I have just had a major service, brake pads and fluid change done for my wife's 2.5 litre 3 series BMW. Cost: £750 Don't think I'll be visiting a BMW main dealer again for work. Not just Ferrari servicing that makes one's hair stand on end... Robert.
I have an A class Merc - judging by the service costs on these little babies (which are easily approaching the 750 to a grand mark) Mercedes have realised that there is more than one way to get the skin and noty just the shirt off the customers back
I'm using an independent for my 7 series BMW and he still charges £55/hour. Inspection II service plus brake fluid change was £445 a couple of months ago.
Sounds steep. I just had an MOT, annual service and brake fluid change on my '99 523 (2.5 litre) at a main dealer in Bedford and it was £331.
My god!!! The most expensive service I had was an inspection 2 at £450, brake pads and disks got changed as well. Did they charge you labour for the pads? As part of a main $tealer inspection service the pads should come out for a check over and some copper paste applied to the back of the pads so if new pads are required the only charge is parts. Fluid change should be no more than £50-£55. Most $tealers charge in the region of £80-£100 per hour now. My wife thinks that when I eventually get a Ferrari it will cost a fortune to run, as I pointed out - no more so than our BMWs.
When I was buying my 355 I had a specialist do a PPI on it. I asked the mechanic that did the PPI what their hourly rate was. It was *less* than for my BMW, also at an independent !!
M3 Convertible 1996, never went back when the main dealer tried it on, I'd had brake pads fitted 2 weeks before the dealer service by a garage round the corner. Took the car the the dealer and got a phone call later asking me did I want to change the pads "as they were below tolerance" I told them not to bother, I asked them to note it on the bill and can you believe it the soft sods did!!! I took the Main dealer bill and the pads bill from the local garage, that had 5 days between their dates to trading standards and they took the matter further, I fine ensued. A few months later I went into another dealer to have a part fitted on the warranty, thats the only reason I went in!!! There was a bank of lads, about 6 off them ringing people " hello Mr Jones your car in today and the brake pads are below tolerance", all of them had the same speil. My services are done by an engineer of 30 years and cost max £250 Main dealers are full of it, all of them, whatever the Marque, full stop. Mark
Interestingly enough, I was also recommended to have new wiper blades as they were smearing (b***ocks, they were new on only a few months ago, and they were not smearing last time I drove it). He also said, "the arms have too much play" "what arms?" I asked. He said the front suspension arms apparently had too much play in, which might affect the tyre wear. "Does it really need to be done?" I asked. He replied "it might as well be done as the car is here anyway and it won't get any better". How much? £550. Errrrrrr, no thanks. I am not entirely confident in what they tell me. Now the car is out of warranty, I will be most likely using my friendly neighbourhood independent, althought they tell me that main dealers operate a cheaper costs scheme for cars over 4 yrs old.
Paul I have a 330 Sport Coupe as my daily driver, of which I have always been pleasantly suprised by the low costs, so this came as a shock! Fluid change was evidently about right, and cheers for the tip re the brakes, I will check the bill carefully to see if labour was double charged. I don't think Ferraris have too bad servicing costs, considering the rarity, performance etc. The big prob in my view is the cost of parts which seem extraordinary, e.g. £1200 for rear glass for a 355, £900 for a plastic rear screen for a Spider are recent examples. Robert.
I've had four 5-Series over the years and all my BMW main dealer experiences at several different dealers have been bad. Horrendous cost, charging for things they hadn't done, blatant lying ("the car's just out on a test drive" when it was actually out the back and they couldn't start it). I will never, never, never use one again. Ferrari is expensive but I knew that when I bought it and at least I feel that the specialists I've used (Maranellos and Kent High Performance) haven't been constantly trying to rip me off. Jonathan
Ive seen it all guy's,b######t and bad servicing by main dealers i dont care to metion,i could tell some stories here but i best not, cheers Dale.
I had a 1989 320i Touring that had al sorts of running problems. I had new plugs, leads, coil, all new vacuum tubink, a new fuel solenoid, a new air mass regulator, a new ECU and a few uther not-inexpensive things that I don't recall as it was a few years ago. Over a year it cost me a couple of grand, and never really got any better. I came to the end of the road when they said that the exhaust inlet manifold was cracked, and the head gasket needed replacing, and if this didn't fix it, a recon engine would be the only way making the car do what it should. In a fit of pique I sold it to a mate who had a tame mechanic, who traced it all down to a dodgy temperature sensor. Cost? ...........£13.56. (+ a few hundered quid in diagnostics). Car runs like a baby now. I now have a new Mini Cooper, and that has been in the garage five times this year whilst they try and find why the battery runs flat after three days of inactivity. Fortunately this is under warranty so it is free, but when outside warranty, I wouldn't use a main dealer for all the vodka in Smolensk!!
