Hello bimmer ladies and gents,
I come to you today with a situation that would benefit from your feedback. It's a bit lengthy, so apologies in advance.
I picked up my g80 m3 back in late November of 2022 and it's been a joy ever since. Since my pickup of the m3, I have been very fastidious with the maintenance and treatment of it. 6 months in and I haven't even launched it yet. I noticed a few minor interior rattles as I drove the car more (it's my daily), but about 2-3 months ago I noticed a larger, more annoying rattle coming from behind the rear driver side seat. My initial instinct was just to turn the music up in the car to drown it out, but even then I could hear the rattle. It sounded very localized and finally after a few weeks of hearing it, I got in the back seat to try and diagnose where the sound was coming from. I started tapping on the area behind the back seats where the speakers are housed and found that if I tapped towards where the back window comes to meet the "behind the backseat" area where speakers are housed, the rattling was very distinct. A tap on the opposite (passenger) side would continue to produce a rattle on the driver side rear area, same as before.
I contacted my CA to schedule an appointment for it to be diagnosed, but my CA did not follow through for me. I became busy, life happened, and more weeks went by until I was so fed up that I just scheduled a service appointment for myself through the myBMW app. i took it in yesterday morning and explained the rattling issue and how to reproduce it. The dealership techs agreed they could recreate the sound, and that it was atypical so they said they would find the cause. After completely disassembling the back seat and associated housing behind the seats (where the speakers sit and all that), they found the culprit: A piece of plastic fitting trim that had been broken. The fitting trim is is a long plastic bit that fits the width of back window which is mounted via screws that hold the rear seats down. There is a clean break that goes nearly the entire width of the plastic trim piece.
How could this have happened? It's a very strange place to have damage because it's not accessible from the inside of the car; you can't see it. It can only be seen after disassembly of the back seat which opens up the rear of the car/beginning of trunk area. The dealer was considering possibilities when they noticed my darker-than-factory tint I had on the back window as well as all around the car. They asked if I had tint applied after their dealer installed tint (which I asked them not to do, but they did anyway), and I said yes. They said that "outside influence most likely broke this trim piece" and that I should contact my tint shop to let them know the situation and ask if they are willing to cover the cost, a whopping $780 in parts/labor (aka almost entirely labor).
I call the tint shop, a reputable shop here in the Phoenix Metro Area, and explained the situation to my guy there. He was rightfully shocked at the price to repair the damage, and explained that during their tinting process, no disassembly of the vehicle is done. The only thing they do is sit in the back seat, spray the window, slap the tint on, squeegee, and done. They don't understand how they could have applied enough pressure behind the back seat to bend the outermost housing to the point that the recessed plastic trim piece received enough pressure to break. They said that they would be willing to take a look at the m3 if I bring it in to the shop, and if they can determine they could have caused the damage, they would replace it for free and do the work themselves.
The issue with that is that it would require my Dealer to reassemble the back of the car without the broken piece, as it has been removed, then for me to drive 35 miles to my tint shop, have them disassemble everything again, take a look at where the broken plastic trim had lived, take a look at the broken trim which I would have to bring in as well, and then ONLY if they think they caused it would they replace it free of charge. They could just determine that, after all that, they didn't cause it and then I'd be stuck yet again with a disassembled rear interior of my m3 and a looming bill to fix something I am not at fault for breaking.
So I call the dealership back to try and see if they could at least agree that the damage COULD have been from the factory of the dealer tint install process, and perhaps the damage was small and then grew over time as the car was driven. The dealer is adamant that it is 3rd party damage, and the simple fact that I had tint done by a non-dealer service center, that it will not be covered under warranty as it introduces reasonable doubt that they could have caused it (although it seems equally possible in my eyes).
SO.... after much back story and context, I am sitting at my home with no car, no loaner, a m3 that is able to be fixed this very moment by the dealer, but with a $780 bill that neither the Dealership nor the tint shop are willing to cover.
What would you all do? I just want this fixed and I do not want to pay to fix it as I did not cause the damage. I do not want to burn bridges at the dealership nor the tint shop as they've been great with me so far and I plan to do more work with them. Thanks for reading my long ass story.
-EDIT-
To better visualize what I'm talking about, check this video from the dealer technician:
https://us.citnow.com/vsnXYrd5lQZ skip to 1:19 to skip to the damage portion.