[spirocheter]

My 335d required brake fluid change and vehicle inspection, I had noticed on another thread mention of 'maindealerdiscount.com' website, which I'd previously not come across. So I thought I'd write a quick review for anyone else considering going down this route.

The idea is that dealerships can increase the productivity of their service bays, by offering better levels of discount on days when they are quieter. It must be quiet everywhere presently, or els BMW dealers are just offering a set number of slots a day to bookings made via this website as I was able to book without difficulty.

The process of obtaining a quote from the website is entirely straightforward, just enter your reg and postcode and it quickly comes up with a list of prices and availability. The difficulty I came across was in booking more than one item, ie 'brake fluid change' and 'vehicle check', though to my amazement, I emailed 'maindealerdiscounts' and received a response within fifteen minutes advising I could add my initials after my reg on the second booking to make it 'unique' (otherwise it says you can't book again since it's too soon to rebook).

A guy called Darren Bone, who obviously owns the website offered assistance by phone or else by return of email so I felt reassured enough to go ahead and book, paying a small deposit via my Paypal account. I booked on Friday last week for a service slot today. Later on Friday afternoon, I received a phone call from the dealer who had been contacted by the website and the time of drop time on Monday was arranged. Top marks so far, I thought it was going too well.

This morning I dropped the car off at Rybrooks 'revamped since I last visited' customer service area. They now have a series of computers with internet access and tables where you can sit with you laptop if you need to do work. Nice touch Rybrook. The lady who brought my wife and I through from the reception desk made us both a coffee and supplied biscuits. Very nice. We had planned a trip in Shrewsbury for lunch, the park and ride is just 200 yards from the dealership and we even offered a lift. All the paperwork checked out with the correct balance in price quoted back verbatim from the dealers paperwork. Excellent.

Just as we were getting on the bus, a phone call from Chris at the dealership. It was picked up the oil and microfilter were due to be changed next month based on age as opposed to mileage (8000 miles to go otherwise). Chris apologized it wasn't picked up on the keyfob and offered to do it for 20% discount. Being the tight wad I am, I said I'd book again through 'Maindealerdiscounts' on my iPhone.

It gave the perfect opportunity not to browse clothes with my wife, instead I had ten minutes messing around on my phone sitting down on the 'bored husbands seating area' - I'm not alone in hating clothes shopping clearly. Unfortunately, I had to go through the somewhat laborious process of filling in the data on an iphone and by the time I'd got through to Paypal, it didn't register any deposit cost so I gave up. I called the dealer and said I'd reschedule the oil and filter change.

About twenty minutes later I got a phone call from Darren Bone 'maindealerdiscounts' who asked if I needed any assistance, he went on and booked the oil and filter change and took deposit over the phone (done separately, so four separate deposits for the work in total). I phoned to check with Rybrook and they'd already had instruction and agreed on price and were proceeding with the service.

Following lunch and the bus ride back to the dealership, we waited about twenty minutes, with another nice coffee, paid up and picked up the nicely washed and vacced car.

All in, a superb service. Darren tells me in a week or two, the website should be able to take multiple bookings with ease. He's obviously working very hard to make the website lift off and therefore it shows every sign of success.
Being able to book a service at a discounted rate via a few clicks (OK a bit more than that), but at least it saves a bunch of phone calls and bartering with service departments. The communication with the website owner was second to none and the most important thing is I'd use them again and recommend to family and friends.

BMW dealerships are mainly based around the West Midlands presently included on the website, though as it gathers momentum it will be rolled out across other dealerships too. Darren tells me five manufacturers are presently included, including Alfa Romeo. He's in talks with Volvo too currently (so we may be covered by the time our inclusive service package on our XC90 is up too).

You can probably negotiate up to 20% off through the dealers themselves, maindealerdiscount access 35% discounts, well worth the trouble. This may even compete with independent dealers.

So, from me a big

And well done Rybrook Shrewsbury on a seemless experience

[sixpot]

Great review, well done!

[davyk31]

Sounds great. When I negotiated on the service price with my local dealer based upon a quote from the next nearest dealer they looked as if they despised me! They eventually agreed to price match but even when my wife left the car in with them they still gave the impression they were extremely unhappy at being squeezed on price.

