[tep01]

We purchased a 2008 528i with the intent of having a single car to last for as number of years. After 2 years, it has developed an electrical problem and will not properly charge the battery. We have been told the problem is driver related and we must use a trickle charger to charge the battery. BMW, until they are forced, is not willing to admit that their engineering complexity of the electrical system is the actual problem. The engineers apparently designed the electrical system so that it only charges the battery to 80% so as to get better fuel efficiency and acceleration (came from a BMW engineer on a blog). Also I am told by my local BMW maintenance management that it takes 70 minutes for the car to "go to sleep." (fully shut off) This creates a problem because if one makes 3 stops in town, the battery is being drained more than 3 hours in the process. Different dealers have told us we have to drive the car form 10 to 40 miles to recharge the battery, no one knows. I drove the car, after the battery had been on a charger for 24 hours, for 100 miles and the first comment was that they had to charge the battery because it was not fully charged. We have also been told that the car has multiple "wakeups", where some device comes on and drains the battery, but they are unable to determine what these are.
Is there anyone in the BMW maintenance system that knows how to properly fix this car so it can be used for reliable transportation. Please advise if you know of anyone.

Thanks

Terry Phillips

[GMWNashville]

try another dealer? ive never had a wakeup issue on a car that was actually an issue with the car that i was unable to find and fix...however...some wakeup issues are customer influenced...