Am I being unreasonable? Shoddy smart repair by BMW
Discussion
Picked up a 59 plate 335d M Sport last week from a BMW main dealer, 33k on the clock and in very good nick. Before purchasing, they pointed out a few bits on the car which were going to be fixed, these being the wheels and a couple of scuffs on the front and rear bumper. No great damage whatsoever, just minor bits where the old boy who owned it clearly didn't listen to the parking sensors.... When I picked the car up, they had refurbed the wheels but mentioned they forgot to repair the scuffs. They picked it up a few days later, put it in for smart repair with their usual repairer and delivered it back to me. After examining the repairs, this is what I have found..... Hope the pictures are clear enough - these imperfections are not reflections or tricks of the eye, it is essentially where each repair has been carried out to such a poor standard that the colour match is massively out, nothing has been blended and also looks like filler hasn't been properly sanded....
Exhibit's A, B, C & D - arrows added to make it clear what you are looking at, although they really aren't needed on the full res pics and to be honest aren't needed on these either.
I have emailed them with the evidence and made it clear that I am not happy, haven't received a response as yet but I am hoping and assuming they will fix it. I could have done a better job with a touch up pen, cannot believe what a crap job has been done! Understand it is a used car which will have imperfections but they have made it look a lot worse than before their "repair". Fair enough if Dave up the road had a go on a smashed up Rover 25, but this is a BMW main dealer!
Exhibit's A, B, C & D - arrows added to make it clear what you are looking at, although they really aren't needed on the full res pics and to be honest aren't needed on these either.
I have emailed them with the evidence and made it clear that I am not happy, haven't received a response as yet but I am hoping and assuming they will fix it. I could have done a better job with a touch up pen, cannot believe what a crap job has been done! Understand it is a used car which will have imperfections but they have made it look a lot worse than before their "repair". Fair enough if Dave up the road had a go on a smashed up Rover 25, but this is a BMW main dealer!
I'm not expecting it to be perfect, but surely it is not hard to do a proper smart repair? It looks worse in person than in the pictures, also these have been resized to fit on here. It is a very poor job. Having spent 17k on a car, used or otherwise, and have a bodge like this carried out is not in the realms of being reasonable in my view.
Haha I love PH, clearly it's Friday and people are bored judging by some of the comments! As said, I have already emailed them - the reasoning for the email rather than a call is that it was after opening hours by the time I'd checked it over. It's not an urgent matter so I will wait for them to contact me.... Wasn't attempting to gain some kind of internet support for the injustice, more just about showing the shoddy work by the painter! As mentioned above, a remap should help buff them out.
The main point is the car was purchased at an agreed price on the basis I was told the damage would be fixed. If it had been in this condition before I purchased then I would have asked them to reduce the price to cover a respray! There's not much point in a smart repair if it ends up looking worse then the scuff it was meant to be repairing :-)
Squiggs said:
Unfortunately (most) Smart repairers that do trade work cut corners.
The traders nail them down on price and the repairer has to work double quick to make money, which results in 'not so good' repairs.
In the main it's not usually problem as the buyer didn't know it was damaged in the first place and the work done is enough that the buyer wouldn't notice the repair.
Would you have noticed the 'poor' repairs if you didn't know it had been repaired????? Even if you had noticed the dealer could have said it was nothing to do with them and the previous owner must have got it repaired.
Obviously there are smart repairers out there that can perform seamless repairs - and ideally that is the standard you would like the repairs to be carried out to.
What you have to ask yourself is - is it worth asking the dealer to get the repairs done to a better standard when the chances are they'll tell the same repairer to do the repairs again?
Obviously the repairer didn't get paid enough/have the time or simply doesn't have that much pride in his work the first time round and the chances are if the dealer does take up your case he'll demand the same repairer re-works the repairs - but this time without payment!
I could be completely wrong but I can't imagine the repairs being greatly improved under those circumstances.
Understand your point here, and agree to an extent - I do wonder what price they managed to negotiate! I may not have noticed the front to start with due it being lower down but the repair on the rear is evident even from a metre away due to the fact that the lack of blending falls over the top edge of the bumper and the colour match is nowhere near. What tools does a smart repairer generally use? if localised spraying then surely they can blend it? Or is it a case of chucking some masking tape over an area and using a brush? It just doesn't strike me as very smart!The traders nail them down on price and the repairer has to work double quick to make money, which results in 'not so good' repairs.
In the main it's not usually problem as the buyer didn't know it was damaged in the first place and the work done is enough that the buyer wouldn't notice the repair.
