Inspection 2 E46.

[Killwilly]

On Monday of this week I took my car for an inspection 2 at 58000 miles. During the past month I had shopped around for the best price. My local dealership quoted £411 including parts and vat. Bensten Motors Independent BMW specialist at St Ives Cambridgeshire quoted £247 including parts and vat.
I arrived at 8:15 am and booked the car in, telling them I would like the car back by lunchtime. I also said I wanted the brake fluid replacing as I had missed the renewal date last November. So off I go in the pre-arranged courtesy car. Two hours later I had a phone call to say that the front disc pads and the control arm bushes needed replacing, which I agreed to have done. My next question was could I still have the car by lunch time? No problem we have 2 technicians working on your car was the reply.I returned at 12:30 to find the car finished.
The total work was>

Number 2 inspection.
Brake fluid change.
Control arm bushes.
Front disc pads and sensors.

The total bill.....£580, Brilliant.

Was it worth the 70 mile round trip? Yes, most definately
Would I use them again? YES.

Alan.

[phumy]

You sure the pads and wishbones needed changing?????

They might have seen you coming.......

[Killwilly]

phumy said:

You sure the pads and wishbones needed changing?????

They might have seen you coming.......

Wow and I thought only dealers pulled that one.

[phumy]

So, where they worn, did you check, do you not already know the state of your brake pads and roughly when they might need changing yourself?

Had you felt any problems with your suspension or odd tyre wear proir to taking it in to the garage? If you had known these facts maybe you could have saved yourself 333 pounds

[ZeroSum]

I would say that is quite steep considering the parts cost under £150.

[Killwilly]

At my age I have neither the health, or the inclination to crawl about under my car. I am very happy with the service I received from Bensten Motors, that was the purpose of my original post. Could we please now drop the subject?

[LeightonBuzzard]

Killwilly said:

At my age I have neither the health, or the inclination to crawl about under my car. I am very happy with the service I received from Bensten Motors, that was the purpose of my original post. Could we please now drop the subject?

If you're happy thats good

usually it's a rank about shoddy servicing

[dave_s13]

You've not really paid over the odds for the work to be fair. So it's all good.

My garage will always keep the old parts to show you the work has been done. Useful with brake discs as you can easily see/feel any wear.

But, I usually do my own discs/pads.....I'm beginning to lose the inclination to do jobs like this myself though.

[the02shed]

The thing that folks always seem to forget about servicing, is that the whole point is to identify/ rectify items that need attention. Especially on an I2, any decent garage will be looking at these things-and control arms are almost a consumable on an E46. Whilst not doubting there are dodgy dealers out there, this seems more than fair.
Glad you had a good experience.

[Killwilly]

Thanks for the positive comments. The reason for my original post was to point other BMW owners in the direction of what I believe to be a very fair independent garage. We hear far to often on this and other motoring forums where people have been ripped off by main dealers. Perhaps ripped off is a bit strong, but we all like to save money where we can.