My first contact with a BMW dealer was pretty darned impressive, and certainly backed up the brand’s premium image.

Having noticed a nasty vibration on the front left corner of my 520d, I called the local dealer, Stephen James Ruxley, on Monday morning and got an appointment for the following morning, confirmed by text message. At the dealership I was greeted at the door by a member of staff who guided me to the named technician dealing with my problem. It all left a feeling of confidence and quality as I wandered off hoping they’d find the problem. Which they certainly did.

Unfortunately, Britain’s post-winter roads had taken a chunk out of not one, but two of the BMW’s alloys. Both the nearside wheels had terminal damage, with the bill running into four figures. I vaguely remember hitting a pothole, which is the only logical way both front and rear wheel on the same side would have picked up damage, but it certainly wasn’t hard enough to cause major concern at the time.

I’d be interested to hear how may other people have suffered similar problems, on any make of car, or whether I was just unlucky.

BMW 520d saloon SE manual
Mileage 9121 miles
Our average consumption 43.4mpg
Forecast CPM 61.6p
Actual CPM 63.4p
Positive Interior quality,
dealer service
Negative Electric steering,
start-up procedure