Photo: BMW
Yesterday, a most interesting press release from BMW came out, saying that the German company will be recalling nearly all E46 3 Series models ever made, for a ‘possible’ issue with the passenger airbags.
At first, looking over the statement, you’d think that this is a very nice thing the Bavarians are doing, ‘voluntarily’, looking to keep their drivers safe, even though their cars are over 15 years old. We even heard some people say that at that age, it’s a miracle the company is still recalling their vehicles. Interesting thought.
However, it has come to our attention that BMW might’ve not been completely honest in their previous statements. According to their press release “BMW is not aware of a case involving a BMW vehicle” but looking over some dedicated forums, we found that is simply not true.
On the biggest forum for E46 drivers, E46fanatics.com, several members reported having their passenger airbags deploy without being involved in any sort of crash. Now, if those cases were never reported to BMW, we would’ve understood that they actually had no idea about them but, as it turns out, all of them were reported.
Some cases were reported as far back as 2007 and most of them were fixed at local dealerships, but only after the intervention of BMW North America. Therefore, the US branch of the company was informed on the matter and actually agreed to pay for the damages.
Furthermore, the NHTSA even filed a recall, with the campaign number 02V223000 back in 2002 but it was limited to 328i Sedan models made between 1999 and 2000. Now, reports of this happening on other models are showing up everywhere, so BMW had to recall almost all models back to their shops. We’re saying almost all of them because the recall apparently covers only the cars manufactured between May 1999 and August 2006, therefore leaving the cars built between May 1998 and May 1999 uncovered.
It is possible that those particular models weren’t using the feared Takata airbag deployers, but right now, we’d get ours changed on our own expense, just to be safe. The question that still remains is how will all owners be notified, considering most cars this age have gone through more than one owner. We’ll just have to wait and see.
However, it has come to our attention that BMW might’ve not been completely honest in their previous statements. According to their press release “BMW is not aware of a case involving a BMW vehicle” but looking over some dedicated forums, we found that is simply not true.
On the biggest forum for E46 drivers, E46fanatics.com, several members reported having their passenger airbags deploy without being involved in any sort of crash. Now, if those cases were never reported to BMW, we would’ve understood that they actually had no idea about them but, as it turns out, all of them were reported.
Some cases were reported as far back as 2007 and most of them were fixed at local dealerships, but only after the intervention of BMW North America. Therefore, the US branch of the company was informed on the matter and actually agreed to pay for the damages.
Furthermore, the NHTSA even filed a recall, with the campaign number 02V223000 back in 2002 but it was limited to 328i Sedan models made between 1999 and 2000. Now, reports of this happening on other models are showing up everywhere, so BMW had to recall almost all models back to their shops. We’re saying almost all of them because the recall apparently covers only the cars manufactured between May 1999 and August 2006, therefore leaving the cars built between May 1998 and May 1999 uncovered.
It is possible that those particular models weren’t using the feared Takata airbag deployers, but right now, we’d get ours changed on our own expense, just to be safe. The question that still remains is how will all owners be notified, considering most cars this age have gone through more than one owner. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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