I still have one of those 1988 BMW 750iL's you discribed as being problematic. I agree, and I disagree.
I was one of the first 12-cylinder BMW owners in the US. I had a 533i that I tried to hurt, but couldn't. I was so impressed that I bought the 750iL without test driving it. It was incredibly fast and handled like a much smaller car.
I took it home and let my wife drive it. She pulled the seat up to where it was comfortable for her and drove it around the sub. She pulled back in the driveway and went in the house to freshen up before a celebratory dinner. She tried to put the seat back for me (I'm 6'5" and she's 5'7") and it wouldn't move.
I crammed myself behind the wheel and fiddled with the switch. The seat moved all the way forward on its own to pin me up against the steering wheel. I managed to get the seat back to recline enough so that I could push myself into the huge back seat to escape the clutches of my new car.
The dealer brought me back my 533i and flatbedded the car back to the dealership. They fixed the seat but during the next two weeks had 25 different electrical problems. I was pissed. I had just paid a buttload of money for a freaked-out car. The windows would go up and down at will. The power mirrors would move if you hit a bump. I got deadbolted in the car once and had to crawl out through the window.
Turns out the car was not haunted. It had been taken apart by GM at the original BMW/GM dealership, in Texas. They took it apart to see what made it tick. I was told that they didn't exactly put it back together correctly. Apparently there were a lot of loose ground connections that caused all the phantoms.
BMW apologized profusely and offered to get me another car. I ordered the exact same car and drove the original, repaired, 750iL for 11,000 miles before the new car arrived. I didn't make it 6 miles from the dealership when the brand new radiator blew. I turned around and drove it steaming (me too!) back to the dealership where they determined that the manufacture of the radiator, Behr, had missed a weld on the aluminum core and had just painted over it. The paint held for the 200 miles the dealership put on the car testing it to make sure it was perfect.
While I was having a fit at the dealership they alerted BMW's Chicago office and a VP flew in to meet me at the dealership. He offered me a third car. I told him he would have to further convince me by showing me where they were built.
BMW flew my wife and I, First Class, on Luftansia to Munich where we were pick up at the airport in the Chairman's limo. We were taken to a 5-star hotel on Konigstrasse where we freshen up. The driver turned out to be an up and coming executive who wanted to practice his English. We really messed him up with some of our idioms.
We got a tour of the engine plant where they make the V-12 and the M-series motors. Then they gave us a tour of the 7-series assembly plant. Then we had lunch in the Chairman's private lunchroom. My wife had a 325ix so she wanted to see where they made the 3 series cars.
It was late in the day when we went to the European Delivery new car center. They brought my car out and put it under some very bright lights for a final scrutiny and found two small nicks in the door paint. They refused to let me take a less than perfect car so the limo driver made an executive decision and assigned himself and the Chairman's car to us for the weekend.
We had the best tour of Germany, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and some other places at BMW's expense. We went to crazy Ludwig's castles and museums and zoos and many other beautiful places.
When we picked up the perfect car on Monday we asked the new friend/tour guide if he'd like to join us for the rest of our two week European tour and he agreed, only if BMW would pick up the tab. We allowed him to do so.
To make a very long story shorter, let me say that I still have that car today. It has 72,000 miles on it and it has never let me down. The only problem I had, when it was 15 years old, was the failure of the digital dashboard. It only read out in German for about a month before it died completely.
All in all I'd say that I'm a pretty satisfied customer.
Barry
Mark II convertible
I was one of the first 12-cylinder BMW owners in the US. I had a 533i that I tried to hurt, but couldn't. I was so impressed that I bought the 750iL without test driving it. It was incredibly fast and handled like a much smaller car.
I took it home and let my wife drive it. She pulled the seat up to where it was comfortable for her and drove it around the sub. She pulled back in the driveway and went in the house to freshen up before a celebratory dinner. She tried to put the seat back for me (I'm 6'5" and she's 5'7") and it wouldn't move.
I crammed myself behind the wheel and fiddled with the switch. The seat moved all the way forward on its own to pin me up against the steering wheel. I managed to get the seat back to recline enough so that I could push myself into the huge back seat to escape the clutches of my new car.
The dealer brought me back my 533i and flatbedded the car back to the dealership. They fixed the seat but during the next two weeks had 25 different electrical problems. I was pissed. I had just paid a buttload of money for a freaked-out car. The windows would go up and down at will. The power mirrors would move if you hit a bump. I got deadbolted in the car once and had to crawl out through the window.
Turns out the car was not haunted. It had been taken apart by GM at the original BMW/GM dealership, in Texas. They took it apart to see what made it tick. I was told that they didn't exactly put it back together correctly. Apparently there were a lot of loose ground connections that caused all the phantoms.
BMW apologized profusely and offered to get me another car. I ordered the exact same car and drove the original, repaired, 750iL for 11,000 miles before the new car arrived. I didn't make it 6 miles from the dealership when the brand new radiator blew. I turned around and drove it steaming (me too!) back to the dealership where they determined that the manufacture of the radiator, Behr, had missed a weld on the aluminum core and had just painted over it. The paint held for the 200 miles the dealership put on the car testing it to make sure it was perfect.
While I was having a fit at the dealership they alerted BMW's Chicago office and a VP flew in to meet me at the dealership. He offered me a third car. I told him he would have to further convince me by showing me where they were built.
BMW flew my wife and I, First Class, on Luftansia to Munich where we were pick up at the airport in the Chairman's limo. We were taken to a 5-star hotel on Konigstrasse where we freshen up. The driver turned out to be an up and coming executive who wanted to practice his English. We really messed him up with some of our idioms.
We got a tour of the engine plant where they make the V-12 and the M-series motors. Then they gave us a tour of the 7-series assembly plant. Then we had lunch in the Chairman's private lunchroom. My wife had a 325ix so she wanted to see where they made the 3 series cars.
It was late in the day when we went to the European Delivery new car center. They brought my car out and put it under some very bright lights for a final scrutiny and found two small nicks in the door paint. They refused to let me take a less than perfect car so the limo driver made an executive decision and assigned himself and the Chairman's car to us for the weekend.
We had the best tour of Germany, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and some other places at BMW's expense. We went to crazy Ludwig's castles and museums and zoos and many other beautiful places.
When we picked up the perfect car on Monday we asked the new friend/tour guide if he'd like to join us for the rest of our two week European tour and he agreed, only if BMW would pick up the tab. We allowed him to do so.
To make a very long story shorter, let me say that I still have that car today. It has 72,000 miles on it and it has never let me down. The only problem I had, when it was 15 years old, was the failure of the digital dashboard. It only read out in German for about a month before it died completely.
All in all I'd say that I'm a pretty satisfied customer.
Barry
Mark II convertible
