Genuine BMW Dealer experience I have had

[flat4alfa]

Why would you take a 14 year old car to a main dealer?

 

Because resale fears

[Tamworthbay]

A 14 year old bini isn't worth much anyway, if they got those bits done they may as well buy a new car at those prices.

[colnerov]

I like the video they made.

 

Never seen a dealer do that before. Ace.

 

I liked that too, mainly because I would have called bullshit on most of the things, but that proves they are there!

 

And made me think that the damp power steering pipe will probably just stay damp forever with no real issues, even the exhaust bracket is probably ok for now, certainly doesn't make a noise at the moment.

 

Haven't heard it with sound yet though...

 

 

 Hi, This unfortunately is indicative of the mistrust between garages and customers, on both sides.

 

 Colin

[cort16]

Some folk just think that's what you do although they must be a dieing breed. BMW offer reduced menu pricing for cars over a certain age to try to keep them coming back. I bet that makes the ones with a 4 year old 5 series paying 80 quid an hour feel gr9.

 

Also in fancy London the BMW labour rate is £200 an hour. 

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2655078/Garage-repair-labour-rates-hit-jaw-dropping-record-highs.html

[rantingYoof]

I rang up Lexus just for the lols to see if they would be happy with using a diagnostic machine on him to see what on earth was making up idle at 2000rpm when cold.

 

 

"Erm, we do not do that sort of thing sir. We charge a standard 1hr of labour under 'diagnosis' and then anything on top of that would be to fix the issue."

 

 

1hr of labour = £110.

 

 

OOOOWWWCH.

 

 

EDIT - The post above mine just beat me comprehensively for owchiness. Jesus wept.

[garbaldy]

Some folk just think that's what you do although they must be a dieing breed. BMW offer reduced menu pricing for cars over a certain age to try to keep them coming back. I bet that makes the ones with a 4 year old 5 series paying 80 quid an hour feel gr9.

 

Also in fancy London the BMW labour rate is £200 an hour. 

 

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-2655078/Garage-repair-labour-rates-hit-jaw-dropping-record-highs.html

 

 

when I called the bmw dealer in Edinburgh I was first asked the cars age then told it was £145 plus vat per hour so not far behind londidno  

[Pillock]

But if people want to, there's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, there's a cheaper way. We know there is. Indies are cheaper than main dealers, DIY is cheaper than indies, and getting brake pads from the scrappers and sticking them down your socks is cheapest of all.

 

Some people have the money to do it, if they genuinely want to spend the money and it will give them peaceful dreams and a warm feeling - let them. Plenty of mechanics will gladly be paid a decent wage. 

[Tamworthbay]

But if people want to, there's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, there's a cheaper way. We know there is. Indies are cheaper than main dealers, DIY is cheaper than indies, and getting brake pads from the scrappers and sticking them down your socks is cheapest of all.

 

Some people have the money to do it, if they genuinely want to spend the money and it will give them peaceful dreams and a warm feeling - let them. Plenty of mechanics will be exploited and denied a decent wage.

 

FTFY

[robinmasters]

That's fucking outrageous. You can pick your nose and eat cake all day in an office with no discernible skills of any kind and make more than that an hour.

Don't ask me how I know.

There's cake-eating nose-pickers with no skills earning a lot more than £9.59 an hour in my office.

 

Not me, I might add. I don't eat a lot of cake, or earn very much.

[RoadworkUK]

I get bored by Main Dealer Rip-off woes being cried about ad infinitum.

 

It's a non-argument. They're main dealers. They're given targets by the manufacturers they represent who control their franchises. Their labour is charged at £120 p/h routinely, because they have to. If you choose to take your car back to its maker, you'll pay what they've decided you'll pay.

 

So don't. They won't mind.

 

If a car is made by BMW, BMW reserve the right to suggest how much it should cost to fix it, based on their labour operations and their hourly rates. Using the equipment they mandate and the technicians they train. The low value of an older car is irellevant, repairs still take the same time and the same parts as if the car was brand new.

 

Complaining about main dealer service pricing is no different to complaining about the price of a new car. They're both priced based on minimum targets and margins. Of course Random Motors will do it for less, they can do what they want as there's no ridiculous corporate structure to be bossed about by. Yet even the poor independent bastards are besieged by people after "your best price, M8", not demanded for any genuine reason of financial hardship but for the feeling of winning.

