2006 BMW 7 Series

TRANSMISSION PROBLEMS!!! BEWARE!!!

Comfort Rating: 5 Performance Rating: 5 Interior Rating: 5 Reliability Rating: 2 Safety Rating: 3 Technology Rating: 5 Value Rating: 2

My husband and I purchased a 2006 BMW 760i from BMW of West Springfield dealership back in August 2014. We purchased it as our 3rd vehicle, so we drove it mostly on the weekends. When I got rid of my vehicle a few months later, it was driven on a regular basis. We started noticing issues with the transmission shifting back into "Park" when we would shift it into "Drive". This began happening about 5 months after having the car. Now, it never shifted while the car was moving. It was only when we started the car or had parked it but didn't shut it off . Definitely not a good situation to be in if you had somewhere you needed to be- I don't know- maybe WORK. It wasn't a risk we were willing to take, especially if we had our children in the car. We took it to the BMW dealership- where we purchased it from. They told us that all the fluids looked good and that after much inspection the car would need a new transmission (about $10,000 cost). So we got a second opinion and they noticed that we were extremely low on transmission fluid- which was odd since the dealership told us that all of our fluid levels were good. Long story short, we did in fact need a new transmission. We replaced it with a used one (about $5,000 cost) and the car was fine for about two months. After that, the same problems began again and we got rid of the car. BEWARE! We thought we were ok because we got the car from the BMW dealership but that means NOTHING. They wanted to get rid of the car themselves and I believe they knew something was wrong with it. I should have contacted the Attorney General but didn't want to be bothered with the hassle. Now I wish I had because now our same car is on sale for almost $15,000 down in Marlyand and it's not even worth $10,000 at this point! Please be careful with the 2006 BMW 7 series! When it was behaving itself, it was an awesome car to drive...smooth drive. Acceleration was AMAZING. But not worth the headache. My recommendation- PURCHASE A BMW BRAND NEW OR AT LEAST NEW- USED WITH ALL THE FACTORY WARRANTIES.