|
OK let me try and answer your many questions one by one! My car is out of warranty.
1. The dealer is a stealer, that I am convinced. I had initially booked a service thro' an independant garage (which has a very good reputation with other BMW owners here) and it would have cost me 180 Euro for oil change and inspection included. The stealer dangled the bait of coil recall and that it would only be done in cars that were booked for service at their workshop so i felt obliged. I had to cancel my appointment with the independant garage.
2. The brake fluid on my car was changed by the same independant garage at 60 Euro a month before. He even reset the brake fluid warning light. BMW garage wanted 120 Euro!
3. For approx. 420 Euro BMW garage is going to change the oil, oil filter, microfilter, and spark plugs (on a car that has only done 23000 kilometres and still smells new!). I asked him, why change spark plugs at just 23000 km and he says because these thrifty BMW engines foul their spark plugs a lot quicker and that I drive too little so they do not get hot but get sooty. I think he is pulling a bull here. I am personally convinced that I could have easily reset the service warning light by myself and driven the car another 20000 km before doing anything with it, but I have to get those older model bosch coils changed, if they are as bad as the dealer suggests. Secondly, I have to get the service book stamped with the workshop, showing that oil change and inspection one was carried out. After 2 years there is inspection number two but then I will get that done with the independant garage.
4. The coil change is absolutely free and will be financed by the BMW.
5. I am pretty handy and have done oil changes in other cars before and can even do it here but how do I get a stamped service book.
Thank you all for your suggestions. In the long run BMW garages are going to loose out on customers with their high service cost. The so called inspection is a joke. It is a way of telling BMW garages to make quick money, and seems to be built into the system
|