Quote:
Originally Posted by sfmary
I hate to say that I'm joining this forum because I'm so horrified about my recent experience with my new awd X1. Just bought it. 1,000 miles on it. Took my daughter on a road trip over her winter break and we parked in a state park to take a hike in rainy weather. We came back after about 2.5 hours and a shallow stream had developed across the entrance / exit to the parking lot because of the rains. I walked into it and it came up to my low mid-calf -- I'm 5'2 so not deep -- and not particularly wide either. We watched other cars leave the lot and drive through it -- a Subaru Outback, a Mazda and a few others that weren't high clearance vehicles so decided it was safe. Nope. Car died right in the middle of of the puddle, threw itself into park and wouldn't turn back on. No way to put it into neutral without being able to turn the car on so we were completely stuck. No cell service but another car said they'd go call a tow truck for us. 1.5 hours later they showed up and put the car on a flatbed to the nearest dealership 50+ miles away. And the verdict? Our brand new car with only 1000 miles on it needs a new engine(!) BMW mechanic explained that the air intake valve on the X1 is lower than on comparable AWD vehicles "for performance" reasons -- apparently below bumper level -- and that this is why every other car in the lot had no problem leaving but our car completely failed and left us trapped in the middle of nowhere in a rainstorm. I am utterly sick to my stomach about this experience -- it seems impossible that a brand new AWD vehicle could be completely disabled / destroyed by a 1 foot deep -- 10 foot wide puddle but, according to the dealership, it was. I have owned other BMWs and BMW-made vehicles (Mini Coopers) my entire life, I thought I did thorough research before buying this car ... and now I have no confidence in it at all. We bought it so we had a vehicle that *could* be driven safely in wetter weather. Instead, it left us trapped in the middle of nowhere. Now that I search through various posts on bimmerforum I see that I'm hardly the only bmw owner who has had this experience. I'm seeing posts from owners of other models who had their engines destroyed from hitting puddles on the freeway, etc. Has anyone else had this horrible experience? Right now I'm just praying my comprehensive insurance comes through.
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Yes we hydrolocked our old 330, it really was a shame. But we looked at the bright side since no one was hurt.
The reply button has a mind of its own sometimes. I tried to tell you what happened to us, but it did show as a reply. My reply is above this reply.
Good luck.