Quote:
Originally Posted by The Die
I brought my CPO 2010 335xi into the dealership today because the car said it was time for an oil change. While I was there, I asked them if they had changed the plugs at 45k like they were supposed to. Of course, they hadn't. The excuse was because the service interval for spark plugs is "45,000 miles or the 3rd oil service" and my car had only had 2 oil services before this.
Wait a minute... I bought the car with 52k on it. It's only had 2 oil changes in 52,000 miles??? 
The service writer said that actually, they changed the oil before they sold the car. Well, that would be the 3rd oil service, right? Nope... that was only an oil change, not an oil service. I ask what the difference was between the two and he said with an oil service, they reset the CBS system and with the change, they don't. Really??? Are you fucking serious?
I asked why didn't they reset the CBS and was told that it hadn't reached it's mileage limit for that. They changed the oil, but didn't reset CBS. I've had the car for 4000 miles and the CBS systems now says I need an oil change. I'm supposed to be able to go 15k between oil changes though, and you're telling me that the car says I need one at 4k? Yes, because we didn't reset the system last time. 
Anyway, my "certified" pre-owned vehicle had oil changes at 18,000 miles and 39,000 miles. Yes, they certified a car that went 21,000 miles between oil changes. They didn't call the oil "change" a "service", because if they had, they would have had to do all the things that go along with that service, like changing the spark plugs (which they wanted ~$350 for). He also said they didn't change the plugs because the CBS didn't say they needed to be changed. According to the manual, spark plugs aren't shown in CBS.
Had I known that this car had such an abysmal service history, I would have bought a different car, but since it was "certified" by BMW, I thought that everything would be OK. Since when is it "ok" to go 21k between oil changes, and since when do companies certify cars that do?
It seems like BMW is doing their best to get out of doing service on vehicles under their "free service" program by using semantics and dumping that cost onto owners when they shouldn't. I will say one thing though... this is the last pre-owned BMW I'll buy, because I can't trust that the car will have been serviced properly. |
BMW generally doesn't CPO cars with over 36k miles on them. Are you sure it's CPO or is it used with an extended warranty?
IIRC the plug interval is 45k miles. There should be a SIB on this site.
As a matter of practice dealerships do NOT reset the CBS when an unscheduled oil change has been performed. This is because BMWNA will not reimburse them for the work. The dealerships/BMW use a key reader to track this information. Usually some other items are addressed at the time the oil service is conducted so you don't want to screw that up. This is also why they said "service" vs "change".
BMW can't help it if a previous owner neglects to have the oil service conducted in a timely manner. This is no different than buying used from a private owner. However unlike a private sale you have a warranty.