There are 2 owner-reported powertrain & transmission complaints for the 2016 BMW 4 Seriesin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
WHILE DRIVING ON THE HIGHWAY DURING RAIN I WENT TO PASS A CAR AND PUSHED THE GAS PEDAL AND THE CAR SEEMED TO SPIN OUT A LITTLE AND THEN THE ENGINE LOST MOST OF ITS POWER AND STARTED TO SPUTTER AND GARGLE AS IF IT WAS GOING TO STALL OUT. THE WARNING FOR POWER TRAIN FAILURE CAME ON. VERY DANGEROUS ON A FREEWAY OF SPEEDS UP TO 60+. HAD TO GET OVER, EXIT THE FREEWAY AND PULL INTO A GAS STATION. I FIGURED I WOULD LET IT SIT AND THEN TRY TO START AGAIN AND SEE WHAT ERROR CODES CAME ON. WHEN I RESTARTED THE CAR ALL SEEMED BACK TO NORMAL. THE VERY NEXT DAY WHEN PULLING OUT ON TO A BUSY ROAD, I PRESSED THE GAS AND THE CAR DID THE VERY SAME THING. I THEN GOOGLED THE ISSUE AND IT IS A ONGOING ISSUE ACROSS SEVERAL BMW MODELS AND YEARS. I WOULD RECOMMEND YOU GOOGLE THIS DRIVE TRAIN ISSUE AND SEE THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED AND RESOLVED. *TR
I WAS DRIVING MY VEHICLE IN DALLAS, TX AND MULTIPLE TIMES THE CAR ENGINE & ALL POWER SHUT OFF, AND THE CAR SHIFTED ITSELF INTO NEUTRAL. I SUSPECT THERE IS AN ISSUE WITH THE AUTO STOP/START FEATURE OR SOMETHING MORE. A CAR SHOULD NEVER SHIFT ITSELF INTO REVERSE WHEN YOU ARE DRIVING. BOTH TIMES ALMOST CAUSED AN ACCIDENT ON THE FREEWAY AS THE CAR CAME TO A SUDDEN HALT AND I HAD NO CONTROL WITH IT SHIFTING INTO N. THE BMW DEALERSHIP & BMW ARE CLAIMING NOTHING IS WRONG. I DO NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE ACCEPTING THIS VEHICLE BACK UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED AND FEEL THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD LOOK INTO ANY ISSUE OF A VEHICLE AUTOMATICALLY SHIFTING INTO N AND POWERING DOWN WHILE DRIVING.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026