Questionable BMW service and repair?

Five_Star

Five_Star

Five_Star

Associate
Joined
20 Oct 2002
Posts
1,127
Location
Redcar
A friend of mine at work has been having some trouble with his BMW 320 auto petrol. He bought the car from a BMW dealer and got the remainder of the warranty as the car is only 2 years old.

A week after he collected the car it had to go back as it suffered a loss of power and really bad juddering. It took the garage a few days to collect and a couple of days before he got it back.

Last week the same issue re-appeared, loss of power and juddering with engine warning light on. He phoned up to get it looked at obviously not happy the same problem is back inside 6 months.

The BMW garage said they couldn’t look at it for a week! Obviously he isn’t too pleased about driving around in it jumping and spluttering, the BMW guys said it’s OK though because he has BMW assist if it does actually die on him they’d come collect the car then.

Having never owned a BMW myself I’m a little surprised by this. I was under the impression that they would have taken it away and given him a courtesy car the moment he reported the problem, even if it did take them a week to fix.
I don’t know the full technical details of what exactly went wrong first time round but my friend is obviously not keen on this issue happening again as his warranty is up in 3 months.

Should he expect more from a BMW main dealer on this? The joke is he’s owned three Alfa Romeos before this BMW and they all ran 20K a year perfectly.
 
If they don't have the capacity they don't have the capacity.

If he calls BMW Emergency Service they can arrange a 48 hour hire car if the deem the car undriveable.
 
If the same issue is ongoing and occurred before the warranty expired, and not properly rectified i would think it would still be covered?
 
The warranty hasn't expired yet he is worried that once it has, this issue could well return and at a big cost to him.

I guess I had thought that being a more expensive marque they would have had ample capacity to service his support request at once. I get a similar level of service from Ford dealers, but at Ford prices. He's paid a lot for the car and for having it services so I guess was expecting a faster turn around.

I guess BMW know exactly how serious it is and the BMW emergency service they offer does sound excellent.

Perhaps a different dealer would be quicker?
 
[TW]Fox;18308350 said:
If they don't have the capacity they don't have the capacity.
Click to expand...
When you spend ~£15k on your e9x, there is no chance in hell that you'd be saying that under the same situation. You'd ask them to come and collect it, leaving you a courtesy car. If it takes them a week to look at it, it's not ideal, but you'll get over it and at least you're not running the risk of it failing on you mid-journey.
 
monkey_boy said:
When you spend ~£15k on your e9x, there is no chance in hell that you'd be saying that under the same situation. You'd ask them to come and collect it, leaving you a courtesy car. If it takes them a week to look at it, it's not ideal, but you'll get over it and at least you're not running the risk of it failing on you mid-journey.
Click to expand...

I accepted my porsche dealer had no room in the inn, what can the guy do, workshop is full, as a result all the courtesy cars are out, mine is broken, it's sod's law. I wouldn't ask them to collect it or demand for them to fit me in as I'm more important than the next guy :confused: I'm very clear on what to expect from my warranty

I ended up leaving it in the car park and catching a lift home. I suggest the OP's mate does the same that way he isn't caught short if it does blow up and get the garage to call you when they do have a spare car avaiable
 
Will Gill said:
I accepted my porsche dealer had no room in the inn, what can the guy do, workshop is full, as a result all the courtesy cars are out, mine is broken, it's sod's law. I wouldn't ask them to collect it or demand for them to fit me in as I'm more important than the next guy :confused: I'm very clear on what to expect from my warranty

I ended up leaving it in the car park and catching a lift home. I suggest the OP's mate does the same that way he isn't caught short if it does blow up and get the garage to call you when they do have a spare car avaiable
Click to expand...
I find it difficult to believe that they couldn't get you a car. If you pushed I'm sure you would have been able to get you something. But then you have another car so wouldn't have needed to push them :confused:
 
monkey_boy said:
I find it difficult to believe that they couldn't get you a car. If you pushed I'm sure you would have been able to get you something. But then you have another car so wouldn't have needed to push them :confused:
Click to expand...

It's not a requirement for them to provide replacement cars unless they specifically stipulate it in their warranty agreement. I'm trying not to sound pompus but as another example try getting a courtesy car out of ferrari, we managed to get one once when I dropped off the bosses car, it was a part ex'd 7 series with more faults than the car I dropped off!

I'm sure if I sat in the showroom kicking and screaming for hours they would probably get me a car, but honestly do I want to be that person?

no :)
 
Ferrari will start handing out those little 500 Abarth knock offs soon surely.

I agree though sometimes you get one and sometimes you don't. I always ask when phoning up if I can book one and the times I've not been able to get one I'm usually offered a lift home or to shopping and to be picked up later that day by them.
 
Peerzy said:
Ferrari will start handing out those little 500 Abarth knock offs soon surely.

I agree though sometimes you get one and sometimes you don't. I always ask when phoning up if I can book one and the times I've not been able to get one I'm usually offered a lift home or to shopping and to be picked up later that day by them.
Click to expand...

ah, now, booking/thinking ahead is a different matter

If I know I need my car serviced in say a months time then I certainly have come to expect a replacement car, it's my little guilty pleasure day when I get to feel like an even bigger homo in a boxster :p

But I think that's different, the dealer gets time to arrange resource, break-fix you can't plan on really unless you have one car in reserve for every car sold
 
monkey_boy said:
I find it difficult to believe that they couldn't get you a car. If you pushed I'm sure you would have been able to get you something. But then you have another car so wouldn't have needed to push them :confused:
Click to expand...

vauxhall (as an example) will only approve the purchase of a 3rd party hire care once the car has been assessed and once its been determined that the job will take longer than 1 working day.

For that week that they can't see it, they won't pay for anything.
 
Peerzy said:
Ferrari will start handing out those little 500 Abarth knock offs soon surely.
Click to expand...

They already do I think? My colleague took his Maserati in for some warranty work and got a red 500 with Ferrari logos on it. XD

I have some pics of it somewhere in his garage.
 
monkey_boy said:
When you spend ~£15k on your e9x, there is no chance in hell that you'd be saying that under the same situation. You'd ask them to come and collect it, leaving you a courtesy car. If it takes them a week to look at it, it's not ideal, but you'll get over it and at least you're not running the risk of it failing on you mid-journey.
Click to expand...

you can spend £15k on a focus and ford wont even give you a courtesy car 9 times out of 10 and then leave you with nothing while they take 2 weeks to fix ur car under warranty
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom