BMW and M Power Owners

[Minstadave]

First experience with BMW for servicing.

No loan car available, booked the car in with a lady who's fake nails made it hard for her to type, reception was like a huge coffe house, dropped off at9 wasn't ready till 4, paid £650 for a full service and MOT.

Left feeling dead inside

 

[Will Gill]

So a Pheasant decided to test its strength on my car tonight and won by the looks of it!

Is it possible to fix damage like this or are we talking a whole new bumper?

Before I can get to the body shop tomorrow, does anyone here know the ball park figure of an F34 front bumper?

 

[Gaygle]

First experience with BMW for servicing.

No loan car available, booked the car in with a lady who's fake nails made it hard for her to type, reception was like a huge coffe house, dropped off at9 wasn't ready till 4, paid £650 for a full service and MOT.

Left feeling dead inside

Ooo, that's harsh.

What car and what service did you have done?

 

[Voxination]

First experience with BMW for servicing.

No loan car available, booked the car in with a lady who's fake nails made it hard for her to type, reception was like a huge coffe house, dropped off at9 wasn't ready till 4, paid £650 for a full service and MOT.

Left feeling dead inside

Which dealership was it? I've had pretty dull experiences with my local Stephen James who are always completely uninterested in everything. The exception was the service tech who booked my car in for an end of warranty check, he managed to treat me like a human being and I hope I see him again.

 

[[TW]Fox]

First experience with BMW for servicing.

No loan car available, booked the car in with a lady who's fake nails made it hard for her to type, reception was like a huge coffe house, dropped off at9 wasn't ready till 4, paid £650 for a full service and MOT.

Left feeling dead inside

650 quid!?!

The full service (ie the biggest) is £433 on an F10.

 

[Minstadave]

650 quid!?!

The full service (ie the biggest) is £433 on an F10.

I can't quite work it out looking at the BMW webpage:

Service 459
"Vehicle check" 69
MOT 54.85
Brake fluid change 51

Total £634

I'm not sure where they've squeezed another £20 out of me.

Looking at the invoice they've overcharged £10 for the brake fluid change and the vehicle check. I'll email them.

 

[[TW]Fox]

And the MOT, most BMW dealers have well priced MOT's these days - Rybrook Worcester for example is £29.99, I just paid £39.99 at my local place, etc etc.

Did you not ask the price before letting them do the work?

 

[Minstadave]

It seemed ball park looking at their website so didn't question it.

 

[Gaygle]

Not having a pop at you at all Minstadave, but this is a prime example of BMW ownership, or any car ownership - it can be as expensive as you allow it to be. My guess is that with a few enquiries and a bit of bartering around £200 could have been knocked off that bill.

I always cringe when I hear friends saying how they've just had their car serviced at the Ford/Vauxhall/BMW/Audi whatever dealer and it's come to £500 for a service. Even from dealers, it quite simply does not have to be that much, and if you don't question it at all, dealers will just keep adding on random figures.

For example, my dear old mum needed her brake fluid changing on her E90 3 series - the dealer quoted her £111 and she said "ok" as she didn't know any better. She told me about this and I informed her that it should be £62 - confirmed on calling another dealer. So she called the original dealer back and questioned it and I'm told that their reply was along the lines of "Oh...oh yeah, £62. Ok we can do it for that"

 

[Minstadave]

i looked up the fixed price servicing costs and just went with that to be honest.

I can understand an MOT being cheaper elsewhere but for £20 I can't be bothered with a second trip.

The vehicle check cost on top of the £460 service and MOT seems like a con though.

 

[Gaygle]

The vehicle check cost on top of the £460 service and MOT seems like a con though.

It is a complete con. I got charged £81 last time i had a "Vehicle Check" done and they didn't even notice that I had one rear cracked alloy and an exhaust hanger broken.

The only reason I can see to get it done is so you have complete peace of mind that BMW won't try and wiggle out of any warranty claims on the count that you haven't kept to the service schedule or some rubbish.

