Paul H

Dangerous purchase

I purchased a BMW X4 from autostrada. Which they advertise to have a ‘125 point check by in house technicians’. Whilst fitting a space saver wheel we found that 4 out of every 5 wheel nuts were tightened by hand. Including the locking wheel nut. To find this after doing long journeys totalling 200 miles on the motorway is very alarming. So much for the ‘125 point check’. After informing one of the sales staff about this issue he inferred the car may have been sabotaged. This could not be the case as it included the locking wheel nuts and it would need the key to loosen the nuts. The key is kept locked in the boot of my car so therefore, this cannot have been done by anybody else. After this explanation he then suggested it could have been down to speed. I felt this explanation insulted my intelligence as it is far fetched. How could they come undone with speed?! A car is built to cope with motorway driving and therefore, the nuts do not come loose with speed. The wheels were refurbished before my purchase on their premises and quite clearly this is where the issue lies. The ‘technician’ clearly forgot to tighten all of them after the wheel refurbishment. The sales person said that he would tell his boss and give me a follow up call. I have not heard from them and it has now been 3 weeks. I just want people to be aware as this is a major safety hazard.