[Fugly M3]

can't wait to hear the dealer's response to this one! My guess is there was some sort of covering on the trim and they grabbed the wrong one and couldn't tell the aluminum was wrong.

[kern417]

that's funny. reminds me of this thread on audizine.
http://www.audizine.com/forum/showth...a-hinge-thread)

[Gabrola]

Originally Posted by abomb60

Talked to my brother in law tonight and he said that occasionally the doors arrive out of order from the car they are supposed to be reattached to. Wondering if the car before or after was the same exterior and interior color just with different trim and no one noticed? If that's the case your car probably has a reverse twin He did say that they do check for this and it's the techs responsibility to make sure it's correct before it leaves their station.

The interior door trim card has a sticker on the inside with the VIN and the relevant vehicle order codes such as the interior color, trim, light package, etc. so they can check the correct options. So they could check his driver side door and check if it matches his VIN, personally I'd do it out of curiosity but it's not worth it to be honest. I have a picture of my door panel with the sticker here here.

[Maynard]

I've seen a few mentions of assembly mistakes on the doors (broken clips mostly), and I think this is a snap-in piece that is tricky to not break off a tab. Perhaps it wasn't on right, and fell off during transit (then replaced incorrectly at port with whatever they had handy). Check out the speaker-installation threads for good vids on changing it out - doesn't look that hard. Worst case (if the dealer is a jerk and refused to correct) you could probably get a matched replacement via auto salvage w/o having to buy a whole set. Or you could use it as an excuse to go full carbon, etc.

[thb229]

too funny but you have 4 years or 50,000 miles. take it to dealer and have them order correct panels. at the same time its funny it's sad that it actually made it passed qc. or as Maynard said now you can go carbon on it. lol

[Outrun]

Originally Posted by E46M54325Ci

can't wait to hear the dealer's response to this one! My guess is there was some sort of covering on the trim and they grabbed the wrong one and couldn't tell the aluminum was wrong.

I contacted the dealer today, service representative told me he wouldn't be able to explain how this happened until he sees the vehicle. Appointment set up for next monday. Will keep everyone posted.

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by Outrun

I can't stand it! And I can't believe I never noticed it earlier, now I can see it from a mile away. I will call the dealer and see what they say. Surprised this made it past quality control...

Stuff happens. My 2011 328i came from the factory with the "i" in the badge upside-down - yup, I drive a 328!. And this was a Euro Delivery car, so even the prep folks at the Welt missed it.

[krhodes1]

Originally Posted by mdputnam

Just speculation on my part, but it would be difficult to install one wrong trim part at a modern assembly plant as the parts are prepackaged as a group for a specific car, with each bin under strict statistical process control from the subcontractor's manufacturing plant to the loading dock at the assembly plant, to final installation. Most likely the trim was damaged during shipping and replaced at the Vehicle Distribution Center. VDC folks aren't even BMW employees any more, so someone in a rush probably grabbed the part out of the wrong bin.

Although the actual assembly process is carefully guarded by BMW we can get a glimpse from this document, watch the video and you can see part of the door assembly process!

"*Doors are removed from the car body and travel via an overhead conveyor to a separate door assembly line.
*On the door line, the glass, water seals, mirrors, airbags, speakers and other trim pieces are installed.
*The doors then travel on an overhead conveyor back to the main line and are reunited with the same car body."

Carefully guarded? If you do Euro Delivery or just visit BMW Welt you can take the factory tour and watch them put the doors (and most of the rest of the car) together.

[Fugly M3]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

Stuff happens. My 2011 328i came from the factory with the "i" in the badge upside-down - yup, I drive a 328!. And this was a Euro Delivery car, so even the prep folks at the Welt missed it.

yes...but this is a super cool mess up... not sure on the miss-matched trim, maybe if it were a limited edition M car and had a piece of wood instead of carbon it'd be a better story

[mdputnam]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

Carefully guarded? If you do Euro Delivery or just visit BMW Welt you can take the factory tour and watch them put the doors (and most of the rest of the car) together.

I was referring to the actual design-for-manufacturing engineering that enables extremely high quality control while maintaining maximum manufacturing efficiency. This allows BMW to deliver cars at the lowest cost to manufacture with the fewest defects. I was not referring to the guys (and gals) standing on the assembly line screwing things together. Although, they are one of the key links to quality!

[Outrun]

Update: took my car to the dealer today. They're going to replace the door handle with the appropriate trim under warranty. The service guy said he'd never seen this before and that the mistake "probably occurred on the production line", whatever that means exactly haha.

[Maynard]

Originally Posted by krhodes1

Stuff happens. My 2011 328i came from the factory with the "i" in the badge upside-down - yup, I drive a 328!. And this was a Euro Delivery car, so even the prep folks at the Welt missed it.

Too funny - I'd seen your avatar and thought that you had done this on purpose. I thought it a clever switch, since the 'i' is pretty meaningless these days where even lawnmowers have F.I. (I guess it clarifies you aren't driving a sport-diesel).

[ORIGIN M.]

Tell BMW you want a CF Kit for your troubles...