BMW recalls 312,000 vehicles in the UK
The DVSA (Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency) in the UK has criticised the German car giant's failure to provide timely information on faulty vehicles.
This is the second BMW recall of thousands of vehicles from UK roads in just over a year due to problems with the cars' power supply.
The recall includes the BMW 1 Series, 3 Series, the Z4 and its X1 petrol and diesel models made between March 2007 and September 2011.
BMW initially recalled 36,410 petrol cars in April 2017 over similar safety issues but the most recent recall comes after an investigation by the BBC's Watchdog programme. BMW said:
"We now recognise that there may have been some cases of similar power supply issues in vehicles not covered by the original recall.
"In order to reassure customers with concerns about the safety of their vehicles, we are voluntarily extending the recall.
"We are therefore announcing today that we will take the proactive step of expanding the existing UK recall to cover all vehicles potentially affected by the power supply issues."
The Driver & Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) criticised BMW because they had not made the agency aware of 19 cases of electrical failure between 2011 and 2014, as it is was required to do. The DVSA said:
"It then provided us with incorrect information about the faults, so we were not able to make an informed decision,"
"However, after examining the growing evidence, DVSA contacted BMW in December 2016 to ask it to conduct a full safety recall of the affected vehicles.
"At present we are handling 417 recalls involving more than 2.9 million vehicles under the code of practice agreed with industry. We keep our approach to safety recalls constantly under review to ensure we are able to respond, more quickly, to emerging issues and prioritise activities where they are most needed."
The DVSA contacted BMW in December requesting the car manufacturer to conduct a full safety recall of around 370,000 cars affected by an electrical fault. BMW finally agreed to recall the vehicles on 10 April 2017.
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