2023 BMW R 1250 RT Problems
Owner-reported complaints filed with NHTSA, grouped by component
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What this page shows
Everything below is an owner-reported complaint submitted to NHTSA about the 2023 BMW R 1250 RT, grouped by the component NHTSA recorded on the report. These are not confirmed defects, and they are not recalls. NHTSA does not verify most reports before publishing them, and a category with more reports in it is not evidence that a part is defective.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
Reports by component
Ranked by how many owner reports name each component category
- Driver assistance1100.0%
Percentages are of component mentions. A single complaint can name more than one component, so these do not sum to the total complaint count.
Each component in detail
What the reports in each category say, in the owners' own words
Driver assistance
Reports naming forward-collision avoidance, lane keeping, back-over prevention, cruise control and related electronic driver-assistance systems.
From owner reports, verbatim
I believe the BMW configuration of the adaptive cruise control following distance selection might result in a rear end collision. I normally set the following distance to the longest setting, which corresponds to a two-second following distance (IMO, the minimum safe distance). I am fairly often caught off-guard by the system because the next time the bike is started, the following distance defaults to the *closest* following distance, and does so WITH NO visual warning in the instrument panel (the following distance is not displayed when cruise is set; it is displayed only after the distance control button on the left grip cluster is pressed). In my case, despite knowing this I still have been surprised to find myself too close to the vehicle in front, and have to rapidly hit the distance setting button to back off. For others without this knowledge, the potential injury concern is someone setting their cruise control with the NOT-DISPLAYED too-short default following distance, and then not having enough reaction time to avoid sudden deceleration of the front vehicle (e.g., set the cruise with the default too-short distance, and shortly thereafter the front driver brakes to avoid an animal before the rider has a chance to figure out why he/she is following closer than he/she intended). This should be easily fixed with a simple software fix: either (i) programming the default cruise following distance to be the longest distance, or better yet, (ii) have the following distance ALWAYS displayed after the cruise on switch is operated (as in my Ford F-150 and Mustang) -- the opposite of BMW's current approach of showing a solid block that HIDES the following distance setting, until the following distance button is manually pressed. IMO, the solid block is both unnecessary and a potential trap for the unwary, and should be removed so that the set distance is ALWAYS visible. I live near DC and can make my motorcycle available for inspection if desired.
Too few reports in this category for a page of its own — they appear in the full complaint list.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
Elsewhere on this vehicle
Data sources
- NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation — owner-reported complaints and the components recorded on them
Data on this page last refreshed .