 

[Minstadave]

Yeah I've got the insured warranty so am stuck with dealer servicing. I preferred when you talk to the grubby chap that actually did the work.

 

[[TW]Fox]

It is a complete con.

In theory it's not, though. The Vehicle Check is the 'Inspection' part of the old Inspection 1/2 servicing scheme. The work that was carried out under the Inspection bit was separated out into 'Vehicle Check'.

It only becomes a con when they don't bother to do it properly, but the logic behind it is sound.

The con is the stupid microfilter changes every 92 seconds. An Oil Service on an F10 is listed as being £126 - very reasonable - but I can't see how anyone is ever charged that because every time they go on about the stupid microfilters which take that same oil service to £263

 

[Minstadave]

Every service in my log book has a microfilter change. What black magic goes into making these wonderfull things?

On my A3 the cabin filter was a fiver off the bay and a couple of minute DIY job.

 

[Gaygle]

In theory it's not, though. The Vehicle Check is the 'Inspection' part of the old Inspection 1/2 servicing scheme. The work that was carried out under the Inspection bit was separated out into 'Vehicle Check'. It only becomes a con when they don't bother to do it properly, but the logic behind it is sound.

Oh yeah completely - I was referring to the fact that it clearly is not done properly a lot of the time and I imagine it is seen as a bit of an easy earner. There is a huge long list of things they are meant to check, and I would but my right arm that 50% of them aren't done.

The con is the stupid microfilter changes every 92 seconds. An Oil Service on an F10 is listed as being £126 - very reasonable - but I can't see how anyone is ever charged that because every time they go on about the stupid microfilters which take that same oil service to £263

See this never really used to bother me, if I didn't want a microfilter, I just asked for that part to be taken off. But yes, there are unsuspecting people who simply will pay this. What should happen is that the microfilter is inspected on service and only replaced if necessary - this is the same as what they do for the engine air filter.

Every service in my log book has a microfilter check. What black magic goes into making these wonderfull things?

You can get the activated carbon one and the normal one I believe. They are normally around £55 for the activated carbon one and £35 for the normal one. From what Fox was saying though, they try and charge an extra £140 at service time so I'm wondering if the F10 possibly has two?

 

[[TW]Fox]

All 5 Series since the E39 have had two of them

 

[AndrewNR]

Oh yeah completely - I was referring to the fact that it clearly is not done properly a lot of the time and I imagine it is seen as a bit of an easy earner. There is a huge long list of things they are meant to check, and I would but my right arm that 50% of them aren't done.

What items on that list aren't already covered by a service and an MOT?

Oil and filter checks?

 

[[TW]Fox]

What items on that list aren't already covered by a service

Most of them, because thats how the servicing works. Previously you'd have done the big list of checks at every inspection service. Now, there are no inspection services, just basic oil services, with the checks done at the vehicle check every 37k or so.

 

[Gaygle]

What items on that list aren't already covered by a service and an MOT?

Oil and filter checks?

A lot of the checks are the exact same as what an MOT covers. The additional checks include body inspection (basically walking around the car looking for any rust), checking fluids under the bonnet, checking for leaks from anywhere, checking condition of belts, road test including brake/transmission test.

Of course, there is an "MOT level" and a "Service level" which is higher and ensures optimal condition, rather than basic legal condition, but if a horn works, it works - likewise with bulbs.

Cutting all the crap, 90% of the checks done on the car are the same thing as you would do to your car on a Sunday afternoon (tyres/fluids etc) and to make sure there aren't any odd noises when it is driven. It's quite a steep charge (£120 i believe) for such a low skilled, straight forward job.

The only people I can see who this will benefit are those who literally have no interest in maintaining their car in the slightest (ie, the types that drive around with 4 bald tyres and no oil left in the engine) - of which, I will concede, there are many of. For you or I, it's a bit of a waste of time, bar them looking under the car for diff/gearbox leaks etc.

 

[firstborn]

HI, I'm having a discussion with BMW on the issue of headlights. They say all their cars have corona headlights.

Can I ask what peoples interpretation of corona headlights is?