The UK’s police forces love their BMWs, or at least that’s the way it looks to the general public. But the boys in blue that haven’t already begun shopping elsewhere are going to have to switch their affections to another band because BMW has decided to stop supplying vehicles to the country’s police.
BMW is closing its specialist sales division in the UK, on the face of it to concentrate on sales to retail and corporate customers at a time when the global supply of semiconductors remains an issue. Not mentioned in the company’s announcement is the fact that many UK police forces had banned their drivers from undertaking high-speed operations in certain BMW models after a problem with the N57 diesel engine, fitted to cars like the 330d, 530d, and X5, was linked to the death of an officer in a single-vehicle accident.
PC Nicholas Dumphreys of Cumbria Police died in January 2020 when his BMW cop car crashed off the M6 motorway while he was responding to an emergency call. An inquest heard that a catastrophic engine failure had caused a fire in the engine bay. But PC Dumphreys’ car wasn’t the only affected vehicle. BMW already knew of a problem with the N57 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder diesel engine in 2016.
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BMW UK contacted BMW in Germany whose investigations concluded that the fault was down to poor lubrication stemming from degrading engine oil. But the fact that civilian cars weren’t suffering the same problems suggested that the way the police often use their cars, which can involve letting them idle for a long time before demanding maximum acceleration and sustained high-speed running, was also a crucial factor. Following the company’s internal investigation BMW recommended that forces shorten the gaps between oil changes but Cumbria Police was not made aware of the vital service bulletin.
Some police forces stopped using their N57-engined cars and many have already switched to alternatives, such as Volvo’s XC90. But while welcoming BMW’s decision to halt police car sales, PC Dumphreys’ widow Kathryn has criticized the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) decision not to withdraw all existing N57-powered patrol vehicles from service.