Is there no end to BMW fleecing Customers?
Discussion
2011 so far...
Inspection I - £640
Warranty - £690 pa with a £250 excess...
and now they want £120pa for BMW Assist - WTF? That's 70% of my phone rental charge. I can afford it but they're taking the piss for the ability to call them for a remote sat nav destination upload or me searching on google maps and uploading myself. The satnav itself was a £1495 option - never again! The ones in my phones are free.
And that doesn't include tracker at £150, Tyres at £800 and another oil service at £148 and the eye-watering depreciation!
I wont be buying another Beemer as nice as it is!
Inspection I - £640
Warranty - £690 pa with a £250 excess...
and now they want £120pa for BMW Assist - WTF? That's 70% of my phone rental charge. I can afford it but they're taking the piss for the ability to call them for a remote sat nav destination upload or me searching on google maps and uploading myself. The satnav itself was a £1495 option - never again! The ones in my phones are free.
And that doesn't include tracker at £150, Tyres at £800 and another oil service at £148 and the eye-watering depreciation!
I wont be buying another Beemer as nice as it is!
Sir_Dave said:
ian in lancs said:
Inspection I - £640!
Might i suggest buying a toolkit, some gloves & have a look at the Opie Oils site.I've just done an Insp 2 on my 320d & the parts were less than £90 ...
Well guessed! It's a Z4M. As an engineer I can do all the servicing myself but an M engine or g-box or diff letting go would need a remortgage. Thus I need a warranty. Thus I need a BMW MD SH. I sort of don't mind the service and warranty costs, I factored that when choosing the 'M'. What really pisses me off is why BMW think they can dip their hands in my wallet for a product that frankly wouldn't cost anywhere near what they think is right to charge. Jokers!
A premium phone line I would get; a flat rate of £120pa is barking. That'll be a 'no' then!
A premium phone line I would get; a flat rate of £120pa is barking. That'll be a 'no' then!
Edited by ian in lancs on Friday 22 July 18:13
E30M3SE said:
Although what you say maybe correct it is not an option if one wishes to keep a BMW warranty going on the car.
Indeed plus how do you carry out the various diagnostic checks without the relevant equipment; suspect that alone would set you back rather more than £90! All credit to people who are still prepared to do their own maintenance but in this electronic age I just question whether it's as easy to do the job properly as it was in years gone by... How much is the cheapest data plan in the UK at the moment??
Can you get one for much less than £10 a month from anyone??
I think Three is the best price at £9.91 a month, I don't think it that unfair for BMW to charge you this to continue, if it were free they would only bundle it into the price of the Media pack to start with.
However, what they should do is allow you to hook up to your phone to get a connection.
Can you get one for much less than £10 a month from anyone??
I think Three is the best price at £9.91 a month, I don't think it that unfair for BMW to charge you this to continue, if it were free they would only bundle it into the price of the Media pack to start with.
However, what they should do is allow you to hook up to your phone to get a connection.
M stands for Money......Question, do you enjoy your car? If not sell it and buy something really boring and slow and economical and without sat-nav. And BMW aren't fleecing customers!! £120 for if your driving home one night and put your car in a ditch where no-one knows where you are will save your life, the google map and connected drive feature is great and plod won't give you 3 points on your liscence for operating it while your driving.
An M car is a precicion piece of engineering and of course it will cost more than your average car to service but you knew that when you bought it.
An M car is a precicion piece of engineering and of course it will cost more than your average car to service but you knew that when you bought it.
M3Charlie said:
An M car is a precicion piece of engineering and of course it will cost more than your average car to service but you knew that when you bought it.