 

Ranting Yoof: Why should an overworked, poorly paid technician in a Lexus dealer run a diag on your car for free when he can be being paid to do an oil change instead?

 

I actually feel sorry for the independents. At least the Main Dealers have a certain justification for being expensive, but the public seems to think that garages should be so grateful for their business that prices can be negotiated from the ground up.

 

In fact, bollocks. If somebody can't do a job themselves, what right have they to dictate how much somebody else can charge to do it for them?

[fordperv]

Could you imagine the Autoshite version of that video, it would be hilarious

[Pillock]

On facebook, in a thread about old garages, someone found a lovely little VW dealership that had opened in 1959 and been family owned since.

Except it was about to become an ex-VW dealership since it didn't conform to the minimum requirements of so-many-thousand square feet of space for new car sales. If they're that pissy about new sales, imagine how they are about the cash cow that is servicing - £10 worth of oil, a £4 filter and the work experience lobbing a sponge over it for a £199 "special offer". Do they want dealers undercutting each other? Absolutely not, it starts questions about how low it can go. Do the dealers want to lose the franchise? No way. So they charge what they're told to charge.

 

I'm seeing a trend of branded, independent garages becoming more popular. Round here, "Concorde Auto Centre" does stuff like £99 servicing, £25 aircon regas plus most main dealer services. Got all the diag stuff for most cars too it seems. So are these the good guys undercutting the dealers, or are they the baddies putting the little tiny garages out of business by advertising, being flashy, maybe even using loss leaders like an aircon regas to generate repeat business......

[beko1987]

She isn't knocking the service tbh, they were friendly, ticked all the right boxes, she was just annoyed that it still leaked after 4 visits! She likes the car, it's had minor advisories all its life with no major fails and we always bore her with the work we do on our cars (she always goes on about shitefest too, she's amazed there is a festival just for shite cars...)

 

The fact that they only charged her £50 a visit when they had the car for a few days at a time, taking it to bits in various ways is good, I told her to ask them to price the parts up, but they haven't actually fixed the (hopeful) issue that I found with 10 minutes of googling

[omegod]

I remember my old secretary having a steering issue with her bini years ago, quite the opposite outcome than this one, it was 1 year out of warranty so I phoned up for her making them aware I knew of the steering pump problem. Fair play, they said we'll charge £90 to test it and go from there and if there is a fault we'll take that off the bill. They phoned up to say steering pump was fucked and they'd found fault with the gearbox, both replaced and it was serviced for the grand total of fuck all..must have been 3 grands worth of work 

[HH-R]

How much would  14 year old Bini sell for? I bet it's still too salty for me.

 

It looks very clean underneath!

[Eddie Honda]

Why would you take a 14 year old car to a main dealer?

Well I took my 10½ year old car to a main dealer today...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...cunting Takata airbag recall.

[Bren]

I remember taking my B reg cavalier to plp vauxhall in Warrington.

 

I was charged £120.47 for timing belt and water pump. In 1992.

 

A local independent quoted me £50 but as a naive 20 year old I wanted a main dealer recipt.

 

I was given a list of items needing attention including a worn seat bolster and a misfire ( they said it was possibly a burnt valve.)

 

A new plug lead cured it. I have used main agents since for parts, some are actually competitive, but I would never have work done - I could not justify the extortionate cost.

[sierraman]

I must be cheap seats then because £22,000 a year sounds very reasonable.

[New POD]

£200 to change a couple of exhaust hangers!?!

 

I did the job a couple of years ago and they want doing again. I got the parts off an internet exhaust specialist, but clearly shite quality. This time I plan to force a cut up Mazda Mx5 Hanger into the Hole in the Clamp- the outer bit is steel, so I plan is to then use cable ties to hold it in place.   

 

It is a painful place to get at as the hangers are almost above the exhaust and you don't want to take off exhaust to remove hangers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[New POD]

How much would  14 year old Bini sell for? I bet it's still too salty for me.

 

It looks very clean underneath!

 

 

Hold the price well, but suddenly seeing bad ones under a grand. About 3 times the equivalent Corsa price seems right. I reckon a well looked after 51 or 52 plate with enthusiast servicing, would be worth £2000 to £2500, unless S in which case prices all over the place.

