general problems of the 2001 BMW 330

My car had been sitting unused since 6:00pm the previous day. At 6:30am I had entered my car parked at pacific coast highway and anaheim street in long beach,CA. (which is a surface street). I started my car then drove a half of a block then stopped and turned off my car at the store 7/11. I went in made a purchase came out my car. I started my car and then left 7-eleven driving down anaheim about . 2-. 3 miles. I came to the light at anaheim street and park. Both surface streets. I was in the turn lane to turn left onto park. I began smelling something electrical. The time was 6:40 am. I leaned my head out the window and could not smell the electrical smell outside. I discerned that this was coming from inside the car. There was no visible reason for the smell at this time. The light changed I turned left onto park. As I began to turn left white to grey smoke began coming out of the driver side vent which is lower by door and that faces the driver. I got out of my car. I ran over to another vehicle to see if they had a fire extinguisher. He said he would find it. I returned to my car and black smoke began rolling out of the drivers side door. Flames began engulfing the dashboard. Two gentleman came over, one with a fire extinguisher and began spraying into the dashboard. The other gentleman went around to the trunk and disconnected the battery. The last time I had something done to the vehicle was BMW replacing the airbag for a recall. There was no reason for the fire.

Yesterday, 12/12/15, my reverse stopped working while at the gas station. It only revved when I attempted to use the reverse gear to move closer to a pump. I'm retired and need this car for my only source of getting around. And yesterday was my 73rd birthday. Recent cost to fix the car to pass smog tests cost: $2900 and 7 months without the car.

When stopped after driving, I attempted to exit the vehicle from the driver side door. The door would not open. The door was unlocked. I crawled out the passenger side. I tried to open the door from the outside. Same result. The driver side door now does not open by any means. Diver side door will not open utilizing key fob, from the inside and from the outside of the vehicle. From reading online posts, it seems to be an issue with others in different combinations. It could be the door handle cable or door actuator. Regardless, this is a dangerous situation, due to the fact that if the driver needed to exit the car immediately, driver would not be able to do so.

I've had upwards of 10 window regulators replaced in my car over the last 12-13 years. They have cheap plastic gears that wear out or break apart because they've become so brittle because of the heat. Each time it's between $100 and $250 to fix depending on who fixes it and it's a pain if the window stops half-way down and can't be moved.

Door relay system malfunction causes door to be inoperable, closed and locked. Potentially deadly if trapped in vehicle.