Main Dealer service costs. - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

felstmiester · 3rd November 2009, 19:52

After reading a thread on here about uk main dealer service pricing the other day and someone in the thread mentioning £300 i decided to ring my local dealer today.

My car is due for an inspection 2 and i wanted to find out exactly what this service involved and the cost. Due to the fact we own a garage and do mot's and servicing ourselves, this would reflect weather i was going to get the main dealer to do the service and give me a nice BMW stamp in my service book, or i do the work myself and stamp it with our own not so sort after stamp.

To say i was disscusted with the price i was given would be an understatement. £700!!!!

Service involves.

Oil change and filter

new air filters and pollen filters

new plugs

And then basically a CHECK!!!! Around the whole car, brakes, all fluids, all bushes etc. This was exactly what the guy told me in the service department by the way so don't shoot the messanger. As my car has an AA cold air kit with K&N's he said he could nock off the price of the air filters.

So a quick recap. I'm paying for the following parts. Oil, oil filter, plugs, air filters and pollen filters + labour to fit them. Oh and pay them to walk around my car until they can find something else to fleace me of some of my hard earned cash.

To carry out the above work at our workshop would take me on my own mo more than half a day, say 4 hours should do easily!!

Sorry for the rant but i just had to tell someone.

M5 London · 3rd November 2009, 20:12

If you shop around, there will be main dealers who do it MUCH less than that. There is one main dealer who places an ad in the front or rear cover of BMW Car and they do it for CHEAP !

Also you could supply all the bits like oil and filters to them and save even more.

I think the £250 to £350 was for a trusted independent, who will most probably do a better job than any main dealer.

Just checked and Cotswold BMW do it for £500 inc everything and VAT!

Leezamonkey · 3rd November 2009, 20:14

let it all out mate, don't be shy! that's ridiculous i thought it involved more than that. what if you supply the oil, as they may charge extortionate amounts for it. I got 10l for under £80 online WWW.NIELSENCDG.CO.UK. but as you are a garage you may well get it cheaper than that!

felstmiester · 3rd November 2009, 20:56

I aske'd em if i could supply the oil etc, but they said no.

Its not the fact that we can't do the work ourself its just the dreaded stamp in the service book and history thing.

Thing is when i work it out, if i don't get a main dealer to service it and do the service myself with genuine parts, its gonna be around £550 quid saved and i doubt its gonna lose me that when i sell the car due to the fact i never had it serviced at the main dealer at 68k. Well even if it does i refuse to pay that sort of money for work we could do ourselves.

While i was on the phone to the fella, i asked about my dead pixels and asked if there would be anything they could do for me. His reply was somewhat negative, saying there is no way that BMW would ever do anything like a good will gesture and waver the cost of an instrument cluster. When i told him that other M5 ownes all over the world have had some kind of result with the problem weather it means paying the labour to fit a new cluster but getting the cluster free or some other kind of agreement, he wouldn't believe it until i told him to look on this board. He then continued to do so while i was on the phone and couldn't believe his eyes. Still couldn't do nothing for me regarding the problem though.

Leezamonkey · 4th November 2009, 00:36

the man makes us all realise why we call them 'stealers' not dealers, thats a terrible service, he doesn't want your business i'd try elsewhere tbh

TMcNasty · 4th November 2009, 00:48

Forget the stamp. A penny saved is a penny earned! Do all the work and save all of the receipts in a folder and write dates/mileage on them. The future buyers should be confident in your work. If he's not the next buyer will be.

felstmiester · 4th November 2009, 01:00

Think thats exactly what i'm gonna do. Genuine parts, reciepts in with all the history etc etc.

mrchilipalmer · 4th November 2009, 01:11

I am in pretty much same position. My next service due is service II, although still got 4 lights remaining. Main dealer here in Northern Ireland wants around £600 for this and although car has service book stamped by main dealer, I am more than tempted to bring to a good indy, where I am expecting price to be around half main dealer prices. I also believe a good independant garage would most likely do a more thorough job of servicing, and, perhaps I am wrong here, I don't believe having service book stamped by such a garage would decrease potential value of the car come resale time especially if receipts with dates, mileage etc are kept and meticulously logged.

I think potential buyers for a niche car like this (mine isn't for sale by the way) would value the use of independant service garages as much as they would value main dealer servicing if they have done their homework.

For what it's worth, I too would go with indy.

ard · 4th November 2009, 04:08

Stamp??? Are you nuts? What possible value could this be on a 6-10 year old car, well out of warranty, with a value in the toilet?

(BTW- I do all my own work, fastidiously document my work (parts receipts and labor notes) and have never had a single issue with warranty.)

Just maintain good records and the next buyer will value these greatly... A book/binder with every receipt/record will be much more effective than 8 stamps in the stupid booklet.

A

felstmiester · 4th November 2009, 10:46

Make you right! I would rather see that kind of history myself than just see the stamps in a book.

I took a friend of mine to buy a 540 a couple of years ago and that is exactly what the fella had done that he brought it off. Had all the work done himself by independant's but logged everything, even down to number plate screws in a big folder. The folder was as thick as a phone directory, and flicking through it randomly was a credit to the owner. It showed he really loved and cared for that car, more than just a regular BMW service record.