2023 BMW X5

My sunroof spontaneously exploded yesterday, which sounded like a loud shotgun blast going off. Fortunately my vehicle was stopped at the time, but no rocks or debris had hit it to cause this then or previously, and nothing had fallen on it. No warning or other symptoms prior to this happening, the car was in mint condition and always garaged, 34,750 miles. Could have been much worse had I been driving at highway speeds and not stopped at a traffic light.

While on a stretch of two lane highway with no shoulders I got some flashing error messages that were too quick to read, then the car made the shutdown sound like when you turn the car off, and said “Goodbye” on the screen. The gas pedal was unresponsive, pulled itself away from my foot. The screen showed what it normally shows when you turn the car off - option to charge immediately or precondition now. Car was just coasting. Eventually I hit the start button and the car turned back on. I think one of the error messages that flashed said Driver Assistance Disabled… the car doesn’t have any advanced drivers assistance packages so not sure what that could mean. I have a vague memory of this happening to me once over a year ago, pulling out of the driveway, and having to hit start to turn it back on.

The car safety features should not allow the vehicle to move with an open door. It should also alert driver with warning if passenger door is ajar before and when in motion. The car did not register at any point (sound, dash light or otherwise) while the car door was moving that the rear driver side passenger door was ajar and door hit something. Even after collision, the vehicle still did not send any collision notice, signal driver door was open or stop automatically at any point.

On June 1, 2024, I was driving on the highway at about 70 MPH, when all of a sudden there was a loud boom and the glass on the panoramic sunroof blew out. Was not close to other vehicles, nor did I hear any impact from any object. Immediately drove my car to the local dealership. Dealership indicated it was not a known issue that they have seen and said it was outside influence that caused the issue. However, the glass was pointed upward and the glass exploded outward. Fortunately, I had my sunroof cover in the closed position so none of the glass dropped on me, but it could have been harmful to me, causing me to get into an accident. No vehicle warnings appeared just before the explosion.

When driving down the highway at 65 mph there was a loud bang and wind started blowing through the roof. Small shards of glass came through the moon roof. I pulled over at the next exit and stopped. I looked at the moon roof and it had exploded. At the time of the incident the moon roof was closed. It was daylight and I was not near an overpass, so no one could have thrown a rock to cause the damage. The moon roof clearly failed for no apparent reason. I was fortunate that the moon roof was closed because the vinyl part of the moon roof prevented all of the glass from falling into the car while I was driving. I have looked on line and there are several, perhaps many, such instances reported. BMW seems to be unaware of this issue.

My X5 was accelerating on its own. I was able to control the speed with the brakes but once I took my foot off the brake the vehicle would accelerate again. It went as fast as 50 MPH. I did shut off the vehicle at a stop light to disengage any possible system. The car continued to accelerate once I let off the brake. Once home, my garage smelled horribly of burnt rubber from riding the brake pads. No system dash board notifications appeared. BMW dealership took the vehicle for inspection and couldn’t find an issue. National BMW then sent an engineer out. They told me there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and it was user error?! I refused to take back the vehicle. No one ever drove the car to try to reproduce the unintended acceleration issue. Overall, very concerning that the vehicle will be sold to an unsuspecting driver.