[kingmonkey8]

Don't trust dealers anymore. Have had bad experiences with them.
They are useless when it comes to faults.
Servicing is expensive but with the longer service intervals it's not too bad. Other brands arn't cheap either.
I would just get your servicing done at a dealer to maintain the service history. But other stuff like brakes etc you can do yourself or get it done by an indie.

[Alfisti]

Why do you guys find a loaner so important? Can't you just uber it?

[The HACK]

"Hold my beer."

-FCA ownership experience.

[EstorilM240]

One more round of dealership games. TLDR: Was told a few weeks ago I had 4mm on fronts and needed to replace them ($1.3K), came in to a new dealership, now that I bought the extended warranty the fronts are magically at 5mm (the requirement is 4mm to be covered). 4 hours wasted, no harm done otherwise, got to drive a loaner. I can still cancel warranty under 30-day cooldown and go indie all the way, but fear of lease return is the only thing stopping me.

I had both higher and lower expectations this time for two reasons: Higher because I went to a new location, on a day off, got a loaner, and was not under any time pressure. I called beforehand twice to confirm everything was in order, and that warranty covered brakes that were at 4mm or less. I had lower expectations because when I had bought the wear and tear extended maintenance warranty, I already had accounted for a 30% chance they'd try to weasel out of it. The dealership B where I had the oil change experience said I was due for front brakes AND rotors because they were at 4mm, for the low price of $1290.

I called in the morning of the appointment before to see if brakes were doable same day: They said about 4 hours and with my early afternoon appointment I'd probably make it. Came in, got processed in 10 minutes, waited 40 minutes for a loaner, was told I'd have to pick it up my car the next day, and they'd call me to update, but they had to check the brake depth left before doing service. No biggie. By noon the next day I didn't hear anything, so I called, and they said the brakes were actually at 5mm and they couldn't do it. Welp.

Before I went to pick up, I sent in an email with the original service paperwork from dealership B quoting 4mm. How can I possibly have driven my car several hundred miles and GAINED brake life? I want to figure out where to pick up these magic pads in the future. Anyway, when I came in for pickup, the service advisor basically told me in person "4mm isn't always 4mm" (paraphrased) and because I was not under warranty when I came in the first time, the dealership B was motivated to sell me a $1.3K brake job, but now that I was under warranty, suddenly their measurement is more accurate. Told me he thinks two dealers in the area do this, and to come back in a few months. Basically confirmed my suspicions on fudging numbers to improve the bottom line. I also strongly doubt I they will do rotors "as recommended" now that BMW is paying, but whatever.

I don't know if I'll be able to use the warranty before the time is up, although my initial calculus was - I'm at 4mm now, still 10 months left, 60% chance I need to change fronts, 30% chance I need to change fronts but they play games with me and refuse to do it, 10% chance I need to do both, expected value of warranty = 0.6*1300+0.1*2600=$1040, with the warranty at $600, seems like a decent gamble. If I compare to indie prices it's probably more like 0.6*500+0.1*1000=$400 so not worth it, but 0.0x * lease return hassles. I also probably could have waited until the morning of service for a guaranteed win, but I figured, I have paperwork SHOWING that I'm at 4mm, how can they deny me? Turns out, they still can. I tried calling dealership B that quoted the 4mm, but no one wants to return calls.

I probably should have told dealership C to ask dealership B about their "4mm". Might have been popcorn time. Alas, staircase wit. Dealership B is ignoring me anyway. I really don't see a good solution out of this other than to just let time run its course.

Today, I can actually still cancel the warranty since I'm within the 30-day window and get a full refund, but there's a good chance I will use it and wasting another ~2 hours buying it again doesn't feel fun. Unless I really do have a magic set of brake pads which are going to keep gaining life until the day before lease return. I can already hear the wear indicators in some situations, unless I'm mistaking the sound. I'm actively considering buying a brake pad gauge off Amazon just to see what the truth is. The "rational" decision still seems to be to keep the warranty, because I'll probably still get to use it, and keep going to the dealership for more punishment (LOL). The emotional-but-make-a-statement decision is to just cancel everything and do all indie until lease return. I also read in another thread where someone suggested to get your service advisor a gift every visit so they threat you better. This world.

