Published below is the harrowing account narrated by Mrs Ebele Marie Omorodion who bought a car from Coscharis only to encounter several nightmarish experiences because of inherent defects. She asks a fundamental question:Is it that BMW brings in Defective or Substandard cars into Africa and thinks they can get away with it? Excerpts:
The car in question was purchased on the 31st of July 2012 for a sum of N16m (sixteen million naira) being the agreed purchase price for my private use. And it was delivered on the 1st August 2012.
On taking delivery of the car I pointed out to the Sales Manager at the COSCHARIS V. I branch that the DVD system was not functioning to which he replied and said it will be fixed and that it was a matter of replacing it. Stating that due to settings, it can happen that it doesn’t work on arrival from Germany.
I agreed to it being replaced since I was also cleverly convinced by the sales consultants that it was not a big deal. Of course they didn’t want to lose out on a sale. Although since the car was brand new, I still believed it was not quite right.
The DVD was ordered and received in April 2013. (It took them 6 months to receive a replacement) order dated 2nd April 2013. To my utter surprise the newly ordered DVD system arrived only for it to be fixed into the car, and l got notified that it refused to work and they concluded that the new one ordered was also faulty.
At this point I realized that the car had issues but didn’t know to what extent – issues I was not anticipating at all since it was a brand new car bought directly from COSCHARIS ..the face of BMW in Nigeria.
Another DVD system was ordered yet again, order date 27th June, 2013. At this point the car was barely 8 months old. Just while I tried to begin to enjoy my car, 6 months later I was driving out of the Chevron toll gate at 100km/hr when all of a sudden the car stopped on the high way with no prior warning. It locked itself and shut down. I was terrified, scared that the upcoming cars would just run into me. I called the BMW maintenance office in Lekki –Epe to send me help, they arrived a couple of hours later.
The car was towed to their workshop and the technical people later confirmed an entire Transmission failure: what they called Mechatronic gear box failure. This was just ridiculous. How can a car barely 1 year and 3 months old have a total transmission failure? I was dumb founded, they couldn’t give me any reason whatsoever.The transmission was boxed and allegedly sent to Germany, and a new (one) was ordered since the German technicians decided that was what needed to be done, but still giving no just cause for the new transmission to arrive .My car sat in the workshop for about 6weeks, before a courtesy gearbox was put into that car for me to use for the ..2 weeks before the new one arrived. During the six weeks, I was not offered any courtesy car which should normally be offered and should be a standard since the incident was due to no fault of mine. In Germany this can never happen. So why would you have different standards for Nigerians when we even spend higher amounts of money to buy these Luxury cars considering the freight costs and high duty and clearing cost.
I was so disgusted, and being a German myself, I know the standards abroad and have myself owned a BMW abroad. The service and attention given to me during this period was nothing short of irresponsible. The order date for this incident and replacement of the transmission was 8/11/2013. I had barely collected the car back from them when during the next 4 months the reverse camera (Ultrasonic system) started malfunctioning. I took the car in and a new one was ordered, again the report was not clear why the malfunction .A new one with Ref number 66209142211 arrived 12/6/2014. Still on the matter 5 months later, my car had been in out of the workshop several times now and it was beginning to feel like that was its permanent home. November 2014, driving home around 8pm with my kids in the car, the car just switched off yet again, no notice at all on the screen, it shut itself down and refused to start. This was between ‘the chevron roundabout and the 2nd toll gate towards VGC. I was terrified, my kids were crying. I didn’t understand why COSCHARIS and BMW would be so greedy and inconsiderable and it dawned on me that I had fallen victim to buying a defective car, a car that had factory faults from the onset, this car if in Germany would have been recalled since the transmission change but I figured out that BMW/COSCHARIS believes we as Nigerians are naïve and don’t know our rights. It was so sad for me. I was even more heartbreaking to think that they knew the car was faulty all this while and, they kept ignoring the safety of the owner/driver hence putting me and my entire family at risk. This is just so degrading and disgraceful for a company of that standard.
Well, I had to call my home that night for my driver to bring a towing rope and my other car to tow us home. The car was sent in yet again to its “Main Home” the workshop for the diagnosis to be made; this time it was the pump system which failed. It was ordered as usual and no report given as to why it failed. The part was replaced, order date 12/12/2014. Just 2 weeks after receiving the car back this was the final straw for me.
My car was now just 2 years and 4 months old. I was driving from Law School V. Island towards the Civic Centre, just as the traffic lights let me pass; I started off at top speed and to my shock right in the middle of the road, traffic rushing behind me to pass the lights, my car once again gave in, totally blacked out, no notice, I was livid. It just stopped.I cried my eyes out and this on such a dangerous junction with my children in the car. I called people to help me put up the caution signs, and called BMW expressing my disgust and that this was it for me. I had been fooled too many times but because I really liked my car I kept wanting to believe them and kept falling victim all the time. The towing van was called at 5.30pm and arrived around 9pm. This was crazy. The car was towed again into the workshop and this was December 2014 I remembered same time the year before (2013) it was in the same workshop for 8weeks. Anyway I was notified of the most horrible malfunction so far “the brain box went dead”.
My Goodness, two and a half years old and almost one year of workshop experience and BMW/COSCHARIS still feels that this car is road worthy. What a huge shame to say the least, in this day and age. I was informed by the management that due to all the issues with my car, the BMW Head office was having to send out circulars to other branches/countries to help find out if similar incidents were happening since they now thought it was rather serious, but obviously they decided to keep pushing my car back to the road to be used as a piece of experiment disregarding the life and safety of me and my family. Just because it’s Nigeria and/or Africans and we supposingly don’t know the standards. How sad! I was forced to go online to see and research if other people had the same sort of problems like I have had and to my surprise, there were too many. Both in Africa and Asian Countries. So which brings me to my question “Is it that BMW brings in Defective or Substandard cars into Africa and thinks they can get away with it?
This is about the shear misconduct and total lack of customer care in any form or matter by the so called “Management of COSCHARIS/BMW” both in Nigeria and Germany. Nigerians are entitled to the same standards and care and respect given to BMW clients abroad. Did you know that the BMW head office in Munich has no department that handles the affairs/complaints of its African i.e. Nigerians Clients. The staff just gives you an email address to which to write and it never gets answered. Why? Because we are not worth the trouble as Africans or in this case Nigerians.
I am so upset particularly because I am of German and Nigerian origin and I know that this can never happen in Germany while dealing with the European Clientele. So why with Nigerians?
Well the car still remains at the COSCHARIS workshop till now I have refused to take it back obviously without any more confidence in the car or BMW as a whole. They have never been honest ‘from the beginning and choose to stick to their evil ways rather than look at the safety and care of their customers.
They decided to offer me a “Trade in Deal” on a car that is not a “Trade in item”. It is a defective car: which they will never admit with all I have been through with this car I want Nigerians to learn to insist and demand their rights especially with the foreign company’s or partners of foreign companies. I was given a courtesy car about a month ago after I had to “fight for one” I was given an X5 which in the last month lost all it is air bags and its rear suspension at the same time. Yes, I was given this to drive my family in! I returned the courtesy car to them which were more like a “Hazard” to me. I have since got my Lawyers involved.
Mrs Ebele Marie Omorodion.
