Insane service costs

[panholio]

Hi all,

I have a g31 520d approaching 30k miles and asking for its second service.

Bmw are quoting me, dependent on dealer, between £700 and £1k!! Seems bonkers to me.

On the app I can see the cost breakdown.

An “engine oil service with microfilter” is £373.92
An “engine oils service with microfilter, air filter & fuel filter” is £668.74

So £300 extra for 2 filters. Are they that hard to fit? Parts are about £40.

Then I need a “service vehicle check” apparently. £111.. I’ve asked and they said they “check the horn and wipers”… right.

Then brake fluid seems a quite reasonable £87.


Anyone navigated this madness?

[Monkeylegend]

Yes by not using main dealers for servicing.

[Sheepshanks]

Does this work for you? https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...


I was looking at Lexus service prices this week - 2yr service, which is oil, pollen filter and brake fluid: £850.

[SteBrown91]

BMW wanted £340 to service my ELECTRIC iX3.

It consists of a brake fluid change a microfilter change.

But it s ok if I did it 3 months early ( I assume because they had slots to fill) it would be a mere £312.

No thanks.

[Sheepshanks]

SteBrown91 said:

BMW wanted £340 to service my ELECTRIC iX3.

It consists of a brake fluid change a microfilter change.

But it s ok if I did it 3 months early ( I assume because they had slots to fill) it would be a mere £312.

No thanks.

What did you do instead? Must admit I’d be reluctant to take, of all cars, an EV out of the network.

In comparison same service on a Škoda Enyaq at my local dealer is just over £400. Daughter’s Hyundai Kona EV was just over £200 and turns out they didn’t change the brake fluid as it was only a year old (but had done 20K). They didn’t charge for the brake fluid itself but wouldn’t reduce the labour cost.

[panholio]

Sheepshanks said:

Does this work for you? https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...


I was looking at Lexus service prices this week - 2yr service, which is oil, pollen filter and brake fluid: £850.

Sadly not. Car is not quite 3 years old and still under warranty

[Shaun170]

panholio said:

Hi all,

I have a g31 520d approaching 30k miles and asking for its second service.

Bmw are quoting me, dependent on dealer, between £700 and £1k!! Seems bonkers to me.

On the app I can see the cost breakdown.

An engine oil service with microfilter is £373.92
An engine oils service with microfilter, air filter & fuel filter is £668.74

So £300 extra for 2 filters. Are they that hard to fit? Parts are about £40.

Then I need a service vehicle check apparently. £111.. I ve asked and they said they check the horn and wipers right.

Then brake fluid seems a quite reasonable £87.


Anyone navigated this madness?

Don’t forget, if you don’t have the vehicle service check they won’t show the car as fully serviced, just an oil service so you’ll have missing service history. It will show as not fully serviced on the idrive and the cars history

[stevemcs]

Have you tried looking online at bmw service, pick your dealer enter the reg an it lists the services - my local dealer are £250 for oil and micro filter - the micro filter is usually £100 on its own.

[VeeTenM]

or buy your own stuff, keep the receipts and tell them to use that.

[skyebear]

Our i8 had its year 8 service at the end of last year. Air filter, micro filter, brake fluid, oil service and spark plugs came to £550.

That was BMW Glasgow who are now Arnold Clark. Couple of specialists quoted roughly the same but aren't conveniently located for me and couldn't offer a courtesy car.

[cliffords]

Shaun170 said:

panholio said:

Hi all,

I have a g31 520d approaching 30k miles and asking for its second service.

Bmw are quoting me, dependent on dealer, between £700 and £1k!! Seems bonkers to me.

On the app I can see the cost breakdown.

An engine oil service with microfilter is £373.92
An engine oils service with microfilter, air filter & fuel filter is £668.74

So £300 extra for 2 filters. Are they that hard to fit? Parts are about £40.

Then I need a service vehicle check apparently. £111.. I ve asked and they said they check the horn and wipers right.

Then brake fluid seems a quite reasonable £87.


Anyone navigated this madness?