The worst case scenario is I go in for service at 35,999, am told I'm still at 5mm, then at 36,001 the maintenance minder comes on, and I pay for a warranty I didn't use and need to out-of-pocket for the brake job. At that point I'm probably going indie, I'm unhappy enough at the dealership experience, and I'll roll the dice on lease return.

If you have having all of these issues with dealers, take your car to an indy!

Leased car, lease return all of that stuff is a myth! You DO NOT need to service a leased car at a dealer what-so-ever!

Go to your beloved indy ans stop worrying about all of this non-sense that you are experiencing.

PS: Do you have experience with others???? There are some other brands I would never consider simply due to dealer experience! BMW has been very good to me so far after many many vehicles. .......Having said that, I kinda know what I am doing too when car goes in for service, especially when at my own expense.

Good advice. I should have gone indy from the beginning, but alas, the first $99 oil change bait convinced me that maybe the dealership wasn't so bad after all. Yes, I bought the "you need to dealership service a lease!" completely (I knew the law, but the uncertainty chewed on me). For some reason I have this image of a nitpicking lease return officer trying to charge me $5K because "I never changed the oil according to their system" and me throwing out paperwork and quoting consumer protection laws to no avail.

I have experience with Honda dealers (probably 3x), but I've been to indies way more (30x+). Honda was fine - not as great as indies but better than BMW. No one was actively malicious at Honda. I consider hiding fees, hiding paperwork, fudging numbers on brake wear, etc. to be actively malicious/playing games. I sure wasted less time there. I only really trust dealerships for the simplest jobs (recalls, oil, brake, etc.) The only service on this car that I did at an indie was the tires, but that went like a charm.
@Rebound, thanks for the San Rafael suggestion, they're on my list for the next visit.

[Wolfus Aurelius]

My '15 is still under the factory warranty. Last week I brought it in for my local dealer, the selling dealer, to find a persistent rattle I thought was in the passenger door.

Good: They opened up promptly and got my car into the bay at 7:30 am. They have free espresso coffee. And the body tech spotted the problem right away and found the cause, a lipstick (!) trapped in an under-seat air vent.

Bad: I told the service bay person that I was walking to a diner for breakfast and would be back in an hour. "Call me if there are any problems." Off I went. Back at the dealership at 8:30, I sat, and sat. No one called me or came to find me. Finally at 9:30 I located the service advisor (no sign on his desk, so I didn't know where to find him when I came in). He looked at me, astonished. "We thought you left! We always ask a customer to wait a few minutes so I can talk to him about the car."

"Well," I growled, "nobody told me that, and nobody called me."

So, after another 30 minutes, the body tech came out and solved the problem. Upshot: I was there for almost three hours instead of the one hour it should have taken, because nobody told me to wait and they all assumed I had left the dealership.

I've been waiting for one of those cheery little "How Was Our Service?" emails, so I could detail my dissatisfaction with the experience, but nada.

Like many of you, I plan, once the warranty is up in August, to use my regular independent mechanic for things I can't do myself.

[BMWILUVU]

My dealership replaced my airbox filter and left a clip off. Later that day a CEL mixture too lean pops. Spent half the day diagnosing it and it ends up being that clip.

[Efthreeoh]

1st world problems. There are people starving in Africa... wait... there are people sleeping on the streets of San Fransisco.

[alex2364]

If you guys want great service department experience, buy a Lexus or Mercedes.

[Wolfus Aurelius]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Why do you guys find a loaner so important? Can't you just uber it?

If BMW dealers want us to use them, they should provide an incentive that will offset part of their high labor and parts charges.

My dealer has a shuttle that runs during the day. They swear they will drop me off at my work, which is a good 15 miles from the dealership, and pick me up again in the afternoon. I'll have a backup plan, i.e., a coworker of mine lives a reasonable distance from the dealer. I'll ask if I can catch a ride with her in advance in case the shuttle is delayed or unavailable.

