Your Thoughts On Service History

[MACK]

Personally I'd rather take a good indie/specialist service history over a main dealer one. I would even take a well documented home service regime over the dealer. Main dealer mechanics have a culture engrained into them from day one of a rush rush ham fisted approach, couple to cutting corners and charging for things you don't actually need. Add in the extortionate rates they already charge and it's a really toxic mix of paying the earth and not actually getting what you pay for.
It's a culture that stays with them once they're out of the MD environment as well unless they spent a decent length of time working for someone else in the indie/specialist arena and has had that mentality beaten out of them.
For me a good genuine specialist, someone who's a full time time, served professional in the specific brand and in this case S series engined M cars, who's worked at a BMW specialist for years is the optimum. Again for me a car with no main dealer stamps and a book full of stamps and receipts from a specialist would be prefferable. Even a stamp or two missing from the specialist over the MD would be fine as the reality is the MD won't have done half of what they say they've done anyway

[Beedub]

Personally I'd rather take a good indie/specialist service history over a main dealer one. I would even take a well documented home service regime over the dealer. Main dealer mechanics have a culture engrained into them from day one of a rush rush ham fisted approach, couple to cutting corners and charging for things you don't actually need. Add in the extortionate rates they already charge and it's a really toxic mix of paying the earth and not actually getting what you pay for.
It's a culture that stays with them once they're out of the MD environment as well unless they spent a decent length of time working for someone else in the indie/specialist arena and has had that mentality beaten out of them.
For me a good genuine specialist, someone who's a full time time, served professional in the specific brand and in this case S series engined M cars, who's worked at a BMW specialist for years is the optimum. Again for me a car with no main dealer stamps and a book full of stamps and receipts from a specialist would be prefferable. Even a stamp or two missing from the specialist over the MD would be fine as the reality is the MD won't have done half of what they say they've done anyway

totally agree .

[Mangozac]

Just to clarify I wasnt suggesting simply listening was Ok to decide whether the valve clearances actually need checking / adjusting
I would always want them doing every Ins1 / Ins2 as per schedule

My apologies, I must have misinterpreted your post

There's a LOT of S54 misinformation that floats around - sometimes I think we should make a sticky post explaining it all.

[R60BBA]

Personally I'd rather take a good indie/specialist service history over a main dealer one. I would even take a well documented home service regime over the dealer. Main dealer mechanics have a culture engrained into them from day one of a rush rush ham fisted approach, couple to cutting corners and charging for things you don't actually need. Add in the extortionate rates they already charge and it's a really toxic mix of paying the earth and not actually getting what you pay for.
It's a culture that stays with them once they're out of the MD environment as well unless they spent a decent length of time working for someone else in the indie/specialist arena and has had that mentality beaten out of them.
For me a good genuine specialist, someone who's a full time time, served professional in the specific brand and in this case S series engined M cars, who's worked at a BMW specialist for years is the optimum. Again for me a car with no main dealer stamps and a book full of stamps and receipts from a specialist would be prefferable. Even a stamp or two missing from the specialist over the MD would be fine as the reality is the MD won't have done half of what they say they've done anyway

Most top notch BMW indies are ex BMW technicians...

I hear your point about Main Dealers trying to make the most of out customers rather than advising where necessary but I wouldn’t say their benchmark operation is one of shoddy workmanship.

After all they have a reputation to uphold.

The main reason for why most people pick BMW indies over Main Dealers comes down to their wallets.

(Even though there are some enthusiasts like you and me who use them as we trust the necessary work to be done to a good standard).

[MACK]

Personally I'd rather take a good indie/specialist service history over a main dealer one. I would even take a well documented home service regime over the dealer. Main dealer mechanics have a culture engrained into them from day one of a rush rush ham fisted approach, couple to cutting corners and charging for things you don't actually need. Add in the extortionate rates they already charge and it's a really toxic mix of paying the earth and not actually getting what you pay for.
It's a culture that stays with them once they're out of the MD environment as well unless they spent a decent length of time working for someone else in the indie/specialist arena and has had that mentality beaten out of them.
For me a good genuine specialist, someone who's a full time time, served professional in the specific brand and in this case S series engined M cars, who's worked at a BMW specialist for years is the optimum. Again for me a car with no main dealer stamps and a book full of stamps and receipts from a specialist would be prefferable. Even a stamp or two missing from the specialist over the MD would be fine as the reality is the MD won't have done half of what they say they've done anyway

Most top notch BMW indies are ex BMW technicians...

I hear your point about Main Dealers trying to make the most of out customers rather than advising where necessary but I wouldn’t say their benchmark operation is one of shoddy workmanship.

After all they have a reputation to uphold.

The main reason for why most people pick BMW indies over Main Dealers comes down to their wallets.

(Even though there are some enthusiasts like you and me who use them as we trust the necessary work to be done to a good standard).

I agree that to be a BMW Specialist you really need to be an ex BMW trained tech, just one that's spent a few years working at a good specialist post the dealership to have the dealership culture/mentality beaten out of them. Either that or someone who's been trained from scratch by a good specialist with all the right qualifications/experience. Unfortunately it really is too easy for any Tom, Dick or Harry to set themselves up as a specialist without anything close to the relevant training or experience. It really should be regulated in some way.

Aside from that I think we will have to politely agree to disagree. I'm no fan of Main Dealers in the slightest, an opinion that's been formed by my experience and the experience of others over the past 25 years in both a professional and personal capacity. In fact just yesterday I got a call from my wife looking for advice for her work colleague re a car that was bought brand new from Renault Bolton. Apparently the dealers now had six attempts at fixing the same engine fault! Shes owned her Capture for 4 months but only driven it for 2 weeks, the rest of the time shes been in various loaner Nissan Micras. Suffice to say shes now calling time on this and rejecting it. Aside from the fact during this time they've claimed all sorts from "we cant find a fault" to "were getting an expert in from Renault UK" part of the issue for her was the dealer never contacting her despite been repeatedly ask to keep her updated. This is fairly typical in my experience and thats before we get into all the other stuff like charging for service parts they should've but did replace etc.

For me its a good genuine Specialist or Indie everytime, even if they charged the same, although I'm glad they dont!