Over a grand for a service and over £200 to change the oil but I guess the coffee must be free and a 3 series is even more expensive for servicing.

[Tamworthbay]

I think the OP must have peed BMW off, as mine is coming out much cheaper

[BorniteIdentity]

I wonder if merriment might be had by parking the the 'Toyyo of much Mintyness'* prominently, at the local Toyyo shop...

 

Then wandering in and asking if anyone might have a gander at the CARB ?

 

I'd deffo hit the bikkies & coffee whilst the Service Mgr was summoned

 

* ask about availability of a n/s door seal, too

 

TS

If it's anything like Toyota Watford they'll know exactly what they're talking about, congratulate you on a nice example, help with parts and probably even valet it too.

[OwdChina]

In the late 80s there was a newly built BMW dealers in the Pooldam / Higherland area of Newcastle-u- lyme.

"Hartshorne BMW" I think it was called back then and just up the road is a pub called The Wagon and Horses, which I used to use a lot.

There was a couple of reps from the dealership also regularly came in after work too and I remember one of them telling me that a full service was 600 quid even then..............nearly fell off me bar stool.

[Vince70]

It's most probably BMW's way of getting rid of the old motors and getting more people in the driving seat of a new 1 series so it might be a ploy to get us all off the road.

I see yours comes up with a Value service which I don't get on my old cars.

 

Here's one for a newish (well this century) M5 but at the end of the day there's quite a few plugs and a bit of oil to go in this one.

It looks like the older a car gets the the less that BMW want to see it in the workshop so maybe it's there way of keeping them away from the glass palace.

Also I see a E46 330 petrol is cheaper to service than my two little 4 pots.

and also comes with value servicing

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

ANY main dealership is going to rip you off - yes, rip you off. There is no way £160 to change the oil and filter on an old four cylinder petrol engine is fair - it's a £5 filter, £20 worth of oil and 15 mins work at most. 

 

Unfortunately, owners have brought this upon themselves by not saying FUCK THAT!! at the service desk and going to the perfectly competent local garage. A full service on a Z3 with filters, pads, oil etc is £100 in bits and an afternoon.

 

By the way, in Germany any BMW dealer will do and oil and filter change on a regular car for around 80 Euros. That's what it's worth, no more. Mind you, they also think £2600 is a sensible price for an E34 instrument cluster.

[gordonbennet]

Toyota are generally very fairly priced for servicing, we had a Hilux new in 2007, alternate annual major and minor services, minor is basically an oil change (7.5 litres) and inspection circa £170, major was a serious service, usual oil change but all diffs oils changed and full brake strip clean and lube up (no bugger else does that far as i can tell, and i did fetch the rear drums off to check cos it seemed to good to be true) circa £350.

But they knocked £70 off those prices cos they were happy to let be bring in my own oil which i buy in bulk.

 

TBH unless an indy is cutting corners its just as cheap to let the dealer do it, free courtesy car too if needed but they used to look after me very well (i used to deliver lots of their new cars to them) so i'd just read the paper scoff Lotus bikkies and their coffee and clock the nice totty for a couple of hours instead.

 

I used to deliver to lots of Toyota dealers, and i can tell you whether you're a customer or a scum of the earth transporter driver delivering to them, they knock three bales o' shit out of every other make's dealers.

 

Not so bloody cheap mind for repairs, daughter's Aygo needed a new clutch, Watford quoted £700 which is a piss take, our local indy put a LUK kit in it for £280 all in.

Pissed daughter right off,  Watford have lost a customer for it, she'll never darken their doorstep again.

[Kiltox]

Fucking hell - I know dodgy service stamps exist (no, never, before you ask) but to be able to buy them so openly is fucking disgusting

[Tamworthbay]

It's most probably BMW's way of getting rid of the old motors and getting more people in the driving seat of a new 1 series so it might be a ploy to get us all off the road.

I see yours comes up with a Value service which I don't get on my old cars.

Here's one for a newish (well this century) M5 but at the end of the day there's quite a few plugs and a bit of oil to go in this one.

image.png

It looks like the older a car get the the less that BMW want to see it in the workshop so maybe it's there way of keeping them away from the glass palace.

