2021 BMW X3 Complaint
Unknown Or Other / Engine
Filed January 27, 2025 · Incident date January 22, 2025
- Vehicle
- 2021 BMW X3
- Component(s)
- Unknown Or Other / Engine
- Complaint filed
- January 27, 2025
- Date of incident
- January 22, 2025
- Reported VIN
- 5UXTY5C01M9
Owner's description
The car has keyless ignition and was accidentally left on/idling in the garage despite no one in the car and the key fob not present. The car was on for 8.5 hours in the closed garage and filled the house with exhaust, which includes dangerous carbon monoxide fumes, known to be lethal and nearly ended in tragedy. Luckily, my wife woke up for an unrelated reason to check on our daughter and smelled the fumes in the house and found the car running in the garage. Multiple carbon monoxide detectors were in the home and did not go off, so presumably the fumes had not yet reached toxic concentrations by the time the car was turned off. 2 days later, I took the car to the BMW dealership to be inspected for defects and was told by the technician that it was functioning properly and I should assume the engine is running if the keyless ignition button is not turned off. The lack of an auto-shutoff safety feature to prevent this occurrence is completely unsafe and unacceptable. This is a known issue of keyless ignition cars for over a decade and is an easy mistake to make given how quietly the cars run. Many other car manufacturers have already implemented this feature, so it was shocking that such a well-respected car brand like BMW did not include this safety control as a default feature.
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Data sourced from the NHTSA Complaints database. Complaints are submitted by vehicle owners and have not been independently verified.