Dishonest main dealer service prices
Discussion
So here goes a massive rant about BMW’s service pricing.
I know I can take my car to an indi but there is still considerable value in my car and due to age and low mileage it would also be valued by a main dealer if I wanted to sell. It would be worth considerably less or not wanted at all with non main dealer history as I have experienced this before.
Bought my car new from my nearest dealer in 2021. Always had it serviced there, minor service, brake fluid etc.
It’s due it’s 4 year service in September. I’ve only done 20k miles so it’s age based rather than mileage.
It’s £568 for a major service, oil, oil filter, air filter, micro filter and spark plugs.
They also say I have to have a vehicle check service which is a standalone separate service that is a 120 point check, brake fluid top up, washer bottle top up, coolant top up if required! Lights check (car does that anyway) door hinges greased, again only if required, suspension checked etc etc…….all the stuff that was generally always checked on a major service and what I’d expect for £568.
When I said no thank you to this ‘extra’ £90 service I was told that if I didn’t take it the service interval indication on the car would not be reset and the cars service history would also not be updated as in their opinion the car wouldn’t have been fully serviced and they wouldn’t be able to sign it off as such.
Then in addition to all of the above costs there was also going to be an additional £46 environmental charge to dispose of my old fluids and filter etc.
Obviously I complained and they said that it was set by BMW and I need to take it up with them, so I did.
Called BMW UK and got through to an obvious overseas call centre. Friendly polite guy but had no clue about anything. He put me on hold while he contacted a London main dealer (I’m guessing Park Lane) for them to confirm if this was correct that the service light was not reset in a main service along with the service history being updated. 22 minutes later he came back on and confirmed it was.
I said it was ridiculous and a rip off, he then said he’d raise a complaint and put me through to customer services, so no idea what dept. the first guy was in.
I then found myself speaking with an English guy from the HQ in Hampshire. We’re now 38 minutes into this phone call. I had to explain everything to him again. He tried blaming it on the dealers all being franchises and that they set their own T&C’s around servicing. When I told him that the dealer had said that it was BMW UK that set the prices and terms of the servicing and I should take it up with them he pretty much said straight away that as a goodwill gesture he would email me a £100 voucher to cover the cost of the vehicle check service. I was appreciative but asked why was it shown as two different services with separate prices when you needed both, why not just show the whole service as one price. All he would say was that he’d speak to the dealership about my concerns (what difference that will make to anything) and pass my feedback back to those that are involved with servicing costs at BMW UK.
So this will be the last year that I get my car serviced at a BMW main dealer. Their pricing practices are dishonest.
I know I can take my car to an indi but there is still considerable value in my car and due to age and low mileage it would also be valued by a main dealer if I wanted to sell. It would be worth considerably less or not wanted at all with non main dealer history as I have experienced this before.
Bought my car new from my nearest dealer in 2021. Always had it serviced there, minor service, brake fluid etc.
It’s due it’s 4 year service in September. I’ve only done 20k miles so it’s age based rather than mileage.
It’s £568 for a major service, oil, oil filter, air filter, micro filter and spark plugs.
They also say I have to have a vehicle check service which is a standalone separate service that is a 120 point check, brake fluid top up, washer bottle top up, coolant top up if required! Lights check (car does that anyway) door hinges greased, again only if required, suspension checked etc etc…….all the stuff that was generally always checked on a major service and what I’d expect for £568.
When I said no thank you to this ‘extra’ £90 service I was told that if I didn’t take it the service interval indication on the car would not be reset and the cars service history would also not be updated as in their opinion the car wouldn’t have been fully serviced and they wouldn’t be able to sign it off as such.
Then in addition to all of the above costs there was also going to be an additional £46 environmental charge to dispose of my old fluids and filter etc.
Obviously I complained and they said that it was set by BMW and I need to take it up with them, so I did.
Called BMW UK and got through to an obvious overseas call centre. Friendly polite guy but had no clue about anything. He put me on hold while he contacted a London main dealer (I’m guessing Park Lane) for them to confirm if this was correct that the service light was not reset in a main service along with the service history being updated. 22 minutes later he came back on and confirmed it was.
I said it was ridiculous and a rip off, he then said he’d raise a complaint and put me through to customer services, so no idea what dept. the first guy was in.
I then found myself speaking with an English guy from the HQ in Hampshire. We’re now 38 minutes into this phone call. I had to explain everything to him again. He tried blaming it on the dealers all being franchises and that they set their own T&C’s around servicing. When I told him that the dealer had said that it was BMW UK that set the prices and terms of the servicing and I should take it up with them he pretty much said straight away that as a goodwill gesture he would email me a £100 voucher to cover the cost of the vehicle check service. I was appreciative but asked why was it shown as two different services with separate prices when you needed both, why not just show the whole service as one price. All he would say was that he’d speak to the dealership about my concerns (what difference that will make to anything) and pass my feedback back to those that are involved with servicing costs at BMW UK.
So this will be the last year that I get my car serviced at a BMW main dealer. Their pricing practices are dishonest.
