Hello all,

I have never been in this situation before after purchasing a new car, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Apologies that it is a fairly long read to fit in all the detail.

At the beginning of October I purchased an E87 130i M Sport from a reputable BMW specialist.
6 weeks later I experienced the following problems:

I Drive malfunction (Professional Nav)

The I Drive Screen crashed one morning during my commute to work, rebooted itself and now
the I drive now does one of two things:

1. Boots up and functionality is okay, but has zero sound output.

2. Boots up with accompanying SOS symbol/phone warning illuminated on the Instrument cluster and therefore zero functionality. Cannot select or navigate to anything from the I Drive menu.

Fuel Leak – OSR Wheel arch area

Strong odour of petrol inside the car after filling the fuel tank, and after refueling to maximum (one click)there's a substantial leak from the OSR wheel arch, accumulating and dripping from the RH Rear jacking point area, further contaminating evident along the length of the RH Sill Panel. Clearly quite a dangerous issue.

Auto lights and dimming mirror

Lights are always ON and mirrors always DARK. My interpretation was that the headlining was removed to rectify the roof dents prior to my collection of the vehicle; therefore the roof mounted module will have been disturbed.


I emailed the dealership expressing my disappointment that these issues have occurred six weeks into ownership and requested that they were looked at. They took my car in on 25th Nov and provided me with a courtesy vehicle FOC.

The dealer then proceeded to arrange for one of their partners more proficient in electrical problems to conduct the investigation.

Investigation results

- The fuel leak (replacement of a fuel pipe with updated part) has been rectified FOC, they stated: ‘the fuel line has failed during your ownership but as a consequence of wearing over the previous years, as a consequence we accept that we are legally bound to fix this and this is what we are doing in line with the Sales of Goods act’

- The Idrive fault however has been diagnosed as a faulty Idrive CCC, which I believe is massively expensive (Circa £650 for the part +coding), they state they are not legally obliged to repair this FOC. This is due to ‘the second clause of our Terms and Conditions listed on our Sales Invoice, which states “I understand that the Seller of this vehicle takes no responsibility for the working order of any security devices or audio equipment which includes items such as alarms, immobilisers or ‘red keys’ etc. “

They are willing to provide a £300 good will gesture.

My question is due to the clause in the terms of conditions of the sale is the dealer exempt from SOGA on this part failure?

The whole process is stressing me out L, I do not have a legal background. It feels like David vs Goliath.