I agree with that to large extent but to be honest I don't really think the servicing costs are that bad for the type of car. The bills for the last couple of oil changes I've had on my M3 CS have been less than £100 at my local main dealer and including the oil (supplied by me via Opie) the total cost has been around £150. I don't think that's rip-off territory and to put it in context a friend of mine has a new shape Vauxhall Astra and was charged more than that for the 1st service by a Vauxhall dealer (and from what I could see the scope of the work wasn't much more than an oil service!). True the inspection services on M-cars are more expensive but even then my local dealer will negotiate on price and I doubt you could service a Porsche, an AMG Merc or an Audi RS for less. As you rightly say, you know what you're getting into when you buy an M-car so it's not much good complaining after the event!However, as one of the last of the luddites I don't even know what this BMW Assist does so I wouldn't pay for it regardless of cost!!
Why is everyone banging on about servicing costs?
Ian has aleady said that he has no problem with them, you buy that car and you have to pay those prices if you want to stick with BMW warranty.
He is saying that £10 a month for the internet connection in the car is too expensive, that's all.
However, BMW don't provide a service of their own, they simply get a data package/sim from a provider and currently a 3g data package is going to sot you that from anywhere.
Ian has aleady said that he has no problem with them, you buy that car and you have to pay those prices if you want to stick with BMW warranty.
He is saying that £10 a month for the internet connection in the car is too expensive, that's all.
However, BMW don't provide a service of their own, they simply get a data package/sim from a provider and currently a 3g data package is going to sot you that from anywhere.
gizlaroc said:
Why is everyone banging on about servicing costs?
Ian has aleady said that he has no problem with them, you buy that car and you have to pay those prices if you want to stick with BMW warranty.
He is saying that £10 a month for the internet connection in the car is too expensive, that's all.
However, BMW don't provide a service of their own, they simply get a data package/sim from a provider and currently a 3g data package is going to sot you that from anywhere.
It's not that difficult to understand. Ian has aleady said that he has no problem with them, you buy that car and you have to pay those prices if you want to stick with BMW warranty.
He is saying that £10 a month for the internet connection in the car is too expensive, that's all.
However, BMW don't provide a service of their own, they simply get a data package/sim from a provider and currently a 3g data package is going to sot you that from anywhere.
The OP is saying he has no qualms about paying the premium rates that BMW charge for service work on the M cars (often up to 2 times the cost of a standard BMW, if not more), but is then moaning about having to pay an extra £10 a month for the internet connection. Does the OP complain that he has to put in £10 per month (a week is more likely!), more fuel than if he was running a Z4C?. Is he trying to tell us that the Extra £10 per month is breaking the bank?. If that's the case then maybe he needs to "downgrade" to the Z4C.
Put it this way, looking at the M-series cars purely as mechanical machines, do they genuinely cost twice as much(or more), to service as a standard BMW does?. Does an oil change or a brake disc change take twice as long as it does on a standard model, hence the extra cost?. Yes the engine servicing is more involved but BMW's premium covers all the service work. It's not even as if they are hand built anymore, they go down the exact same production lines as the standard cars!.
Sorry, but if you come on to PH's saying you're happy to pay the additional costs of running an M-car through BMW dealerships then you're not going to get much sympathy complaining of an extra cost of £10 per month.
(don't get Me wrong BTW, I understand the whole "£10 per month is too much for an internet connection to a car" argument, it's just harder to accept from someone happily paying premium rates for their car. It's a a bit like someone buying a brand new Ferrari 458 and then complaining about the cost of the road tax!).
ian in lancs said:
Well guessed! It's a Z4M. As an engineer I can do all the servicing myself but an M engine or g-box or diff letting go would need a remortgage. Thus I need a warranty. Thus I need a BMW MD SH. I sort of don't mind the service and warranty costs, I factored that when choosing the 'M'. What really pisses me off is why BMW think they can dip their hands in my wallet for a product that frankly wouldn't cost anywhere near what they think is right to charge. Jokers!
A premium phone line I would get; a flat rate of £120pa is barking. That'll be a 'no' then!
Did you call up several dealers to compete for the business?A premium phone line I would get; a flat rate of £120pa is barking. That'll be a 'no' then!
Edited by ian in lancs on Friday 22 July 18:13
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