 miles and it be perfect then my having to drive those 20 miles and it pulling right and then having to come back again to have it redone.

[Mistahsleepy]

Originally Posted by IK6SPEED

my last alignment they drove it 50 ft, from parking spot onto the alignment machine, and guess what? still pulled right.
Id rather them drive my car 20 miles and it be perfect then my having to drive those 20 miles and it pulling right and then having to come back again to have it redone.

Just to be clear I'm not really complaining about the 11 miles put on the car. The mileage I do understand, I am mainly complaining about the low mpg which leads me to suspect that the car was driven very hard during those 11 miles.

For the record when the car was returned it tracked perfectly straight and true which was a great job by the dealer, I've read many stories of alignment issues in these cars not being able to be resolved by the dealer and am glad this was not the case for my situation.

[RocketBoots]

It is a little known fact that standard operating policy and procedure for alignment is to completely flash the software to the M4 GTS and retrofit a water cooling tank. The extra weight of that tank actually significantly reduces the gas mileage to about 2.666 MPG, although I could be off by a few hundredths of a decimal.

The only other thing I can think of is that there is a micro-tear in the gas tank, leading to unwanted fuel leakage. There might be a TSB about it, or you might have to elevate it to the PUMA level.

[///M4ster Yoda]

Originally Posted by noone

This is probably what they did during that 11 miles.

[MrBeard420]

Lol they disconnected my dash cam. Lol. Man have to hide a cam

[alex2364]

They left your car running when they were reprogramming the car. Same thing happened to me when they reprogrammed my car. They burned through 2 gallons of gas but only put 2 miles on it.

[RickFLM4]

I wonder if they were serious when they said they would launch an internal investigation or being sarcastic.

My guess is that they left the car running (rather than driving it hard) as others stated. I wouldn't rely on trip computer / gas gauge readings to determine driving behavior, particularly as tank gets closer to empty.

[ibimmer954]

Plus if they did anything to the software, all those values may be in some screwed up state. That is, unreliable. Reset them and move on.

[speed2th]

which dealer is that? they didnt have to put M mode and 11 miles to test the alignment.

[clutchdj]

If it still pulls after they aligned it then they probably brought it up to speed. Maybe a senior tech also drove it to try to figure things out. Maybe it sat with the a/c on and idled like others have said. Who knows. alignments can be tricky to figure out if there is also an underlying or mechanical issue associated with it. As long as your tires aren't raw looking and your paint is clean then don't worry about it.

PS I do understand your OCD. My M car does not see the dealer for reasons.