Eastern BMW, Edinburgh. Service Dept v Booking Team

Bought my E89 from a fellow forum member last year. It had just had a major service in May 2021 from a BMW specialist in Torquay (£600) so I popped into Eastern BMW today for a chat with the service team about, how, 12 months on, I might enlist their services for an oil & filter change and quick check over for piece of mind.
'There's nobody from the service team available' and it would need to be arranged via their 'bookings team'. I said ok but would they not want to have a look at what was done last year (Invoice showing all the work done was in my greasy palm) before arranging work this year? 'They will discuss that on the phone when they phone you' I was told. Anyway, with my tail between my legs, I left rather underwhelmed.
The phone rings and a rather 'youthful sounding person' tells me that my cars next service would be a 'major service' in October 2023. At that point, I just accepted their 'advice' as I couldn't be bothered going over things on the phone when they couldn't spare someone to speak to me in the dealership. :headbang:
Turns out that Lloyd BMW in Carlisle offer an oil change and filter for £218 inc VAT. I think that's reasonable for a main dealer so will be booking in there over the next week or two.

peeblezZ4 said:

Turns out that Lloyd BMW in Carlisle offer an oil change and filter for £218 inc VAT. I think that's reasonable for a main dealer so will be booking in there over the next week or two.

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Bargain! :roll:
So you went to a BMW dealership who weren't interested in over-charging you and then found one who were?
You could get literally any garage to do an oil and filter change for about £120 (and that is expensive).

Don't get the voluntary rip-off by BM dealerships for an oil change TBH. They don't do it any better, or use some special oil made from angel tears.

I always get an oil/brake fluid change at my local BMW dealer as its less than 5 miles away (try to do it about every 5k). To be honest its not that much more expensive and a lot less hassle than doing it myself. They always do a scope on the car to find any other faults, kind of have to tell them what I want exactly done or they would run away with it. If anything is flagged up I have another trusty mechanic to do it (at mates rates). I've found my local dealership ok to deal with.

Exactly my thinking Rick. I know that a wee garage down the road would do it for £150 but I do value a main dealer check and then if anything is flagged, I can decide who'd do the fix. I do like a main dealer stamp in the book too.

Pondrew - I get what you're saying but see my reply to Zed Baron. I've worked in the industry so know the score.
My post wasn't really about the price of the service/main dealer v independent etc but the main dealers unwillingness to interact with a customer who'd visited their slick, shiny dealership. Their business process yesterday clearly didn't work and they've probably thrown £thousands at it thinking that it does.
Main dealer service stamps provide some people with a degree of reassurance so could be a factor when I come to sell. Not all potential buyers will have forum insight.

Pondrew said:

peeblezZ4 said:

Turns out that Lloyd BMW in Carlisle offer an oil change and filter for £218 inc VAT. I think that's reasonable for a main dealer so will be booking in there over the next week or two.

Click to expand...

Bargain! :roll:
So you went to a BMW dealership who weren't interested in over-charging you and then found one who were?
You could get literally any garage to do an oil and filter change for about £120 (and that is expensive).

Don't get the voluntary rip-off by BM dealerships for an oil change TBH. They don't do it any better, or use some special oil made from angel tears.

Click to expand...

I'd say £120 is cheap if you are using decent oil and a decent filter and doing a engine flush treatment too.

The car will take circa 8 litres if you do a full flush. If you don't then it may take 6.5 litres.

8 litres of Petronas 5w-30 is circa £80
Castrol engine shampoo is circa £12
Filter - £10

So your only accounting £18 for labour .

Of course you could cheap out on the oil or use a different spec and bring it down from £80 to £45ish but I trust Petronas.

I'd say £120 for a proper oil change is cheap. If you don't care about the oil then it's probably an okay price but not great.

My mechanic charges £40 an hour. So would cost £140 through him but at least I know top stuff has been used and he did the job properly because he's mobile he does it on your own driveway.