The 05 HAH does something similar - I remeber reading about it when I sat down Sunday to RTFM on the car and read up on all the gizmology. It might be JUST the oil change interval though, because the instructions in the manual are how to reset the idiot light on the instrument panel once it's triggered.

With the BMW, it could only be set by the BMW center (or somebody who had the tool to reset the thing) and ... if you DIDN'T do that, it would eventually disable the car until you got the service done/got th e"fault" light reset.

Nothing like building up your repeat customers with the barrel of a gun