Don t forget, if you don t have the vehicle service check they won t show the car as fully serviced, just an oil service so you ll have missing service history. It will show as not fully serviced on the idrive and the cars history

It's very easy to change what's on the Idrive with a cheap eBay tool.

[SteBrown91]

Sheepshanks said:

What did you do instead? Must admit I d be reluctant to take, of all cars, an EV out of the network.

It's not due until July but its booked i with an independent BMW specialist so they can update the iDrive etc.

I've read through the Battery warranty T&Cs and it only states it needs to be serviced to manufacturer specifications.

However I would like to see them reject a battery fault under warranty because the microfilter has not been replaced. I Suspect that would not wash in court.

[numtumfutunch]

You are being taken for a ride

Im in Leeds and my G31 530D cost much less than that for a 'major'

[8Tech]

panholio said:

Hi all,

I have a g31 520d approaching 30k miles and asking for its second service.

Bmw are quoting me, dependent on dealer, between £700 and £1k!! Seems bonkers to me.

On the app I can see the cost breakdown.

An engine oil service with microfilter is £373.92
An engine oils service with microfilter, air filter & fuel filter is £668.74

So £300 extra for 2 filters. Are they that hard to fit? Parts are about £40.

Then I need a service vehicle check apparently. £111.. I ve asked and they said they check the horn and wipers right.

Then brake fluid seems a quite reasonable £87.


Anyone navigated this madness?

Yes, just use an experienced Independant, just not one of the cowboy franchises.

[lornemalvo]

Sheepshanks said:

Does this work for you? https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...


I was looking at Lexus service prices this week - 2yr service, which is oil, pollen filter and brake fluid: £850.

It makes the Lexus service plan seem a no brainer, especially for cars less than a year old

[Terminator X]

It's the hourly rate, £150 ish afaik. I'm always suspicious they are just standing around too and these jobs take no where near the time they allow for them.

Could be worse, Maserati charged my insurance company almost £800 to reconfigure the camera after a windscreen change.

TX.

[Jamescrs]

Terminator X said:

It's the hourly rate, £150 ish afaik. I'm always suspicious they are just standing around too and these jobs take no where near the time they allow for them.

Could be worse, Maserati charged my insurance company almost £800 to reconfigure the camera after a windscreen change.

TX.

They aren't standing around but what they do is have 2-3 cars on the go at the same time, so you can imagine they could easily have three cars all on ramps draining oil one after the other and one tech could be doing all three, by the time he has the third one up and started to drain the first one is just about there and ready to go.

[v8notbrave]

£80 hr for BMW Indy with ex dealer staff. They have all the software etc and you get a loan car for that

Keeps costs down nicely

[Fox-]

panholio said:

Then I need a service vehicle check apparently. £111.. I ve asked and they said they check the horn and wipers right.

They don't just do that - they check much more than that. I am surprised you were given such a basic answer. The Vehicle Check service is essentially an inspection of various parts of the car, with the vehicle on the ramp. Many years ago these were the checks included in an Inspection 1 or an Inspection 2 service - with the condition based servicing system, these checks were split out into the Vehicle Check service, with the air and fuel filters (and spark plugs in petrol cars) done in alternate oil services.

Whether you think it represents good value or not is of course another matter entirely, but for a 30-45 minute inspection of the car every 4 years or 35,000 or so miles it is somewhat more than just paying someone £111 to check the wipers work.

It is part of the official service schedule so is required for full service history and warranty purposes.

I usually find that once you start shopping around the independant specialists who follow the BMW servicing schedule are not massively cheaper than the main dealers. It is also worth noting that as soon as the factory new car warranty expires the car is eligible for discounted servicing, which offers a useful discount.

Edited by Fox- on Thursday 30th July 15:34

[wax lyrical]

panholio said:

Sheepshanks said:

Does this work for you? https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...


I was looking at Lexus service prices this week - 2yr service, which is oil, pollen filter and brake fluid: £850.

Sadly not. Car is not quite 3 years old and still under warranty

I thought the warranty remains valid as long as the specialist you use, uses BMW parts?