Would you have noticed the 'poor' repairs if you didn't know it had been repaired????? Even if you had noticed the dealer could have said it was nothing to do with them and the previous owner must have got it repaired.
Obviously there are smart repairers out there that can perform seamless repairs - and ideally that is the standard you would like the repairs to be carried out to.
What you have to ask yourself is - is it worth asking the dealer to get the repairs done to a better standard when the chances are they'll tell the same repairer to do the repairs again?
Obviously the repairer didn't get paid enough/have the time or simply doesn't have that much pride in his work the first time round and the chances are if the dealer does take up your case he'll demand the same repairer re-works the repairs - but this time without payment!
I could be completely wrong but I can't imagine the repairs being greatly improved under those circumstances.
Robb F said:
If you look at the bumper on my 328 in my profile you might understand haha
Seriously though, I would never have noticed anything wrong on yours. That's either a good or a bad thing depending how you look at it.
Haha ok if we are comparing apples with apples then the issues on my bumpers are but a drop in the ocean! That said, I haven't bought the 335 as a track or drift monster, you can get away with a lot more on those!Seriously though, I would never have noticed anything wrong on yours. That's either a good or a bad thing depending how you look at it.
Megaflow said:
I have had a look at the high res pictures in thumbsnap and I can only assume your issue is with the colour match between the repair and the original paint work?
You say you saw the damage before buying the car. In which case, yes, I believe you are being unreasonable.
It is a 6 year old car, of the type which gets used everyday. It is going to pick up the odd mark in that time. The only way to eliminate your issue would be to respray the whole bumper, but then there is a risk the bumper won't match the rest of the car, which would be far worse than the current 'problem'.
Personally I wouldn't have bought a car with those marks on, that's the marks you can see, what else is there? It also doesn't point to a car that has been well looked after.
The colour match wouldn't even necessarily be an issue if it had been blended but it hasn't. As mentioned earlier in the thread it looks as though they have masked an area and just sprayed up to the line. They were a couple of scuffs, no dents and no panel gaps - the rest of the car is in decent condition and it has only done 33k, it points to the old boy just not being too careful when parking, rather than somebody who has abused it. There are not many derv 335's about at that age with that kind of mileage at that kind of price. It's the LCI saloon, so has the nicer rear lights, xenons up front, sunroof, overall fairly nicely spec'ed up and the only negative was the scuff's which I was told would be fixed prior to me purchasing.You say you saw the damage before buying the car. In which case, yes, I believe you are being unreasonable.
It is a 6 year old car, of the type which gets used everyday. It is going to pick up the odd mark in that time. The only way to eliminate your issue would be to respray the whole bumper, but then there is a risk the bumper won't match the rest of the car, which would be far worse than the current 'problem'.
Personally I wouldn't have bought a car with those marks on, that's the marks you can see, what else is there? It also doesn't point to a car that has been well looked after.
Quattromaster said:
Shocking isn't it, and these were all paid for jobs, here, have some more, wheels this time.
As the owner of a Smart repair and Wheel repair company it amazes me what people try to get away with.
Those wheels take the biscuit, assuming they have been given to you to fix somebody else's poor workmanship (if you can call it that!)?As the owner of a Smart repair and Wheel repair company it amazes me what people try to get away with.
Out of curiosity, what do you make of the pictures I posted? There seems to be a mixture of views, from people who couldn't give two hoots to those who can see my point! In my view, as a 17k used car direct from BMW, they should be scrutinising the work of their suppliers, especially when they promised it would be fixed as a condition of the sale. It's not as bad as the pictures you have posted but it is still a bodge job! Bit different if it was a clapped out banger from Clives Cwality Car Co
Cheers for all of the comments, it's quite interesting to there are three clear camps:
1) Those who can see
2) Those who don't mind too much about the little details
3) Those who require the canine opinion of their hi-vis Labrador
BMW got back to me over the weekend, apologising, and have arranged to hopefully collect again on Wednesday. The salesman is apparently speaking to the paint guy today.... I'm assuming in between filming, Mr Maker offers his services to BMW. Fair play for them getting back to me and offering to fix it, I'm still a little dubious if they are using Mr Maker again though.
1) Those who can see
2) Those who don't mind too much about the little details
3) Those who require the canine opinion of their hi-vis Labrador
BMW got back to me over the weekend, apologising, and have arranged to hopefully collect again on Wednesday. The salesman is apparently speaking to the paint guy today.... I'm assuming in between filming, Mr Maker offers his services to BMW. Fair play for them getting back to me and offering to fix it, I'm still a little dubious if they are using Mr Maker again though.
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