Something like this website lets you do it all so much more easily.

[Subzero2003]

Great review. I'd use main dealer discount very happily if they had some more bloody dealerships on board! I think the nearest one to me is 200miles away. If they got Sytner, Cooper and Elms on board I would be recommending this site to everyone I knew!

[scottishpete]

Wish they would hurry up with North of border,but i bety all the tight dealers up here will refuse to do it anyway

[Mani59]

Great review - thanks!
I will definitely be using it for any service work..only small issue is that I would have to travel to Sytner Coventry, but that's no major biggie.

[p0jy]

Im just about to this, however I rang the leicester Sytner and told them the quote I got from the main dealer discount website and they came close by price matching!. But I'm still going to use them and am using Bowker Blackburn BMW as I'm there in a few weeks visiting family !

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by Subzero2003

Great review. I'd use main dealer discount very happily if they had some more bloody dealerships on board! I think the nearest one to me is 200miles away. If they got Sytner, Cooper and Elms on board I would be recommending this site to everyone I knew!

+1 and I am hoping that it will happen soon.

[spirocheter]

Thanks for the feedback, my first review.

Darren had said he is trying to negotiate more dealers on board, I would think with his apparent enthusiasm he'll make progress. I think he said the website has been live 14 months.

Chris at Rybrook said he'd a guy who'd booked in a major service come up from the south coast and had a short break with the money he'd saved. I think he had some family nearby and it worked well in this respect.

I wish the website every success, Darren is clearly hardworking and deserves to succeed.

[BIGTIME]

Originally Posted by Subzero2003

Great review. I'd use main dealer discount very happily if they had some more bloody dealerships on board! I think the nearest one to me is 200miles away. If they got Sytner, Cooper and Elms on board I would be recommending this site to everyone I knew!

I agree as the nearest quoting dealer to me is miles away. Hope they can manage it in the next 3 months as I'll need the 1200 miles service on the M3 by then.

[p0jy]

Just ask your nearest dealer to price match, that's what I did !

[ram33]

have sytner stop using maindealerdiscount?
i looked up a price for brake fluid change a couple of days ago and Sytner Coventry were cheapest. just checked again and there is no sytners listed, now cheapest is Rybrook BMW Warwick but i think it is about £10 more

[Mani59]

Originally Posted by ram33

have sytner stop using maindealerdiscount?
i looked up a price for brake fluid change a couple of days ago and Sytner Coventry were cheapest. just checked again and there is no sytners listed, now cheapest is Rybrook BMW Warwick but i think it is about £10 more

I just checked now too, and Sytner (Coventry) has disappeared from the list.
I have just sent them an email to ask whats happened.

[Mani59]

Just had a reply back from Darren, (replied back within 2 mins!), and he says that Sytner Coventry, (I presume all Sytner dealers), have stopped using maindealerdiscount for the time being.

[mistryn]

I wonder why sytner coventry have stopped using maindealer? I got great service from coventry a few weeks back and coventry is the nearest one for me

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by mistryn

I wonder why sytner coventry have stopped using maindealer? I got great service from coventry a few weeks back and coventry is the nearest one for me

Presumably they are not make satisfactory money out of it...

[6ftglassy]

Great review, When its time for a service, i'll definatley be using this site

Thanks spirocheter

[A_P]

Nice review Spirocheter. Thanks.

[shuzzy]

Just gone through this website to have the major cambelt service my Range Rover Sport. Cheapest normal price I got was from Land Rover Bradford £650, my usual dealer quoted £800+ odd which seemed to be the norm. However I got it for £422! This is half the dealers retail price (Stratstone Stockton On Tees). I even saw one slot with a price of £385 It all worked out exactly how it was planned and even with fuel costs I saved a packet.
I tried to get my normal dealer to price match but they said just the labour was several hundred so no chance.

All in all a fantastic service from this site and a brilliant concept. Just a shames there aren't more local dealers on it.

[225_AB]

What you can't seem to do is to get a price for say a rear brake service as that is so much more expensive at BMW but if it was at the discounts seen above it would be worth having done by a BMW dealer.