Service Costs

[Z4//MMY]

Hey all,

Just been ringing round for quotes for inspection 1....

cant really believ the prices... how is the service on the //M so much more then say a 3.0l??

There is the valve inspection / adjustment but other then that what justifies this being more then double the price of the 3.0l??

Anyway, just wanted to give a quick endorsement to David Holmes BMW in Stockport, Manchester.

Their menu price for the service is at least £20 cheaper then anywhere else I rang, they knock 10% of as the car is now over 3yrs old and they knock £97 off for me supplying my own oil.....

best deal I coud find..... but still a jaw dropping £623

 

[Dads203]

Best I found was Bluebell BMW at Crewe, I paid £740 for an inspection 1 and a brake fluid change.

Not looking forward to the Inpection 2 !!


Dan

 

[ali_b]

Welcome to the famed 'M' tax :roll:

 

[Tweed]

Give Darren Woods a ring, not 5 minutes from David Holmes,15 year main dealer veteran mechanic (plus 3/4 years as independent), better standard of work/care and less than half the hourly rate...

I'll dig out his number and pm it to you...

 

[pvr]

Would the saving outweigh the loss of resale value though ....

 

[sixspeed]

^^^^ this...

I decided full BMW service history was worth the potential higher resale (and probably easier sale too), and the peace of mind - over a saving of £150 or so...

 

[mikedav]

Agree with above, we are kinda held to ransom due to the extra 'desirability' of FBMWSH. Mine was price matched, £600 at Wood in Bournemouth. Original quote was £850ish

 

[Shunt]

Haliwell Jones in Warrington did my insp 1 for £630, they did me an oil service this week for £230 including a 'free' full english whilst I waited. Full price should have been £270 but with a bit of haggling / fibbing they price matched.

 

[Dads203]

Haliwell Jones in Warrington did my insp 1 for £630, they did me an oil service this week for £230 including a 'free' full english whilst I waited. Full price should have been £270 but with a bit of haggling / fibbing they price matched.

HJ in Chester quoted me £897 for an inspection1 !!

I won't tell you how much they wanted for an inspection 2

 

[IK.]

It's £600 down here I believe. Dick Lovett BMW Swindon.

 

[mmm-five]

HJ in Chester quoted me £897 for an inspection1 !!

These are the prices I was given when I did some phoning around last August.

Williams Liverpool...............£850
Williams Bolton...................£835
Cooper Colchester..............£780
Halliwell Jones Southport....£778
Halliwell Jones Warrington..£766
David Holmes Stockport.....£760
Costwold Cheltenham.........£705

 

[James_G]

£700 at Dick Lovett Hungerford just two weeks ago.

£856 at Vines in Guildford, a fraction less at BMW Crawley (or Gatwick as they like to call themselves), so there's plenty of variation in a relatively small (60 miles) radius.

 

[dgm]

So far I've paid £140 for an oil service and £450 for an Inspection 1, both at BMW dealers. Took some haggling but not that much.

 

[rage999]

so what do this people actually do for an inspection 1??

ws speaking to another friend of mine yesterday, and he told me he had an oil service with a Merc dealer for his CLK fro £420. what a bargain this dealers are giving us eh.

we should report all these unscrupulous price manipulation to the fair trading office and consumer protection authority. i am sick and tired of being held to ransom by these robbers.

 

[IK.]

To be fair, you should know the service costs before buying the car, so you can't really moan. The M tax is well known.

 

[Tweed]

Perhaps, IK. but fair's fair...
An oil service at a main dealer is, what, £150-£200?

I have it on good authority that the guy actually doing the service is given 15 minutes to do it, including fetching the car from the car park and putting it back! He is not allowed to look at anything else on the car and must not run over his 15 mins.

You would expect, at these massively inflated prices, a dealer service to be a quality bit of work, but time and time again experience has shown that a good Indy will do a better job at a fraction of the price.

I've had my 320i back from a main dealer service to find the oil filter in upside down and my Z had the nearside rear spring fitted upside down, also by a dealer!

The only downside to an Indy is the lack of a dealer stamp in the book, but personally I'd value a good indy's stamp more than a dealer. (I know others don't though, and that affects resale... Which is how the stealers get away with ripping us off so badly)

 

[Incitatus]

To be fair, you should know the service costs before buying the car, so you can't really moan. The M tax is well known.

But shouldn't be just accepted.

Knowing what the service cost is does not make the service cost acceptable in itself. On that logic BMW would keep ramping up the cost because the market would stand it. I'm just about to book mine in for a inspection 1 for £600 in Shrewsbury and I've told them for their labour charge of £114 per hour I'm expecting perfection because otherwise they're not worth what they're charging.

 

[IK.]

Then as soon as it's out of warranty, take it to an independant, who will take longer with it AND charge less.

I'm not saying the prices are reasonable, but my 3.0si servicing costs are fine. In fact, not a lot more (if at all) than the other half's CORSA is to service!

 

[Incitatus]

Then as soon as it's out of warranty, take it to an independant, who will take longer with it AND charge less.

I'm not saying the prices are reasonable, but my 3.0si servicing costs are fine. In fact, not a lot more (if at all) than the other half's CORSA is to service!

Herein the problem lies... In Telford there's a really good indy who will do the service for £300. I've been there for him to do the CDV delete and I'm impressed by him and the kit he uses. He even gets all his parts from the Shrewsbury dealership. But, because I've got an M car the BMW stamp is even more important to it's history than perhaps a non M model. So the big question is how much of the extra service costs is truly justified and how much is the fabled M tax? If the dealership could demonstrate why it costs twice as much then that's fine, but I suspect they couldn't.

 

[Tweed]

Herein the problem lies... In Telford there's a really good indy who will do the service for £300. I've been there for him to do the CDV delete and I'm impressed by him and the kit he uses. He even gets all his parts from the Shrewsbury dealership.

My point exactly... If you're buying another M and you look in the service log to find that this Indy in Telford had been looking after the car... Would that not inspire more confidence that the owner had taken the time to find a really good garage they knew they could trust, rather than just taking it to the nearest dealer?

Of course I know it's a bit academic, as 95% of your buying market won't be familiar with the Indy so won't feel the same.

For me, I'm not planning on selling the car for as long as I can and when/if I finally do put it up for sale, it'll likely be on hear, where people will know I look after it. To anyone else, I'll take them up to meet my Indy and see the set up.