If BMW OTA update bricks a car out of warranty, does the customer have to pay to get it unbricked?

[BavarianPretzel]

If BMW OTA update bricks a car out of warranty, does the customer have to pay to get it unbricked?

Mine got bricked and the dealer took 2 days to unbrick it. I just picked it up today. There was no charge because mine was only a couple of years old with only 12000 miles.

If it’s out of warranty after 4 years and this happens again, can I trust that BMW USA will pick up the bill? 🙀

[Mautofied17]

That's a great question.

[M-technik-3]

Might be a question to ask BMW NA vs the general public.

[BavarianPretzel]

Originally Posted by M-technik-3

Might be a question to ask BMW NA vs the general public.

BMW may say “sure” but who knows?

I figured it was better to find out if anyone with first hand experience.

Or do OTA updates end when the factory warranty expires?

[JABCAT]

According to one post I found here,

"Related note: I asked the SA if this had happened while out of warranty, if BMW would have covered repairs. He said no: absent specific coverage under warranty or VSC, BMW would not cover damage due to updates, even if BMW pushed the update. So a strong warning to disable OTA updates if you're not under a warranty which would cover damage from them."

This was in the X5 forum. I have auto updates turned off on both my Ms, and my wife's X3MC is out of warranty. I don't want any unexpected issues.

[Phillies8008]

I would expect BMW to cover it – they did it to the car, not me. It'd be the same thing as if the shop put a dent in my car while they were servicing it. They did it, they're responsible.

I hate the prevalent attitude that software is somehow exempt from any quality standards – if a bug screws you, oh well. It's the biggest scam the software industry has pulled on us. Is there any other industry that can just shrug off damage unequivocally done by them?

If they tried to charge me I'd fight it tooth & nail, up to and including small claims court.

[SwankPeRFection]

If there was anything plugged into the OBD port then no, I don’t expect them to because that’s on you for not following the guidelines. If the update failed on its own due to some other stupidity they didn’t think of, then yeah, I’d push them to fix it. All that said, it doesn’t take 2 days to fix this type of problem. BMW dumb dumb techs, maybe, but forum members with flashing knowledge have fixed such issues in 15 min.

[MJBO]

Seems inconceivable to me that it’s possible for a failed software update to brick the car, yet here we are.

Motherboards have been including dual BIOS forever to protect against this, and even things like iPhones won’t brick from a failed update and can easily be restored.

[MisanoblueZ4]

If BMW bricks my car out of warranty due to OTA update then it’s my last BMW purchase.

[Phillies8008]

Originally Posted by MJBO

Seems inconceivable to me that it’s possible for a failed software update to brick the car, yet here we are.

Motherboards have been including dual BIOS forever to protect against this, and even things like iPhones won’t brick from a failed update and can easily be restored.

Rivian, for one, has bricked cars due to a software update. "Bricked" in this context doesn't mean the the cars were forever unusable, but rather required a software fix to become drivable again. The software update made them unusable until they were repaired.

Rivian, FWIW, did not charge customers for this fix. As they shouldn't have.

Brave New World, indeed.

[Randall V]

Originally Posted by Phillies8008

Rivian, for one, has bricked cars due to a software update. "Bricked" in this context doesn't mean the the cars were forever unusable, but rather required a software fix to become drivable again. The software update made them unusable until they were repaired.

Rivian, FWIW, did not charge customers for this fix. As they shouldn't have.

Brave New World, indeed.

Rivian has a loyal following. If Consumer Reports is to be believed, they are horribly unreliable, yet people love them. It is hard to understand the divergence.

[MJBO]

Originally Posted by Phillies8008

Rivian, for one, has bricked cars due to a software update. "Bricked" in this context doesn't mean the the cars were forever unusable, but rather required a software fix to become drivable again. The software update made them unusable until they were repaired.

Rivian, FWIW, did not charge customers for this fix. As they shouldn't have.

Brave New World, indeed.

Yes, but “bricked” in the sense that the end user/owner can’t simply reapply the update or revert to the previous version without the manufacturer getting involved.

It simply shouldn’t be possible for a failed update to make the car unable to be started or drive, but that’s obviously not the case.

[chris3g]

Originally Posted by MJBO

Yes, but “bricked” in the sense that the end user/owner can’t simply reapply the update or revert to the previous version without the manufacturer getting involved.

It simply shouldn’t be possible for a failed update to make the car unable to be started or drive, but that’s obviously not the case.

bmw intentionally soft-bricks the car when an update fails. even if the failure modality was such that the vehicle software is 100% intact after the failure, they still set a starter lockout that the end user is unable to remove.

[kudos]

Another reason to just not bother updating. There are more downsides than upsides with BMW updates.

[JABCAT]

Originally Posted by MJBO

Seems inconceivable to me that it’s possible for a failed software update to brick the car, yet here we are.

Motherboards have been including dual BIOS forever to protect against this, and even things like iPhones won’t brick from a failed update and can easily be restored.

New C8 owners have had their cars bricked when an auto update failed & had to be towed to the dealership. I disable all auto updates in my vehicles.