BMW DEALER - is it worth all the usual BMW grief for an oil service?

[X5_twin]

Just called half a dozen BMW dealers to get prices for an oil service and filter change. It's a standard service and I've had quotes back at circa £350 from BMW and £210 with a local BMW specialist in London.

Two points. Firstly I still can't get over the general attitude of most BMW employees. Why the attitude?! Who do they think they are? They can be so smarmy and condescending sometimes !! They seem to forget that customers like us keep them in jobs !! Anyway thats a totally different issue / thread in itself !! Rant over.

Main point is this. Now I know its not a huge difference in price, all things considered, but I'm now quite anti BMW main dealers after the last few years of dealing with them. Generally the service is terrible, the staff can be total tossers, and their attitude can stink if you get the jobs-worth on the service desk who thinks he owns BMW!. They also love to try and hit you with a few extras that they insist need doing. Frankly I can't be dealing with the hassle of arguing with them. Last time they tried to sell me brake discs, front and rear, which I didn't need as the car had been to an independent a few weeks prior who told me they would last at least another 3-6 months based on current use. After I told the guy at BMW he was wrong he wouldn't speak to me and got somebody else to serve me !!. No doubt he was pissed he missed out on his commission for selling me some discs ?

Anyway. Rant over. The question is take the car to a local german specialist, hassle free and save circa £150, or put up with BMW's smarmy attitude, pay more to protect re-sale i.e full BMW service history.

What do you think? I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.  ::)

[sramsay]

I'm tempted to just suck it up and pay for the piece of mind. Hopefully they won't prang mine like they did a friends X5 two weeks ago!

I will wait while they do mine and be explicit that I won't be spending a penny more unless they can demonstrate it needs it - I've not done 12k miles yet although its coming up to 2 years old

[Horizon]

I would stick with the BMW service. With a car that old/ young. If you were buying a car that was two years old, would you expect it to have a dealer history?
It won't be eligible to be an Approved BMW used car will it if it hasn't got a dealer  history either.
I totally agree its a rip off the price for their service, but the resale value could be affected. A whole lot worse without a correctly stamped book. Mine is an 06 E53' and that had a full BMWSH .

[535dboy]

[quote="Horizon"]
I would stick with the BMW service. With a car that old/ young. If you were buying a car that was two years old, would you expect it to have a dealer history?
It won't be eligible to be an Approved BMW used car will it if it hasn't got a dealer  history either.
I totally agree its a rip off the price for their service, but the resale value could be affected. A whole lot worse without a correctly stamped book. Mine is an 06 E53' and that had a full BMWSH .
[/quote]

I agree with this up to a degree

[X5_twin]

[quote="535dboy"]
[quote="Horizon"]
I would stick with the BMW service. With a car that old/ young. If you were buying a car that was two years old, would you expect it to have a dealer history?
It won't be eligible to be an Approved BMW used car will it if it hasn't got a dealer  history either.
I totally agree its a rip off the price for their service, but the resale value could be affected. A whole lot worse without a correctly stamped book. Mine is an 06 E53' and that had a full BMWSH .
[/quote]

I agree with this up to a degree
[/quote]

Likewise. However, the car is a 2008 plate with 70k on the clock. If I keep it for a couple more years and use it as a family car by the time I come to sell it will have 90k on the clock and no doubt would be best sold on autotrader. BMW wouldn't be interested in it and would offer peanuts fro it so I'd be best selling privately and going with cash to put towards the next car.

So I suppose the question is how important is a full BMW service history, compared to a full service history, on a 6/7 year old car with 90k in the clock being sold privately?

[Nat]

Oil change ?

BMW prices are a rip off and IMHO you dont get back yr investment. Over the years i've bought cars with no service history, part service history and full service history. I would say the worst cars were always the FSH main dealer ones. As you have experienced from BMW themselves some dealers are dreadfull and thus the stamp in the book is not worth the ink. Don't get me wrong a full service history is always more desireable but we all know its a yts trainee that did the job not some 50 year old in  a white lab coat with 30 + years experience. A good indy is generally better. I think as long as you can prove the oil change was done, thats good enough and if you have saved £150 or more then thats even better.
Receipt from BMW parts for genuine oil filter and receipt for the correct castrol oil is good enough for me.
I think £250 for undoing one nut, replacing a copper washer and changing an oil filter is taking the piss myself.

Thats just my opinion.

If your car was New or within 3 years old then perhaps if you intend to sell before then a main dealer stamp is required. Otherwise i really wouldnt bother.

Regards,

Nat.

[rjkc600]

My indy did an M6 oil service for only £210, so paying that for an X5 sounds too much at your indy IMO.

An oil service should be £150 maximum in my opinion, dealer ships can take a running jump, they did a friends E60 525i and left oil all over the undertray, he had to go back and complain, only for them to deny that it was them, i mean come on Sytner harold wood. 

[Rusty]

I just did my own oil service on my 6yr old 330d e92 with 78k saving quite a bit over an Indi price too.

As mentioned above, if you can prove the oil was changed for the correct grade and specification, and the filter too, even BMW can't argue about who did it.  You are able to reset the service indicator yourself too.

At that age and mileage of car along with your intention to keep for a while longer before selling privately with a full service history, just not a BMW one, I would go with the Indi, keep the receipts and save the £150 for more important things.  I would bet you wouldn't get the £150 back on selling over FBMWSH.....

JMHO though, but your choice ultimately.


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