Stealer or specialist service at 4 years old?

M

mason storm

Active member
Well as per a previous thread I need to decide if I go main dealer or specialist for the inspection 1 service after visiting the dealer today I knocked them down to £300 from £340 but the specialist is quoting £210 is it worth paying an extra £90 for the main dealer stamp?
 
Depends on how long you are going to keep the car. Also, you will never get any goodwill payments for any major issues you might have in the future.

To me - it is not worth it to go independent for servicing.
 
At 4 yrs old & a difference of £90 even though it pain's me i would say yes , pay the extra :wink:
Any repairs though or interim oil change & find a decent indy :thumbsup:
 
pvr said:
Depends on how long you are going to keep the car. Also, you will never get any goodwill payments for any major issues you might have in the future.

To me - it is not worth it to go independent for servicing.
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What do you mean by goodwill? Surely any warranty would have run out etc?
 
Goodwill is not related to warranty, goodwill is related to how you have been as a customer.

If you have had your car serviced by a dealer and you have an unusual fault, BMW often pays towards the costs but only if you have a full service history with BMW.

On previous cars, I have had plenty of good will fixes (pixels disappearing on my 7 series display when it was 6 year old, secondary windscreen pump and a few other bits).
 
Thanks for that!

Guess it does pay to have a full service. (I was on the hunt for a good indie but shall be going to a main dealer now!)

:D
 
For 90 quid it's a no brainer- 4 years old is far too early to go Indy. It would impact residual IMHO .
 
ZermattV said:
For 90 quid it's a no brainer- 4 years old is far too early to go Indy. It would impact residual IMHO .
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So out of interest where is the tipping point. Milage / age for it to become more appropriate for the car to no longer benefit from a dealer history.

I had a golf tdi and at 100k decided that I would do my own oil filter changes and keep the receipts.
 
we are still bmwfsh on an 06.
we were blessed with a new roof motor on goodwill last year.
I asked for it. they gave. It covered the premium paid.
I think we will stick with bmw for another couple of years.
 
Yep dealer for me must be worth the £90 not sure but is full BMW history worth around 10% of the value when you come to sell???
I know I would only buy one with dealer history :thumbsup:
 
I've had BMWs for 15 years and can't wait for them to be out of warranty so I can take them to the local Indy. Have tried both local dealers and IMO they are incompetent. Took my 5 back many times to the dealer, took it to the Indy and they fixed it first time.
 
My Z has been main dealer serviced with full BMWSH for the first seven years. I've now switched to a local Indy and doubt that I will ever take it anywhere else now. It's so much cheaper and you speak to the guy who works on your car and not a "service receptionist".
 
Marky Mark said:
Yep dealer for me must be worth the £90 not sure but is full BMW history worth around 10% of the value when you come to sell???
I know I would only buy one with dealer history :thumbsup:
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why not? that just seems a bit silly, especially considering most of the time the bmw apprentices get their grubby mitts on your car.

at least when you go to an independent garage, you know they will treat you and the car properly as they need the custom more.

main dealers don't care about that as much as they will always have a steady income from people like you who believe main dealer servicing is somehow better than specialist garages.

in this case, i would use the main dealer as it's only 4 years old and just out of warranty.
 
You may like the independent idea, but you have to place yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer. Like it or not, most people will prefer a dealer serviced car as that defines a standard level of service. Independent service levels can not be verified by buyers as they have no idea that the bloke under the arches is any good or not, so they will assume it will have be done as it is cheap.

Unfortunately, my experience (from others) with independents is that all I see, is the cars going backwards and forwards to fix the same issue over and over again costing in the end more than what a dealer would have cost.
 
pvr said:
You may like the independent idea, but you have to place yourself in the shoes of a potential buyer. Like it or not, most people will prefer a dealer serviced car as that defines a standard level of service. Independent service levels can not be verified by buyers as they have no idea that the bloke under the arches is any good or not, so they will assume it will have be done as it is cheap.

Unfortunately, my experience (from others) with independents is that all I see, is the cars going backwards and forwards to fix the same issue over and over again costing in the end more than what a dealer would have cost.
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x1
 
About 5 mins where I live there is a Bmw specialist, most of their workers are ex Bmw mechanics and lots of good reviews about their work on other Bmw forums. I would take the car there for servicing except maybe the Inspection services which I would purely do just for the sake of the dealer stamp.
 
A really good indy is worth their weight in gold . a really poor dealer is worth their weight in horsesh!t . its that simple :wink:
 
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