[msinfo_us]

Well, I got my car back today .... un-repaired. With the exception of one time last week they could not reproduce the ticking noise. We've spent over an hour together (they volunteered to stay overtime -- which was really nice) with a few mechanics, foreman and service manager trying to get it to tick and of course Murphy law would not be tricked. Best we've got is a very light tapping noise but no ticking. We end up comparing and discussing different tapping noises. We've checked three or four cars. Two had tapping noise, one 328 no noise what's so ever and one 325 no tapping noise either. They say that tapping noise and ticking noise are not related and that tapping noise is normal (even so clearly some cars do have it and some don't). But related or not tapping noise was not my concern and ticking noise is still un-repaired. So, from what I've got they need ticking noise to be there pretty consistently to troubleshoot. I understand their reasoning but at the same time we all know problem is still there and I'll have to wait for it to get worse than do it all over again. So, the question that I have is: - Even when ticking will be there more or less consistently and they attempt to repair it for a forth time which is again going to take up to a month there is still no guarantee that it won't be back again. My car was in the shop for a month and half already in six month since I bought it, three (counting this time is four) times they already tried to fix it -- how much is enough? Should I continue trying to get it fixed in hope that next time is the last or just give up and start talking about other alternatives? What would you do?

PS I just thought of one more question. What do you think is fair/what would you do when I get a call from BMW NA to rate their service? On one hand they were courteous and even stayed overtime with me to troubleshoot and on another hand they heard the noise (ones but still), I left a recording of the ticking noise for them as well and they did not repair it. So, if I say I am satisfied I would be lying but if I rate them low they might loose their bonus or something. What do you think I should do?

Also I discovered something else. Just was going thru the paperwork and was like what the hack. I picked my car from dealer yesterday 11/1/06 but paper said 10/26/06. Service manager left me a VM at 5:45pm (15 minutes before they close) on 10/26 saying he can no longer reproduce the noise. I spoke with him next morning and he agreed to continue to diagnose the problem. So I went back to check the dates on previous papers and it began to make sense -- 25 days before plus 3 days now (based on his dates) total 28 days -- 2 days under 30 day lemon law policy for NY and most likely a red flag for him at BMW NA.