Also I see a E46 330 petrol is cheaper to service than my two little 4 pots.

image.png and also comes with value servicing

Mine is 2001 so hardly still shiny from the dealership. No idea why it comes up as a value service. I assumed it was because it was old!

[Tamworthbay]

Fucking hell - I know dodgy service stamps exist (no, never, before you ask) but to be able to buy them so openly is fucking disgusting

Yup, and that took about two seconds of searching. That's why I only buy a car on condition and what I decide is good/ bad. I have seen 200,000 mile cars look fresh and alleged 50,000 mile cars worn out. The worst ever was a Volvo estate my father in law was interested in in a Nissan main dealer in Polesworth, clock said 40,000 miles, mismatched paint, dodgy panel gaps, worn out seat, shiny as a new penny steering wheel and hole in drivers side carpet said otherwise. It had a full service history 'confirming' the mileage as genuine.

[Jim Bell]

Fucking hell - I know dodgy service stamps exist (no, never, before you ask) but to be able to buy them so openly is fucking disgusting

Thats nothing. Ebay also sells Nexen tyres.

[brownnova]

To be fair, on the modern bimmer I got the service package before hands and have been impressed with Haliwell Jones Chester...

 

Although this time it had to have a "quality enhancement upgrade" (read recall) and now they say the DSC hydro unit has packed up (snap Mag Rustbucket) but they've got to ship one over from Deutschland... All under warranty tho so no bothers!!

 

Once the warranty runs out I'm a) getting rid

if I wasn't it wouldn't see the inside of that workshop again coz I'm too tight to pay their prices!!

[Timewaster]

On the subject of hookey stamps, I heard a story recently about a service manager who got the sack when his elderly neighbour traded in their fully serviced car to the garage where he worked complete with a fully stamped book and yet the car didn't appear on the garages database anywhere.

[PhilA]

I have been pleasantly surprised by the main dealers here. At Dodge, the equivalent of the first two service grades (oil, insp. 1) at BMW come in at $37 and $84 respectively.

 

The same services at an indy place are about the same.

 

Buying the oil and filters and such at a factors comes in close and I don't have to sweat my ass off draining the entire contents of the Exxon Valdez out of the sump nor fight with the plastic wossname on top of the engine. They're getting the next service which includes plugs because it has 16 of the feckers and I'll be damned if I'm doing them.

 

I go to Dodge because it's worth it for the service record on a new car here.

 

Mind you, I should bring the Renault and have them do it, it's technically a Chrysler product still

[pilninggas]

For both my FZ1 and my Duster, I have a stamp that says "Serviced to manufacturers specification", a space for the mileage, date and sig. I always keep all receipts.

 

I service them myself, the Fazer price varies, but the last duster service cost me £35 with stuff from ecp: quality oil, filter, air fil and plugs. 50 mins work. I'd use an independent if I had too, but never a franchise - their price structure is designed to hold those who believe a FMSH is obligatory to ranson, nothing more. It's also why manufacturers (the germans seem to lead the way on this) make the service ever more, seemingly, complex. I like doing it, I do it properly, no need to cut corners and it gives me chance to spot any other issues.

 

If it knocks a little bit off of the value (not on the bike, but maybe on the car, although the duster is a keeper), so be it. The fazer, based on my local franchise dealers prices would have cost me over £2500 in servicing, doing it myself has cost less than £700 inc doing the valve clearances (an expensive job at the franchise).

 

Main dealer servicing seems like another rip-off brits have allowed themselves to walk into because: "but they valeted it and the receptionist is so nice, oh, and it won't be worth as much when I go in to get ripped off on yet another new one".

[stripped fred]

Another vote for Toyota dealers, at least their parts department. They still cover my 1987 mr2 and most of the service items are pretty cheap and better quality than elsewhere.

[Liggle]

For my E92 BMW:

 

 

£199 for an oil change too but it does take ~7L of 'low ash' oil

[overrun]

Another vote for Toyota dealers, at least their parts department. They still cover my 1987 mr2 and most of the service items are pretty cheap and better quality than elsewhere.

