Bit of rust, warranty, mileage limitations or not?

[Mr Whippy]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if anyone knew about a mileage limitation on the anti-corrosion warranty?

My June 04 Z4 is getting a bit of bubbling on the rear 3/4 panel at the top of the panel where it meets the roof seal.

I took it to BMW Stratstone Leeds and the body-shop guy seemed to think it'd be ok to have done, mentioned it was a very clean car, no signs of any past spray work, great condition for age/mileage generally.

So I waited 2 weeks for a reply. Chased a lot but no reply. Finally almost 2 months later I get a reply and now they say it's got too many miles, the warranty is 100k mile limit and my car has 104k miles. Oh that's convenient haha.


Is this right or are BMW just being idiots?


I just rang the excellent garage at Wakefield (Sandal) and their bodyshop people just said that year car and mileage were not a problem at all, they'd just need to look at it.


When I rang BMW UK they said the garage makes a choice on doing the work and then submit it to BMW UK for their money back basically. Though the Leeds garage said that BMW UK made the choice on the work and told the garage to do it or not.


So far it seems like BMW Stratstone Leeds don't want my up-coming money for INSP2, rear diff oil seals, brake fluid and air-con service... wheras Sandal Wakefield probably do.


Anyone else had this kind of variable 'service' from BMW?


Such a shame that up till now Sandal Wakefield made me think BMW were very good, but suddenly the Leeds and Harrogate Stratstones are putting me right off!

[Mr Whippy]

Yeah it sounds like they are making the rules up a bit.

A shame because the guys up at Stratstone Harrogate seemed pretty ok too... just the Leeds one ruining it.


I'll have to make some time for the service at Wakefield and then get their body-shop to look at it when I go there.

At least I know not to bother using Leeds or Harrogate again

Dave

[Mr Whippy]

The thing is I rang BMW GB and a woman said she would deal with it from here on in and get back to me, but no one has yet.

She said the garages decide on warranty work and just claim from them. Then the garage said BMW UK make the decision.


When I rang the body shop today at Leeds they HAD the answer (or did they?) and just said yeah, mileage issue. Clearly they had the answer but didn't tell me, or just made it up there and then.
When I said I'd ring BMW UK to check they did sound a little sheepish.



Either way I agree with you E30M3SE. They have lied, been lazy, and generally deceptive. The very last thing I'd want to do is give them my car keys. If they can't be trusted to do a simple job then how they can be trusted to do a complex one is beyond me.



I'll go to Sandal instead, and make sure that Stratstone know why they have lost my future business!

[Mr Whippy]

Well I had my Z4 bits corrected by BMW Wakefield, they had the car a week.

But now a year and a bit later the areas which were starting to bubble from the inside are clearly starting to bubble again.


All in all, knowing the amount of work that went into admin, courtesy car, me driving miles to get there, the prep work, the sprays, the lacquer etc etc, I'm pretty gutted they didn't actually spend the extra time to get to the root of the issue properly.

The paint work, matching, blending, customer service, courtesy car, everything was really spot on. But someone somewhere has done possibly the most essential part badly and made the entire job a waste of time and money.



I'm not sure I want to entrust the car to them a second time to try rectify it.