1997 BMW 328I problems
NHTSA has received 29 complaints about the 1997 BMW 328I, and 24% of them involve electrical system. After that come body & structure (14%) and air bags (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 29 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 24% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 3 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 1
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
What the data shows
Safety-related details: 3 complaints mention a crash; 1 injury reported; 1 death reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1997 ranks 15th most-complained-about out of 15 model years of the BMW 328I with enough data (15 complaints in that window).
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
The locking device on a 1997 BMW 328I intermittently makes it impossible for occupants to exit the vehicle if it is locked while occupied. This is a safety risk, which creates a high danger and severity of risk of injury or death to consumers and/or users of the vehicle if an occupant stays in a vehicle that is locked.
After seeing yet another rear end collision, I would like to make a suggestion I have had in mind for a long time. I believe we can reduce the incidence of such accidents, by flashing the stop signals whenever the brakes are on and the car is stopped ( requires a speed sensor, of course). Manual flashing electronics exists in every modern car, but is not normally used when stopped on the roadway.
While traveling on the highway and without prior warning another vehicle hit on the right side, and driver's side air bag didn't deploy.
Sudden failure of ignition coil resulting in a shaking/vibrating vehicle. While accellerting in city traffic the car can lunge and jerk while accellerating, resulting in unpredictable accelleration. In city traffic this is very dangerous. I have investigated the ignition coils for BMW 3 series cars and it appears they fail a lot, yet there is no recall campaign! After investigating further it appears BMW has some recall campaigns for some of the newer cars.
Tl*the contact owns a 1997 BMW 328I convertible. Due to his body stature, the contact would have to lean the seat back in order to use the seat belt effectively. He consulted three dealers for seat belt extenders, but none had them available or were not being sold. The manufacturer stated that they did not have seat belt extenders for that model. The current mileage was 159,882 and failure mileage was approximately 159,800.