1.3 Million BMW 5 and 6 Series Vehicles Recalled

German luxury-car maker BMW AG said on Monday that it is recalling about 1.3 million vehicles world-wide for repair due to potential problems with a battery-cable cover, one of the German luxury car maker’s largest recalls in recent years.

“In some remote cases, the battery cable cover inside the boot [trunk] of these vehicles may be incorrectly mounted,” BMW said. “This can result in the electrical system malfunctioning, the vehicle failing to start and, in some cases, to charring or fire.”

The recall covers all BMW 5 and 6 Series models built between 2003 and 2010. The company said it isn’t aware of any accident or injury that was triggered through the technical fault.

Vehicle owners will be notified in writing. Repairs will take approximately 30 minutes and will be free of charge to the customer. BMW didn’t elaborate on the anticipated costs it will face related to the recall.

A BMW spokesman said the recall is a precautionary safety measure as no accidents have been reported so far. Nine cases of related defects have been reported. BMW has filed a notification to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall comes a month after the auto maker agreed with U.S. safety regulators to pay $3 million in civil penalties for failing to report safety defects soon enough.

A review of 16 BMW recalls issued in 2010 found “a number of instances” in which the auto maker didn’t comply with U.S. law, the NHTSA said last month.

BMW denied that it violated federal law, but agreed to make internal changes to its recall decision-making process in order to “ensure timely reporting to consumers and the federal government in the future.”

The U.S. requires auto makers to report defects within five days and promptly issue a recall to correct the problem.

Many global auto makers have reported large-scale recalls in recent months and years, highlighting the potential risks of sharing certain components and technology through a wide range of different vehicles to reap economies of scale.

In 2009 and 2010, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. was hit by a huge global recall affecting roughly 9 million vehicles world-wide that dented its reputation for producing top-quality cars. NHTSA, however, didn’t find evidence of electronic defects in the Toyota vehicles.

The BMW recall disclosed on Monday is almost equivalent to the annual sales volume of the company’s namesake brand in 2011. The BMW brand achieved a new sales record last year with a 13% rise year-on-year to 1.38 million cars. The BMW 5- and 6-series accounted for 332,501 and 9,396 vehicle sales, respectively.

The recall, however, affects the cars from the previous model generation.

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source: Wall Street Journal Blog (3/26)