Mr T parts are pretty damn expensive, imo (2 different dealers).

At least on my 1992 Turbo. Maybe I am paying JDM tax!

[Rocket88]

I wonder if the rise of the pre-paid service plan came about because too many PCP'd motors were returned on their third birthday having never seen oil - hitting the resale?

 

In my experience of modernz, most of the service cost comes from massively inflated parts and oil prices (last Disco service, the oil was 5X the Opie cost). But you're trapped into the system in order to keep the warranty. (Now those seven-year Hyundai warranties make sense...)

No you're not.........................as long as it's serviced as per schedule, and using genuine parts, it can be serviced anywhere, and the warranty must be honoured................................one of the few EU directives that actually works in our favour.

[adw1977]

No you're not.........................as long as it's serviced as per schedule, and using genuine parts, it can be serviced anywhere, and the warranty must be honoured................................one of the few EU directives that actually works in our favour.

 

The warranty must be honoured (possibly after a fight), but what you won't get is anything not covered by the strict letter of the warranty, e.g. if it fails after 3 years and 1 day then tough, but with dealer servicing you might get a goodwill payment even when they aren't legally obliged to cough up.

 

Not that I've ever owned a car that still had any manufacturer warranty!

[RoadworkUK]

The sad thing is that the industry is fucked.

 

There are no economies of scale in the aftersales industry; franchises are penalised for not reaching a certain level of profit and hourly 'retention' rates are wholly unrealistic. Technicians are overworked to try and cram as much easy work through as they possibly can, while fault-finding on new cars is becoming ever more of a pain in the arse- sophisticated diagnosis will confirm the presence of a fault, but isolating the fractured fibre-optic cable under the carpet is impossible to timetable.

 

Every service advisor wants to charge as little as possible- there's very rarely a bonus paid on anything but hitting target at the end of the month.

 

This doesn't make the high prices acceptable, only inevitable and explainable.

 

The only way charges could be lower at a dealer level would be if it service work were subsidised by the manufacturer- which on service plans it actually is, their view being that a retained customer paying less is better than one who pays the earth but doesn't come back.

 

The thing is, there are plenty of folk out there who want "nothing but the best" for their cherished but elderly BMW that they're more than happy to pay the going rate, safe in the knowledge that BMW itself has set the price, and it hasn't just been dreamt up by the dealer. They love the fact that their ancient car is treated in the exact same way as a new car (as far as he's concerned, it is- regardless of The Truth). They'll gleefully settle the bill after enjoying the same shiny hospitality facilities as Mr 65-plate 7 Series, go home and fill the customer satisfaction questionnaire with glowing prose.

 

Service departments live and die by customer satisfaction results. Posting poor NPS results can lead to big trouble, and unfortunately, it's the likes of us who are most likely to drag their results down. Given the choice, a dealer would rather avoid performing a service on a car owned the the kind of person who is likely to moan about the costs being too high and post the fact in an official, corporate recorded e-mail.

 

The sad truth is, dealer workshops don't need the traffic that us lot create. In an ideal world, all their traffic would be 0-3 years old and covered by service plan and manufacturer warranty. Handing an invoice to a customer is never without risk; though they may seem satisfied nothing is certain until their customer satisfaction form is emailed.

 

This will never, ever change. Some people want their cars to be serviced by main dealer people, in a main dealer workshop, while sitting in a showroom full of shiny cars, and are prepared to pay for it. It's entirely the choice of the customer and there really is no point in any of us taking issue.

[RoadworkUK]

The warranty must be honoured (possibly after a fight), but what you won't get is anything not covered by the strict letter of the warranty, e.g. if it fails after 3 years and 1 day then tough, but with dealer servicing you might get a goodwill payment even when they aren't legally obliged to cough up.

 

Not that I've ever owned a car that still had any manufacturer warranty!

 

Correct. Block exemption. Nobody can insist that the manufacture performs all maintenance, but mandatory schedules must be adhered to. Warranty will not cover anything arguably affected by non-dealer maintenance procedures.