Hi Stig,we get this where customers buy new cars,they never bother to take them to the dealers,they just bring it to us,if the dealers stopped paying the tech's so much bonus to service the cars in 3 seconds flat then the quality will come back up, cheers Dale.
The b***dy BMW has just cost me another £800 for a new alternator, a battery and a new suspension bit. Which brings the total to £1500 in less than a year. For a 2000 BMW 325i Touring! So, think on that next time you wince at the running costs of your Ferrari... Robert.
For my s2000 I just got quoted for a plastic roof seal & two clamps for the roof + labour. £640!! He even itemised it for me to point out the two £35 bolts & £72per hr labour. Total ripoff
I recently bought my wife a B3 Alpina BMW and i got an SMG M3. Both went in for first service and i was really suprised at the costs, especially for the M3. Tread on the tyres they put on seem to burn off on any kind of road, and the cheeky gits tried to bill me for £140 worth of racing oil ! Couldnt believe it. 'These are very fast, racing cars Mr Thompson, they need this kind of oil' reply 'i have owned ferrari's for 20 years and currently have 2 360's. Not once have i had a bill for this amount for oil' 'we wont bill you for it sir' jesus, im mean are they expecting us all to be dumb and just pay whatever they say.
The worst hit I ever had was on a MB '97 SL320 I was running as a daily driver. I even got charged for an electric ariel wipe and the labour to clean the damm thing......I mean an ariel!!!! Got hit with massive depreciation (approx £20K) and the last standard service bill was approx £800 plus the usual phone call to say they could do about the same again with additional work,yep you've guessed it, brakes (discs and pads). Needless to say they didn't get done. Funny thing is they would never admit the hood leaked in the corners where it met the header rail. I wasn't the only SL owner suffering. They always claimed the top was water tight, they had tested it with a jet wash. Even gave it back once covered in water marks to 'prove they had tried to get it to leak'. I swapped the car for a Lotus Elan S2 in Norfolk Mustard yellow.......thats a whole new story and it only graced my garage for 6 months......
You boys should acquire a nice 760 Volvo Estate. We have had ours for sixteen years. Apart from the servicing consumables we have only replaced the rear springs and four shock absorbers plus components for the air conditioning system. It has been a fabulous car. With kind regards, 512 Tea Are - Tea Arse - Tear Arse - Prince Of Parsimony
......and my Mini is back in the garage again (this makes 8 times!). It's been in there for 6 weeks, and we have been told that the part required (wiper motor) is on long term back order, and there is no indication as to when we will see it again. I'm assuming we will have to take legal action and insist on a refund. Anyone here have any experience of this?
That would be quite a sight in the Hampshire Dales - a sixteen year old Volvo estate with the 'My other cars a Ferrari' sticker on the back Cant see anyone believing it and you would have a nice wry smile!
Dear Comrade Mal M8, Yes, very amusing - I may just try that. However, the Rolls which has possessed me for twenty four years is yet again a wonderful example of reliability. Apart from routing servicing and maintenance with the replacement of items such as door seals and brake discs it hasn't cost a penny. It even has the original exhaust system. I have a Mercedes 380SLC and similarly that has been hugely reliable. It too has possessed me for twenty four years and whilst it has had two exhaust tail pipes, it has required very little else. The illustrious 512 Tea Are P100 Wonder Truck - the mention of which caused me to be thrown into the Monaco Chocolate Starfish Penetentiary for a whole fortnight last year has also been magnificently reliable. Tales such as Sletti's new Mini fill me with horror. We have just acquired a Mercedes Diesel estate and I do wonder how reliable this will be - my expectations are high! With kind regards, 512 Tea Are - Tea Arse - Tear Arse - Prince of Happiness and Manufacturer of Rainbows for the Nobility and Gentry
I do as much of my own servicing as I can and I bought one of those BMW Service Indicator resetting tools a few years ago. It has saved me hundreds if not thousands.
Dan be nice if bmw still used that re-set tool it made life so easy m8 now its plug in here push this button,
Dale, do you happen to know what year or model codes they stopped using that system? Or is it dependant on the engine? ta Dan
Yes, it seem we should all revert to the old more basic and simple vehicle construction, as my 1961 Austin Healey 3000 which I have had for nearly 22 years has also been a model in reliability.
