churchie386 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 16, 2021 2:05 am
In my non-expert opinion, I felt there was an imbalance in the steering weight between left and right inputs.
I flagged my concern to the dealer after two days of ownership. I had two independent garages measure the geo and both identified it was not symmetrical side to side. Dealer drove it and said it was normal. I carried on, but still it didn't seem right to me or my wife.
Back to the dealer for a KDS check; it did required adjustment which was duly done under warranty. But this made no discernible difference to my opinion of the steering. Dealer said it was normal. The new BMW M4 loaned during that day steered superbly.
A geo specialist confirmed the car was per ALPINA specifications (the car was correctly loaded). No mechanical defect was identified.
I test drove a new G20 M340d one weekend during my ownership, and that steered exactly as one would expect.
ALPINA (Head of Customer Service) ignored all but the final of my correspondences (which were always courteous and respectful) in regard to the matter, though it was suggested flippantly I could bring the car to them to look at if I where on holiday in Germany or Austria.
Back to dealer again for another master tech to drive and to reset the EPAS. This made no difference to how I found the steering. The dealer was adamant the vehicle was without fault - as they are the experts I had to accept their appraisal.
I had such high hopes for my ALPINA ownership. Despite an issue with my original order (a very unfortunate saga involving Nottingham!) I continued and re-ordered - assured that the dealer and ALPINA DE would be supportive during my ownership (and an invitation to visit their factory and cellar for my wife and me when COVID would allow). However, in the end my wife and I did not feel ALPINA had lived up to the assurances (or demonstrate any empathy for a new owner's concerns - they did not even dignify two formal letters sent to them with a formal response).
The entire saga was beginning to affect my health and the atmosphere at home. Plus a change of role meant I wasn’t going to be driving anywhere for work so it was difficult to justify the car. So I decided to move on. Life is too short.
Sorry to hear about your saga with regard to the steering of your Alpina.
I had a similar experience in 2011 when I purchased a new E92 B3S BT from Nottingham.
The drive home for me was around 200 miles and I could feel right away that the steering was not as it should be, the only place it wanted to steer to was the left hand barrier
Having had several Alpinas and a lot of BMWs I knew that the steering was badly out.
As I was off to France a couple of days later I was unable to do anything about it, the 1500 miles I covered in a week were awful, I have never had anything that steered so badly.
On return, I went to a couple of dealers who checked it over thoroughly and pronounced "they all drive like that Sir"
I sent photos of the amount of tyre wear that had occured in only 1500 miles, and as I did not want to have to go back up to Nottingham, an arrangement was made for me to take the car in to Sytner Sunningingdale, at this time Matt at Nottingham was very helpful.
When I drove the loaner 320D out of Sunningdale I immediately thought that this is how a BMW should steer.
When my car was checked at Sytner they found all settings were wrong, toe in, caster angle etc, once they adjusted them to the proper Alpina specs all was well.
Both Nottingham and myself, contacted Buchloe on several occasions asking why my car had left the factory on the wrong settings, I never did receive an answer.
