Why do they say STEALER

R

randyf

Member
Been on a few forums and noticed a lot of people calling the dealer-stealer. Before I go on I am not defending them nor do I work for any dealer. I agree there expensive and I do my own work because I cant afford to pay someone else. I think $100 plus an hour is fair now days, Doctors are more than that and they don't guarantee $%&#. Lawyers well they speak for themselves. If a tech can diagnose, repair, and stand behind his work then its worth it to me. Most shops pay the techs $22.00-$32.00 flat rate per hour the rest goes to dealership which I am sure costs a lot to keep afloat. Anyway just my rant for the day. Randy
 
$100 per hour! We wish! some UK BMW dealers charge £120 -£160 UK Pounds Sterling i.e $270 USD per hour - Hence 'Stealers'. :lol:
 
(M) tax is another one the vehicle check and brake fluid change on my E90 330i was half the price of what I got charged for exactly the same service on my old E92 M3 and other than one having a 4 litre engine and one having a 3 litre engine they are pretty much exactly the same car...it stinks!!
 
The thing is that a Stealer basically does the same job as any other good mechanic. But they charge you double the cost for the same quality. Hence...
 
i'm with bad pritt.

my grandpa is former mechanic and we do most ourselfs on my car. if there's something we can't we go to a local friendly indipendend garage. i gett most parts at the dealer as some ebay and internetshops are way over priced compared to the dealer ( so watch out for those stealers to !! ).

only the money they ask to do work on the car is exesive compared to my indi, they charge twice as not tripple the indi's fare.

i once went to the dealer for a resset of an airbag unit. it cost me the half an our fee for only 5 min work :thumbsdown: ( still being around 80 euro's thats prob around a $100 ) so that's why they can be stealers. but as i said on the parts they arn't Always :thumbsup:
 
When I bought my E46 it was my first BMW so I wanted to check the cost of parts out. Rang local BMW dealer, price for an alternator was around £500! For the same part without the BMW logo was £165 (or around that). I won’t pay a dealer to fix something that I can and even if I can’t I go to Indy specialists as they’re still half the price of the STEALERS. :)
 
My old Indy before I moved to Edinburgh was £40 an hour for labour. It was a family run business and the most respected garage in town. Eastern BMW charge somewhere near £140 an hour labour. Sure the service is great, but not £100 an hour better


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The main dealers have a high overhead and lots of capital invested in equipment so, naturally, have to charge a fair bit more than smaller independent garages.
 
Each job has a stipulated time allocated to it by BMW. I forget what they call the "unit" but each unit is 5 minutes.

So if BMW deem the job to take 1 hr, that is what you should be charged, even if it takes 2. On the flip side though, you would probably still pay 1hr even if it only took 30 mins.

At least...thats what my stealer told me!
 
I would argue that they charge much more than an independent for an inferior service. Most stealers I've used have no real world diagnostic abilities, if the computer doesn't pick it up, they don't figure it out.
 
I'm not going to defend every so called "stealer" here but mine isn't that bad and the techs are very experienced and know what there doing. At the end if the day it comes down to full bmw history or only part. Depending on age of car I would agree part is ok for my zed lets say, but from the stuff we sell full history with bmw is a must and with us is the best kind.
 
If and it's a big if - every time I put my car into the stealer they were efficient with my hard earned cash - got right to the point and diagnosed the problem swiftly and correctly then fixed it first time - then I wouldn't complain about the prices coz this would be a top notch service - like the car marque suggests it should be

Unfortunately my personal experience and that of others is not anything like this - with repeated visits required to get to the root of what are usually not too complex problems - the service just doesn't match the cost at all

Now above said I will maintain my full BMW service history - but this is about maintaining the value of my car not about it's mechanical condition

They are just not good enough and incredibly complacent in their ivory tower
 
Dealers are dearer because of the capital invested in purchasing the freehold (or paying rent on a lease), building the dealership. Indy's can operate out of a shed in comparison. That gives them a big cost advantage straight away. When you then consider that they then have to do everything strictly in accordance with BMW's wishes, that adds on more cost. My father was a non-Exec at a big BMW dealer for many years, and if things now are the same as then, parts and service subsidise car sales.

As for who is best between dealer and Indy - that's a whole new thread. There are good and bad on both sides.
 
My local dealer is Sopers. Given the discounts they give forum members, and their support for the national meet, I think they're the least likely to be labelled stealers. Yes, servicing and parts are more expensive than my local indy, but as OG mentions, overheads are so much more. I use a mix of dealer, Indy, and local independent (who just do happens to race BMWs) for my cars needs.
 
Oh, and one of the main mechanics at Sopers is an Alpina man, so I know mine gets the good treatment. :D
 
Rang my dealer up the other day asked how much to change a window regulator, would not give me the price, but informed me it was £105 a hour to investigate the fault, I said it don’t need investigating its the regulator cable, we still need to investigate it sir, so I bought a new regulator and fitted it myself BMW part was £160.
I worked it out, I reckoned they would have charged me 2 hours investigation and 3 hour fitting plus part. It would have cost me between £500 to £600 if I agreed to let them change it.

So stealer is very much appropriate.
 
markeg said:
My local dealer is Sopers. Given the discounts they give forum members, and their support for the national meet, I think they're the least likely to be labelled stealers. Yes, servicing and parts are more expensive than my local indy, but as OG mentions, overheads are so much more. I use a mix of dealer, Indy, and local independent (who just do happens to race BMWs) for my cars needs.
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Sopers are my local dealer too and they used to service my 5 series and M3, my 330 goes there as well and I have always been very happy with their service you do pay more than an indy but I am still happy go to the main dealer for a while longer.
 
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