[Soterios]

Originally Posted by Alfisti

Why do you guys find a loaner so important? Can't you just uber it?

My commute is 30 miles each way. If I didn't have a second car, I'd have to pay obscene money for an uber every day that my car was in the shop.

If I'm dropping my car off, I'm getting a loaner.

[SteveinArizona]

Originally Posted by alex2364

If you guys want great service department experience, buy a Lexus or Mercedes.

I have an interesting test but no way to conduct it myself. In my market, the same company owns the BMW and MB dealerships and they are a block apart. It would be interesting to see if the service varied between them and, if so, how and why.

[Kraftwerk AG]

Originally Posted by alex2364

If you guys want great service department experience, buy a Lexus or Mercedes.

Ditto. And be sure to get there early for the freshest pastries & coffee

[Humdizzle]

last year I took my 335 in to the dealer for an oil change.

guy forgot to tighten the drain plug. my oil dumped out on the way to work. low oil light came on. I pulled over and shut the motor off. didn't help that it was 20 degrees outside and the insurance company sent a tow truck to the wrong area because they mis-heard my mile marker I told them. then the tow truck guy scratched the bottom of the front bumper pulling it onto the truck.

bmw did do a compression check on my behalf. cleaned the underside of the car as well. the tech is a friend of mine and apologized a lot.

so yeah.. no more dealer stuff for me. honestly most of the bmw/benz/audi techs are so overworked they are bound to make mistakes unfortunately.

Ferrari dealers are hit or miss. Ferrari of Chicago is full of scumbags. same with St. Louis Lamborghini/Bentley. Ferrari of Denver has probably the best service I've ever seen from a dealer.

[Wolfus Aurelius]

My third trip to the dealer (my fourth, if you include the purchase) went quite well. The tail lamp malfunction was repaired under warranty, and the shuttle ran me in and picked me up on time despite the rain and traffic.

I wish they hadn't zeroed out my trip odometer, which I use to track my gas mileage. Oh, well, I can subtract the mileage at the last fill-up from the reading at the next fill-up for the correct number, and see if the trip computer is fairly accurate. A small thing indeed, considering how much it would have cost me to have my independent repair it, and to rent a car in the meantime!

[louscrw]

I don’t have any experience with BMW service (just bought our first BMW 2 weeks ago); however, I can tell you Lexus was awesome. And as far as the aesthetics of the actual dealerships, the BMW dealership doesn’t come close the Lexus one.

[kbright1892]

I called my local dealership (only one within about 50 miles) to schedule my oil change and was told they were scheduling for the week of the 13th, May 13th. Over a month just to get an oil change. What if I had a serious issue? I ended up scheduling with my usual indie shop for the oil change. When I had my S6, I never had anything like this with Audi. Much better service there. Unfortunately, they don't have anything like an X5M.

[Wineguy]

I live close to two dealerships. I’ve bought six from one and service is so-so. Can never speak to service writer nor get call back. Other is 20 minutes away never a problem always get a loaner. The s/w calls me and provides update. Gave me cell number and called me one evening after I misdialed him!
Bought my 2nd car from them. Ordered m340!

[OUGrad05]

My dealership is very hit or miss and we only have one. My initial service advisor at one point became overloaded so they moved me to another guy, he was not particularly good. I wound up having a $600 pair of Rx Maui Jims stolen from my car while in their custody an of course "we're not responsible".
I was then moved back to my original service advisor where overall I've been happy. However, a good friend of mine has the same advisor and has had some significant problems. Most people who own cars especially outside of warranty generally say bad things about our dealer here.

However, you're right about the way these things drive. BMW is still the best mainstream brand for driving experience. X3M40i is high on my list for next vehicles. Audi is also high on my list.

If BMW would make sure their dealer experience was like Lexus, no one would ever have a reason to leave the brand. Our Lexus experience has been outrageously good. Absolutely outstanding.

[GenXer]

Looks like my local dealer was listed in some 2018 BMW dealer award. I really haven't had any contact with them besides the initial purchase. I suppose that's a good thing since there hasn't been anything wrong with the car.