My Z4 was booked in for its MOT today and also (on my understanding after calling the service department several times) for the DME engine management software to be upgraded to hopefully cure my surging under light throttle loads between 3-3.5 krpm.
When I get there I am helpfully informed that they won't just do the software update and must do a full diagnostic, I ask to speak to the technician who states "we have to follow BMW procedure and diagnose the fault and that programming could take 2-5 hours depending on the car and that they can only advise how long it really will take once its started". I inform them that this was not what I had been told on the phone and how I have taken a day off to get this all sorted, to be reasonable I asked if any courtest cars were available however these are all booked out for the next three weeks... this is a BMW garage with ~ 150 cars laying around in the car park, surely one is spare... heck I'll take a demonstrater. I was also pissed that they cannot give me a fixed price for the software update, apparently you plug it in and let it upgrade - I fail to see how I am charged £125 + VAT per hour for a procedure that is carried out by a computer and doesn't require a techinican to work on for this full time.
So off it goes for MOT.... 2 hours later I walk back to the service desk and I am told it has failed on the front tyres. I take exception to this and ask to be shown the tyres, I had measure these the previous week and had 3/4 mm across the central band and the wear markers still had yet to be touched. Upon seeing the tyres (potenza re50a's 225/40/18 on the front) it is clear that negative camber is causing more wear on the insides. It is somewhat debateable if this is below 1.6mm as it is hard to measure at this point and the tyre design has no wear markers in this area and only small slash cuts unlike the central band. I am then told that they don't have any in stock and that I could leave it there for upto 10 days to be fixed by them (giving them time to get the tyres).... remember I have no way to get 15 miles home and no courtesy car available. The failure notice says that if I remove the car from the premises it need to come back for testing in 24 hours.... now bridgestone RFT's are somewhat hard to come by and it would be awkward to get another day off from work. I concede the point with their service manager (I had got a bit grumpy by this point and demanded his presence) and try to find a way forward suggesting do they have michelin pilot sport 2 ZP's in stock.... he said he would go look however I told him I will speak with parts myself....
Its a good job I did as in doing so I find out they actually have the correct bridgestone in stock, yet 'somebody has misfiled them on the computer under the RE050 non asymetric item'.... at this point I am suitably annoying at their incompetance.. there prices are also ~£50 overpriced per tyre but I do not have much choice in the matter if I wish to get my MOT and tyres sorted today.
So I tell the service manager to fit them and negiotiate the cost (they even managed to quote a different price from what I was told by thier own parts guy - they are far to reliant on computer prices and don't have a fecking clue what they are doing!).
At 16:00 my car is finished... It was booked in at 11am and I receive no phone call to tell me it had failed whilst I was out for lunch... nor did the service manager try to investigate and solve the issues for me.
£563 later I have an mot and new front tyres (oh and a free wash woo hoo
).Thankfully they thought they would change £40 for the diagnostic printout - nothing found wrong (yet was quoted £24 ????) and £22 to re aim the headlights which wouldnt have been touched since last mot and were fine then.... utter robbing CNUTS!!!!
To really make my day, when going through the paper work and invoice I spot that there are several advisory notices from the MOT which has not been communicated to me. Apparently the front discs are below the manuafactures max wear and the front pads are worn and the rear pads need 'replacing ASAP'.... This was the straw that broke the camels back and I lost it, I loudly announced how can my car pass an MOT if the front discs are worn beyond the manuafactures limits and the rear pads need replacing ASAP... I am helpfully informed this is a grey area and since the brakes worked fine on the brake testing meter they passed.
I wonder how this would look if I had an accident and it was found that my discs were worn beyond bmw limits yet it passed the MOT, since I wasn't even told about this I didn't even have an option to suggest they change them.... not that they are going to get any business from me - particularly when quoted over £300 for front discs and pads alone (fitted), are they gold plated or being fitted by the sultan of brunai himself?
Avoid them if you can... the chuckle brothers have more finess and certainly better manners.
