experience with roadside assistance (long) (archive)

Last night my daughter and I were coming back to DC from PA, driving in the middle of a national forest, 100 miles from nowhere in the mountains of Maryland. The temperature gauge on my 528 pegged right, red light on, so I immediately pulled over. After lifting the hood I discovered coolant everywhere, especially on the ground.

My cell phone couldn't connect, but a kind driver who stopped let me use his cell phone to call BWM roadside assistance. They were pretty nice and promised a tow truck within 40 minutes. An hour later, no truck, but a state trooper let me use his cell phone to call BWM again.

BWM apologized for the delay (not their fault they couldn't reach me) but they couldn't find a tow truck in my neck of the woods and somehow my location was misunderstood. After we clarified where I was located they promised another tow truck within the hour.

BMW arranged for a flatbed to come 45 miles west from Frederick MD to pick me up, and they brought me over 100 miles to my dealer (Tischer, in Silver Spring, MD). The driver, an independent contractor, said the bill had been picked up by BMW (I did tip him anyway).

I'll find out tomorrow what caused the problem (burst coolant hose?). However, cheers to BWM's roadside assistance. Although I might grumble about the delay, they did their job and made what might have been a nightmare turn out as best as could be hoped.

I'll post a follow-up when I hear what went wrong. I'm counting on this part of the experience to turn out as well as the tow truck part did.

Follow Ups:

If it wasn't a broken radiator connection.. (m) 540Power 22:53 9/24/2000 (0)

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