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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Hi,
I believe the first car has sold to a Sytner dealership. I went and viewed it and it was in a poor condition, I put the details in another thread. The service history didn’t look right either; it hadn’t been looked at in over two years. Dealer was an arse as well.
A lot of crappy cars falling into so called specialist dealers and with the usual 'specialist' servicing - you can read that as back street garage that have no idea how to service this car and the owner wants the cheapest stamp possible now the car is out of dealer warranty.
My search continues...
Cheers,
Simon.
I believe the first car has sold to a Sytner dealership. I went and viewed it and it was in a poor condition, I put the details in another thread. The service history didn’t look right either; it hadn’t been looked at in over two years. Dealer was an arse as well.
A lot of crappy cars falling into so called specialist dealers and with the usual 'specialist' servicing - you can read that as back street garage that have no idea how to service this car and the owner wants the cheapest stamp possible now the car is out of dealer warranty.
My search continues...
Cheers,
Simon.
That's why I think buying privately has its benefits. Especially from an enthusiast that is or has been on the forum. We look after our cars here and cherish them during our ownership and more often than not have bought from the forum in the first place so it's a win win. That's why I would go see that one I posted earlier, it's cheaper (a lot) and owned by a forum member that no doubt has treated the car very well. Inkey$ car is another good example.
Dealers just annoy me...!
Dealers just annoy me...!
Liverpool
Specialist, should mean specialist, and should be known to the community as a BMW or ///M specialist.Simon_P said:
If they're just a back street garage covering many marques, then by definition they are not a specialist.
I'm more than happy to see scheduled inspections carried out by places like Darjac, CPC, Simpsons, Throney, Darren Wood, BayMoW, David Paul, Autobahn, BM Tech, NCB Autokraft, Bexley Motor Works, etc. in a service history - and may mean the owner has researched a bit and taken it to a proper specialist rather than relying on a dealer technician who might see one ///M a month - and just does what the computer says (i.e. replace parts until fixed).
Stamps from places like Shady Bob's Anymotor / Kwik-Fit / Budget don't float my boat as much.
If you see a recent (i.e. last 2 years) stamp for Munich Legends then they might be fine, as I've no recent experience of them under new management. However if it's a older stamp (probably not applicable to a Z4M) it used to be that they were either sworn or sworn at. You could get some of the best work out of them one day and then the worst the following - and you'd never know what you had until something went bang!
mmm-five, you are 100% correct in your post. I come from owning a Lotus as my last car and specialist to me means the same as to you. My car never saw a Lotus dealer, not because they were cheaper (they weren’t that much) but because of the service and the fact they knew the car inside out from an everyday car down to the race cars they maintained and built. Unfortunately with these M cars becoming cheaper they become 'affordable' yet people forget they are a £50k new with running costs still at the original price level. People scrimp on these costs as I have seen on my search for a car. I am very wary when an advert mentions 'specialist' because nine times out of ten it is not any of the names you mention.
Cheers,
Simon.
Cheers,
Simon.
For general maintenance then any old garage would do, and these would not show up in the service book anyway. It is always nice to see a neat folder full of receipts/invoices howeverexdos said:
Even things like valve clearances should be doable by a competent garage/mechanic, assuming they can get the relevant clearance tolerances & the shims - but the problem is knowing who is competent in the first place. If you stick to ///M specialists, you know they'll have the correct tools (rather than making do), and are likely to have sets of shims to do the valve clearances without having to wait a couple of days to get the shims in from the dealer. They'll also understand the slight differences between an e85/e86 ///M spec (torque settings, alignment, etc.) and non-///M model where the back street garage may not know, or may not be bothered.
I've had my M5 at a BMW specialist (not an ///M specialist though) for brake, SLS, & fuel pipe replacements, and while it was about a third of the price that the dealer quoted, they couldn't reset the self-levelling suspension as they didn't know how to, but they didn't mention this until I picked the car up and found it looking like a tractor. I had to drive it to the dealer to reset the self-levelling suspension.
My interim oil & filter changes, brake fluid changes, etc. are not documented, so a potential buyer would have to take my word for it
I do agree with what you say. When I first entered car ownership, servicing intervals were at 3k miles and DIY servicing/tuning was commonplace, but these days it's not so common for owners to be hands-on, so I do understand why the dealers stamps in the book are considered necessary.mmm-five said:For general maintenance then any old garage would do, and these would not show up in the service book anyway. It is always nice to see a neat folder full of receipts/invoices howeverexdos said:
My interim oil & filter changes, brake fluid changes, etc. are not documented, so a potential buyer would have to take my word for it
However, when you look at the way that the dealers do an oil change, using suction through the dipstick aperture, and compare this method with properly draining the oil from the sump, I know which way I want my engine oil changing. Likewise, the dealers often overfill the S54 engine with new oil, possibly because they add 5.5L, as required, but because they don't properly drain the old engine oil, there's still some old oil left which then causes over filling!
There are some things which are made difficult for non-specialists and DIY by the manufacturers, such various resets as you've described, which do make you consider the wisdom of going outside dealership servicing. However, the internet is a wonderful resource and you can find the methods for many otherwise "secret" procedures. As the owner you can pick and choose between DIY, Indy or dealer servicing and the service history is only really relevant on a private sale.