A series of complaints concerning select 2002-2008MY BMW 7-Series sedans that relate to incidents of unattended vehicle rollaway or vehicle movement after the driver expected the vehicle gearshift to automatically shift to park, have caught the attention of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
Federal safety regulators said BMW provided the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) with 1 complaint and 46 field reports, while the ODI also identified three additional reports in its database alleging vehicle roll-away incidents of which 2 resulted in crashes.
Overall, ODI said that it found 16 crashes and 5 alleged injuries since it began investigating the cars last August. For this reason, it has upgraded the probe to an engineering analysis, which brings it closer to a recall.
The ongoing investigation potentially covers 121,708 BMW 7-Series sedans from the 2002 through the 2008 model years.
ODI reported that all cars are equipped with a “Start/Stop” push button and “Shift-by-Wire” automatic transmission systems controlled by a column mounted selector lever behind the steering wheel.
BMW told the safety agency that there in some cases, the transmission may shift to neutral when the driver may expect it to automatically shift to park.
“This investigation is being upgraded to an Engineering Analysis to further assess the potential safety consequences of the alleged defect in the subject vehicles,” said NHTSA in a statement.
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