[xDrive50i]

Wow, sorry to hear you are having so many issues with your new car!

A 3 mile drive is definitely NOT sufficient to recharge the battery. Another thing you need to remember is that with colder temperatures, the battery has less charge and will take longer to recharge! Also, if you have the efficient dynamics brake regeneration system on your car (you can tell if the bottom of your dashboard shows you the blue battery charge indicator during coasting and braking right next to the current fuel consumption gauge), the battery only charges to I think just below 80%. So if you do these short stints, the engine cranking will draw a large amount of energy out of the battery and the battery does not have enough time to recharge during your short drive to work. Also, the car will draw less power if you use either your remote or the door handles to lock your car as it will turn auxiliary equipment off a lot faster than it would if you let it time out. There is an 8 minute timer that starts from the time you turn the engine off before the car start to turn off equipment like the fans, the radio, the CD player, the entertainment system in the rear, the lights etc. The car may actually turn off equipment a lot sooner if it finds that the battery does not have enough of a charge left in it to guarantee that you will be able to start the car again! The battery will always have a bit of a drain on it since it needs to supply power to equipment like the alarm system, the clock, the remote control system, etc.