[New POD]

I thought these had electro/hydraulic power steering. Main dealers are always going to rip you off with labour charges.

 

You can get recon units quite cheap compared to the £1500 plus for new.

[New POD]

I must be cheap seats then because £22,000 a year sounds very reasonable.

 

According to Labour / shelter / various charities it is not enough to live on hence working families tax credits.

[artdjones]

The closest VW dealer to me (in Ireland) was forced to upgrade his showroom about 10 years ago.Then VAG decided that he couldn't sell Audi's anymore. Then a few years ago they decided that they didn't want him to sell VWs either as the sales organisation in Germany had decided that they didn't need a dealership there any more. If you want to make money selling cars being a main dealer probably isn't the best way to do it , because margins on new cars are fairly small. The manufacturer insists on a huge showroom which you would have to borrow the money to build and then a few years down the line wants it all changed again,or may decide to sack you on a whim.So it's not surprising that labour rates are high.That may be the only thing that's making money around the place ,possibly assisted by used sales.

 

The above mentioned VW man fought back though.He refused to be sacked,and when VW were about to send people to remove the VW signs he got a High Court injunction stopping them from removing the franchise. That was a couple of years ago and so far he is still a main dealer.

[RoadworkUK]

The dealer network hierarchy is ridiculously over-burdened with internal management layers so the cake they all want slices from needs to be enormous.

 

Starting from scratch is in order.

[scaryoldcortina]

Could you imagine the Autoshite version of that video, it would be hilarious

I've got a Kia Pride to MoT tomorrow and a phone....

[scaryoldcortina]

I must be cheap seats then because £22,000 a year sounds very reasonable.

For a senior technician who also manages the whole MoT side of the business including QC controlling the other testers and doing all the Vosa stuff? What would that pay in almost any other industry?

 

Besides, basic techs are lucky to break 16k. Shit pay attracts shit staff who do shit jobs, but you get charged £100ph anyway.

[BavarianRetro]

I rang up Lexus just for the lols to see if they would be happy with using a diagnostic machine on him to see what on earth was making up idle at 2000rpm when cold.

 

 

"Erm, we do not do that sort of thing sir. We charge a standard 1hr of labour under 'diagnosis' and then anything on top of that would be to fix the issue."

 

 

1hr of labour = £110.

 

 

OOOOWWWCH.

 

 

EDIT - The post above mine just beat me comprehensively for owchiness. Jesus wept.

So they pay £35000 or so for the machine plus all the other fixed costs of running a Lexus franchise - how much do you think they should charge to use their machine, their premises and their technician - all of which could be working on a paying job - to plug your car in to find out what's wrong with it so you can take it away and fix it yourself?

 

I don't think £100 is terribly unreasonable. Most places would show you the door.

[sierraman]

According to Labour / shelter / various charities it is not enough to live on hence working families tax credits.

I suppose it depends where in the country you are. In my area there's few jobs that pay anything like that. There's a shit load that pay £14-16k.

[Danblez]

I haven't got an issue with main dealer rates as such but what I have got an issue with is paying main dealer rates for a shit service or being blatantly ripped off.

 

Mate took his car 11 plate to BMW because his battery was knackered.

 

"Oh we need to check it first, ahhhh yes it is knackered"

 

"That will be £80 diagnostics plus £300 for the battery"

 

WTAF? He walked in and said he needed a new battery the shits.

 

Now if that's not taking the piss I don't know what is. I would have told them to put the old one back in and bump started it off the forecourt.

 

It's amazing what folks put up with.

[Bobthebeard]

As previous posts, most people are fully aware that a main dealer will be expensive. If a main dealer is used a large bill will ensue. A matter of choice. Certainly the charges are eye watering, but there is no law that makes anyone go to a dealer. You go, you pay etc. They do have massive, and probably largely unnecessary, overheads to cover. We know that, they know that. The competance, or lack of it, of the mechanics is a good point though. Usually just parts swappers with some spurious paper qualifications, though not always of course. If someone has a known knackered battery as above and just wants a replacement a main dealer is not the first choice I would have thought. Caveat emptor etc. I would never go to Armani to replace a knackered pair of underpants for example. Though many do.