25 Years of BMW Mobile Service: Committed to Sheer Driving Pleasure.

MUNICH, GERMANY – May 11, 2009: Concept unique the world over ensures highly qualified assistance round the clock in the event of a breakdown. Innovative services from BMW ConnectedDrive for even more efficient and faster trouble-shooting.

Munich. Premium quality also expresses itself when, on a rare occasion, your Sheer Driving Pleasure might be interrupted for a short while. For offering the most advanced and comprehensive Breakdown Assistance Service in the world, the BMW Group keeps customers mobile and on the road all round the clock 365 days a year.

BMW Mobile Service means qualified assistance from one source – assistance which the BMW Group has now been providing for 25 years. No other car maker offers such a complete network of competent specialists using the most innovative service technology for this purpose. From the master technicians at operations centre all the way to the technicians in the BMW Service Mobile, all the experts helping to solve technical problems and get the customer’s BMW or MINI back on to the road again are absolute specialists, enabling the customer to quickly continue after a breakdown in 84 per cent of all cases.

Drivers of a BMW or a MINI can rely on qualified support and assistance very quickly indeed in the rare case of a technical defect or any other kind of breakdown. Calling the number of BMW Breakdown Assistance specified in the car, the customer immediately reaches BMW on a direct line. As experienced automotive master technicians, all of the specialists at the operations centre in Munich seek to provide the right diagnosis as quickly as possible, competent information enabling the customer himself in many cases to continue his journey without a major delay. And if this is not possible, a trained technical specialist will set out in a BMW Service Mobile to the customer’s current location in order to repair the car himself.

With BMW operating its own in-house operations centre, the customer is not required to go through a call centre or consult other technicians without specialist experience on BMW or MINI.

This outstanding assistance is coordinated in Germany by the ELOS fleet management and tracking system unique the world over. This satellite-based system enables the operations centre, taking the car’s current position data, to immediately activate a BMW Service Mobile in the area, which will then proceed directly to the location of the car.

Clearly, this offers the customer very quick and efficient assistance, which is indeed the most important advantage in the eyes of the customer, as we hear in a typical case: “The first time I ever had a technical defect was with my seventh BMW. And thanks to the professional and very generous way you and your colleagues handled the matter, I was soon back on the road again.“

Unique principle: BMW specialists help BMW customers. The unparalleled efficiency of BMW’s Mobile Service quite simply not matched by the competition is mainly attributable to the fact that all specialists taking care of the customer’s problems are trained technical experts. “We employ BMW specialists in all areas and for all functions“, states Karsten Engel, Head of Sales BMW Group Germany. “They know our cars best and they are able to repair a possible defect fastest and most efficiently.“

Permanent availability of these experts round the clock is ensured in close cooperation with partners in the BMW Dealer Organisation. This establishes a full-coverage network of competent specialists able to repair a defect as quickly as possible at virtually any location. The BMW Service Mobile comes with a wide range of Original BMW and MINI Parts, special tools and a diagnostic unit. If necessary, the customer’s car will be towed to a nearby BMW Service Centre where the defect can be repaired, in many cases outside of normal working hours and on the weekends.

Providing quick and effective assistance in the event of a defect is one of the most important factors ensuring and maintaining customer satisfaction. BMW and MINI drivers appreciate the high technical standard of the BMW Mobile Service technicians, especially as in the vast majority of cases these specialists enable the customer to continue right away in their own car. And should this not be possible in a rare case, the BMW and MINI mobility scheme “Mobile Care” even covers the cost in continental Europe of taking a taxi, renting a car, staying overnight at a hotel, or having one’s car transported back home.

BMW TeleServices for remote trouble-shooting. In many cases BMW’s specialists at the operations centre are able right from the start, on the telephone, to establish the reason for a defect in close cooperation with the customer. And now this remote diagnosis is becoming even more efficient, cars equipped with BMW TeleServices in the context of BMW ConnectedDrive already being able today to transmit the data required for diagnosing and locating the defect involved over the telephone to the operations centre. So that in such cases the reason for the defect can be established right from the start by remote diagnosis.

In some cases BMW TeleServices even allows immediate repair of defects and deficiencies. Should the defect result from malfunction of an electronic control unit, for example, the master technician at the operations centre is able to provide the remedy straight from his desk. Then, via the secure telephone line, he sends a signal to the car in order to re-set the control unit, in many cases remedying the defect in this simple quick, and straightforward manner.

With the new services of BMW ConnectedDrive now available in nearly all current BMWs being constantly expanded, the number of customers benefiting from these innovative solutions offered only by BMW is increasing consistently.

More than 830 BMW Service Mobiles in worldwide operation. The first BMW Service Mobiles were deployed in summer 1984 and since then the fleet has been consistently renewed and enlarged.

The first official Service Mobile was a second-generation BMW 5 Series. “Back then we still solved most problems with classic tools, today we take along the most advanced technology and are able to solve even more problems directly on the spot”, states Helmut Leitner, one of the pioneers of BMW Roadside Assistance still working at the Munich operations centre today. “This kind of development is really great and satisfied customers are still the best motivation.”

Since the “old days” BMW’s Service Mobiles have been constantly updated. Cars such as the BMW X3, the BMW X5, and the BMW 5 Series Touring equipped with a complete set of workshop and diagnostic tools and naturally covered by all crash tests are currently on the road in cities such as Munich, New York, and Beijing, naturally all fulfilling exactly the same quality standards.

BMW Mobile Service is now available in 19 European countries and nearly all other markets outside Europe. Worldwide more than 830 of BMW’s Service Mobiles are to be admired on the road in their striking silver-white bodywork.

A further important strength of BMW Mobile Service is that this quick and competent assistance also works across national borders. One customer, for example, reports on a tyre defect he once suffered in Greece: “Thanks to the professional assistance offered to me by your specialist, I was able to continue my journey after about five hours. This was really astounding, since the defect occurred on a Saturday evening and I was in a very remote part of the country. But despite that remote location, your specialists organised a spare tyre at about 10:00 in the evening and made sure that it was replaced by the workshop that very same night. That allowed me to continue my trip, without requiring me to take care of anything myself.”