XSeries-forum

I had a mailshot through the other day from my local stealers offering a fifteen point 'free' winter check. As I'm due to drive from Hampshire to the north coat of Scotland next week I thought it would make sense to get them to check things over, and having established that there was definitely no charge, and no obligation to have any resultant work carried out by them I booked it in and off we go (its a 2004, E53, X5 3.0 D Sport

I would add at this point that yes I do realise it is ploy for them to generate more work for themselves, but thought I'd share with you what they came back with (and as I say given where I plan to travel I wanted them to give the battery etc the once over and so on)

So here we go ...........

"Yes sir your car is fine, just a couple of things .........

Needs new wiper blades" In my opinion it doesn't but given the crappy weather I got myself a pair of blades After all I wont be able to get them in the middle of the Scottish Highlands over Christmas

"It needs new discs and pads all round sir" - no it doesn't. It was an advisory on last months MOT, so it will need done at some point, but doesn't need done yet and none of the wear sensors are showing up
Price for them to do this - £488 plus vat

"It needs the brake fluid replaced sir" - yes the brake fluid replacement light is on but I'll get it done when I get the brakes done.
Price to do this £43 plus vat

"it needs serviced sir" - don't know how they arrive at this one - there are still two green lights on before we even get to yellow or amber. So not doing that now. Interesting two onths ago they told me it needed Insp2 now they are saying its only an Insp 1 (not the Insp 1 that replaces the Insp 2)
Price to do this - £220 plus vat

Cant tell from the previous history sir(another dealership) whether air and fuel filter was done last time so that needs done too" I'll phone the dealer myself to check
Price for that £120 plus vat

NSF cv gaiter split - yes ok, news to me but they showed me so I agree.
Price to do this £167 plus vat

For those that read my previous posting about coolant they took some out and checked it with summat or other and declared the concentration etc ok and opted not to present me with a quote for new coolant or replacement head gasket

So , one 'free' check later, an new set of wiper blades and a quote for the best part of £1000 plus vat

At least I have a diagnosis , what pisses me off is they fact that they said things 'needed' done when clearly the dont such as the service, and tried to get me to choose a date to book it in

The other thing that annoyed me is that they tried to get me to sign up to getting stuff done piece meal so I wouldn't realise how much the bill would added up. eg within two mins of getting their hands on the car, they said it needed new blades and would I like that done. Five mins later, it needs new brake fluid, would I like that done and so on. It would be very easy for someone to rack a big bill that was fully 'authorised' by the customer

Smee

So,whats the issue then? It clearly wants this work carried out to make it right!!

Just get it sorted by them, at least its done then!!.......


......JUST JOKING!!!!!!!

They must think you were born yesterday mate! Anything for a quick buck!

When i was looking for my X5,i went to my local stealer and the salesman made me try an 2.0d X3, but i said i wanted a 3.0d engine and preferably an X5 , i told him i had seen an X3 3.0D somewhere else. He said that the 3.0d wasnt as good as the 2.0d and that i shouldnt touch the 3.0d X3 and wanted me to buy their 2.0d.

I left, and after 3 days the same salesman phoned me up and said that he had sourced me a 3.0d X3 and it was a great car and such a fantastic engine!! When i challanged him he clearly couldnt remember he had said that to me!!!

Roy

Other than the questionable need for an Inspection 1 it seems the car would be in better shape if the advised work was done.

Blades - you agreed needed replacing.

New discs/pads : MOT brake test is pass/fail based on friction/braking test with advisory if performace marginally above threshold or obvious signs of low pad/disc life. Do bear in mind sensors only monitor 2 out of the 8 pads !

Brake fluid : You agree needs doing & it makes sense to get same done with brakes.

Air & fuel filter : As you say a matter of checking last dealer, (or perhaps scrutinising old invoices), but I see logic of replacing same in abscence of records.

CV gaiter : I would get this done asap. If left in this weather with salt on roads you may also need a new CV joint. Assuming it's a front outside gaitor I can near guarantee that if on originals the opposite one will also need doing sooner rather than later.......... I would budget for a pair.

Coolant : Should be ok if checked recently. If overdue you may have to live with the abscence of a correctly timed stamp in your book. The dangers of running poor coolant arent worth it. Coolant check tools are available for low cost & this thread has motivated me to maybe pick one up some time. Ironically on your recent visit they seem to have recommended changing based on scheduled change date rather than a physical check of coolant properties.

Service due : Maybe due to long duration since last inspection & abscence of recent oil change. Either way this advice would niggle me & I would ask for full explanation. Revised schedules for diesel engines still confuse albeit the wise money for 3.0d owners gets the oil breather changed, (not a scheduled item !).

Whilst I appreciate they have an agenda to make money it is difficult to argue against most of the recommended work.......Incidentally as far as main dealer rates go their costs dont seem high compared to some south of the border.

All items reported could easily be physically checked at home, (& by cross checking records for fuel/air filters), albeit a coolant tester would be needed.

Good Luck

absolutely agreed

as it happens, I had identified everything myself (and other things they hadn't like oil breather pipe) and emailed Mr Jason a week or so ago about getting this done early in the new year (obviously the cv gaiter needs done sooner rather than later). Is till think their is a bit of mileage that can be (safely) squeezed out of some of the items) to make the budget last longer



So if you're listening Mr Jason, there is an email (and a wee reminder) waiting for you at the info@ address

If an advisory point is made on an MOT does that mean I couldn't take out a warranty and get it done (along with the cv gaiter of course:))
Cheers

Smee

I imagine the Warranty company wouldn't pay a penny out for pre-existing issues. You need to be careful with what you post on a public forum Smee...


Turks.

No I wouldn't expect them to pay out on pre existing issues (which is why they have a first fourteen day no claim clause, of course) - however I was simply trying to find out how they would know

So, ..... warranty companies aside, am I right in saying that 'advisory comments' for an MOT are stored on a database somewhere (i.e. the same database as MOT's themselves)

And of course I was merely asking from a hypothetical perspective .....

Smee

Yes, you can check Advisory Notices online as well as the MOT

yes thought so - would make sense

Thanks

Smee

just to drag this post back up, BMW are really starting to annoy me with their "free checks"! I popped in to get a bulp put in whilst at lunch and they had me sitting there for about 2 hours! came back with all sorts of advisories - including wiper blades £70! "well it includes fitting". reckon most people can fit a wiper blade! And they wouldn't fit the bulb! Said I'd need a cluster at £250. I went reound the corner and had a bulb put in for free! Error message gone and light appears to be working correctly.

I don't remember them doing these "checks" a couple of years back, so I didn't have to budget hours for them to do a 5 minute job.
I think it's since BMW became company car central, maybe big businesses have to pay up for these advisories.

Just to make things worse they seem to have cleaned my dashboard with some wierd white grease! Thanks BMW, think I'll just go to the prestige place round the corner from now.
Feels good to get that rant out of the system!

to be fair they are in the business of making money (lots of it too being a main dealer), so exactly what do you expect a free check should be??? If there are problems of course they will let you know the cost to put things right.

And if you go to a main delaer to replace a bulb, you are fair game IMHO