I can sympathise with you. My car was due a major service, however it had a K&N panel filter and I was happy to change the cabin filter myself, so I called up and got a price for oil and plugs being serviced. No problem sir, £360 but we can't tick off the major service because it won't have had the other two filters done. Even when I pointed out that it had a K&N panel filter, they still insisted they had to put in a standard one 
To change the cabin filter, and swap out the K&N to an OEM one that I would be changing back in their car park, with the oil and plugs? £700.
They wanted another three hundred and forty pounds to do two filters that could be changed in <30 mins. When I complained and pointed this out, same spiel about BMW setting prices but, as with yourself, BMW customer service said it was the dealer who set prices.
Needless to say, car went to a specialist who did the major service instead and charged £380.
To change the cabin filter, and swap out the K&N to an OEM one that I would be changing back in their car park, with the oil and plugs? £700.
They wanted another three hundred and forty pounds to do two filters that could be changed in <30 mins. When I complained and pointed this out, same spiel about BMW setting prices but, as with yourself, BMW customer service said it was the dealer who set prices.
Needless to say, car went to a specialist who did the major service instead and charged £380.
Someone on another forum said he quoted "Personalised Pricing" when paying and got a 30% discount.
https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...
Yep, news to me too and seemingly not offered voluntarily by those manning the service desks.
https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...
Yep, news to me too and seemingly not offered voluntarily by those manning the service desks.
Somebody said:
Someone on another forum said he quoted "Personalised Pricing" when paying and got a 30% discount.
https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...
Yep, news to me too and seemingly not offered voluntarily by those manning the service desks.
That apparently is a personalised price based on the age of the car and the mileage it s automatically done in the MyDrive app and when I called the service desk he looked up the car and came back with the same discounted price. Non personalised was north of £750. The exact amount I don t recall. https://www.bmw.co.uk/en/topics/owners/service-wor...
Yep, news to me too and seemingly not offered voluntarily by those manning the service desks.
So I’ve been sent this today by a ‘friendly’ who works at a main dealer, its a BMW service check list for a service tech and it clearly shows that the service indicator, service history upload and the key fob battery should be changed as part of an engine oil (major) service and not as part of the additional cost vehicle check service that local to me main dealers are promoting.
I’ve emailed BMW UK customer services with a copy and I’m awaiting their reply. On the face of it the dealers are lying.
toasty said:
Not all BMW dealers are alike. I've been very happy with the service given by Vines Redhill, less so with other local dealers.
The above is dealer I refer to is Vines Redhill, although you speak to somebody in their service booking dept. in Guildford. I’ve also called Berry Banstead and been told the same. I queried what a standard scope charge was before. Apparently that's the cost of resetting the service light during a service.
I've seen others being charged a service charge.
They are trying to add in all sorts of additional fees and charges to get the price up. They don't want to put on your bill that they are charging you over £200 per hour for labour.
I've seen others being charged a service charge.
They are trying to add in all sorts of additional fees and charges to get the price up. They don't want to put on your bill that they are charging you over £200 per hour for labour.
Timely thread as I’m considering putting my M235 GC in for an oil & filter change. It will be a year old at end of next month & I always have an oil & filter change completed in between scheduled services.
Price quoted was £267…. By my reckoning there’s £60 - £70 of parts at retail cost. Seems a bit extortionate to me, what does everyone else think??
Price quoted was £267…. By my reckoning there’s £60 - £70 of parts at retail cost. Seems a bit extortionate to me, what does everyone else think??
Tim Cognito said:
I've never owned anything nearly new or expensive,
Do you lose more money in the residuals for not having full BMW service history and doing it yourself Vs getting shafted with servicing costs?
I wouldn't buy one owner serviced, i presume you would get the wheels off, get under the car check for play in suspension etc ?Do you lose more money in the residuals for not having full BMW service history and doing it yourself Vs getting shafted with servicing costs?
sortedcossie said:
I've just had a quote for changing the rear pads on an F31 335d from a main dealer: £285 which seems a lot given the pads are between £45 and £60, checked just now and our local indy only charged an hour labour to change the fronts last year.
At dealer hourly rates that's going to be where it is.Shaun170 said:
toasty said:
Not all BMW dealers are alike. I've been very happy with the service given by Vines Redhill, less so with other local dealers.
The above is dealer I refer to is Vines Redhill, although you speak to somebody in their service booking dept. in Guildford. I ve also called Berry Banstead and been told the same. sortedcossie said:
I've just had a quote for changing the rear pads on an F31 335d from a main dealer: £285 which seems a lot given the pads are between £45 and £60, checked just now and our local indy only charged an hour labour to change the fronts last year.
My 335xD rear pads were done at BMW in Manchester last month.The invoice shows a total of £240 (incl. VAT):
- Labour of 7 AW (35 minutes) - £100.80 (so £172.80 per hour)
- Brake cleaner - £7.22
- Sensor - £26.20
- Pads - £104.83
- Brake pad grease - £0.79
It's under AUC warranty, so didn't take it to my normal indy. But to compare, my local BMW specialist I was quoted only £10 less for an oil service, air/cabin filter, brake fluid change on my previous 320D, which is odd considering their quoted labour rate is about half of BMW's. But I guess the dealer can trim their margin on parts more than the indy can.
Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 30th July 13:50
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