BMW and M Power Owners

wingman said:
Haggled the service down from £560 to £400 with BMW after I told them I'd like to supply my own parts.

That £400 is inclusive of their parts. Bit miffed I had to haggle with a car dealership for something as routine as servicing, figured you're past that once you buy the car but evidently not.

Good result all the same. :)
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"Major service" makes it sound like they actually do a lot. The only BMW I can think of where a major service really is a major service is an Insp II on an E46 M3/Z4M (I'm sure other M cars need extra stuff done)

It's laughable that they can say that a spark plug change and an air filter change is "major". Now I'm sure they also beep the horn several times and check the state of your windscreen washer fluid, but to try and charge £410 on top of their regular service to change some spark plugs and an air filter is daylight robbery.

6 spark plugs are ~£90 from BMW (or £50 from Amazon if you buy the exact identical Bosch plugs - but that's a different thing). An air filter is £25.

Which means there is an extra £115 in parts and maybe £50 in labour at dealer prices bringing the total extra to £165 which is a far cry from the £410 extra they have attempted to charge. I guess they just take advantage of the people who think that "major service" means they rebuild the engine or something.
 
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Gaygle said:
It's laughable that they can say that a spark plug change and an air filter change is "major".
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It is the most expensive service item the car has in the schedule. It isn't officially called 'major', somebody has presumably used that as a descriptive term.

Can't see the issue really. Obviously the initial price was hilarious, but 400 quid all in for this service seems fine.

Just because the E46 M3 has the most ridiculous Inspection 1 service in the known universe doesn't mean every other service on any other car is not worthy :D

wingman said:
I bought mine used and wasn't aware I could buy a service pack on an AUC vehicle, as BMW didn't make me aware of this. I think you only get 60 days.
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Service Inclusive can be purchased at a discounted price within the first 60 days of the car being registered as new. It can then be purchased at full price until the car is due its first service. After this, it cannot be purchased at all. It lasts 5 years/50k miles from date of first registration.

AUC Service Inclusive can be purchased with any AUC purchase, however it's very expensive, lasts only 2 years and typically doesn't represent value for money IMHO.
 
[TW]Fox;30261981 said:
It is the most expensive service item the car has in the schedule. It isn't officially called 'major', somebody has presumably used that as a descriptive term.

Can't see the issue really. Obviously the initial price was hilarious, but 400 quid all in for this service seems fine.
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£400 is ok, that isn't bad, it's the £560 they initially quoted before he had to haggle with them. They're almost as bad as tradesmen when quoting jobs :p

[TW]Fox;30261981 said:
Just because the E46 M3 has the most ridiculous Inspection 1 service in the known universe doesn't mean every other service on any other car is not worthy :D
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I wasn't inferring the S54 is the greatest thing evar because it needs some ridiculously expensive servicing - it's a pain and I wish it didn't. I was merely highlighting the fact that it's the only BMW that came to mind that would justify the use of the phrase "major service". Like you said, someone has described it as that, but this gives people the idea that their car is undergoing large amounts of work (and therefore justifying a £560 bill), when really it's having the spark plugs changed and an air filter swapped :p
 
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Well the E46 M3/Z4M and the E36 M3 Evo are the only ones that require manual valve clearances being done, hence the "major" part :p
 
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Gaygle said:
I wasn't inferring the S54 is the greatest thing evar because it needs some ridiculously expensive servicing - it's a pain and I wish it didn't. I was merely highlighting the fact that it's the only BMW that came to mind that would justify the use of the phrase "major service". Like you said, someone has described it as that, but this gives people the idea that their car is undergoing large amounts of work (and therefore justifying a £560 bill), when really it's having the spark plugs changed and an air filter swapped :p
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Most car brands have 'major' and 'minor' services - a minor is typically the oil change, a major the one where all the fluids/filters are changed. It's an accepted and regular term.
 
[TW]Fox;30262249 said:
Most car brands have 'major' and 'minor' services - a minor is typically the oil change, a major the one where all the fluids/filters are changed. It's an accepted and regular term.
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Firstly, I never said that this is only a BMW thing. Secondly, I can't think of any manufacturer who name their services "major" and "minor".

I was saying that it's a misnomer that dealerships use to make the customer feel more justified in paying ridiculously large bills because they're getting what they think is a large amount of work done. In other words, it's just another way for dealerships to subtley overexaggerate the difficulty or complexity of the work in order to justify charging disproportionately more.

In this case, BMW obviously agree that they chanced it as they were able to knock 25% off the bill just by asking and no doubt still turned a sizeable profit.
 
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Gaygle said:
, I can't think of any manufacturer who name their services "major" and "minor".
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http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/fixed-price-servicing

http://www.jaguar.co.uk/owners/servicing-maintenance/fixed-price-servicing.html

I guess they are quite small though.

I was saying that it's a misnomer that dealerships use to make the customer feel more justified in paying ridiculously large bills because they're getting what they think is a large amount of work done. In other words, it's just another way for dealerships to subtley overexaggerate the difficulty or complexity of the work in order to justify charging disproportionately more.
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Whereas I just think he used the word 'major' to illustrate the fact its the largest service on the schedule for the OP's car.
 
[TW]Fox;30262694 said:
http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/owners/servicing/fixed-price-servicing

http://www.jaguar.co.uk/owners/servicing-maintenance/fixed-price-servicing.html

I guess they are quite small though.

Whereas I just think he used the word 'major' to illustrate the fact its the largest service on the schedule for the OP's car.
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Fair enough! I didn't realise many manufacturers had simplified their services. I thought they still did "L1, L2, L3" or similar.

However I still think them saying your car needs a "major service", should mean that it needs "major work" ie. cambelt/water pump/coolant/diff or gearbox oil. For people that don't know anything at all about cars, they pay £400 more for a "major service" thinking this, when all they do is spend another 15 mins putting new spark plugs in and a new air filter.

You've got to admit, it's a bit of a con them trying to charge wingman over £400 more to change some spark plugs and an air filter. Although they dropped this price when challenged, a lot of older people or women wouldnt even question this because to them it means absolutely nothing and the service advisor might as well be speaking Japanese.
 
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Not a bad courtesy car this morning.

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