Z4 Service and general work needed..

[Z4Si]

Evening all,

I have neglected my Z4 for sometime and its time i pulled my finger out and gave her some TLC.

I need a inspection 2 service, the wipers are broken and the drivers side window no longer goes up or down. Do you think i am best taking her to a dealer or a private garage to get fixed?

Its a 2.5 2003 Roadster..

Any idea on total cost i will be looking at?

Cheers

[ShiDevil]

Hi Mate,

For a car of your age, go to an independent! You will not get a good deal elsewhere particularly at a dealers, where there hourly rate is very high, and you can't haggle on price

The wipers are not a hastle to sort and the drivers window is a common fault. It's generally the regulator that goes. It's normally around £250 for the part and fitting, so anything better than that, happy days. Haggle away The alternative is that you buy the part online, which might work out cheaper and get the indy to fit it.

If I were you I would get several quotes from independents

There are a few guys on the Z4Forum which is where I generally hang out, with similar issues and given the economic climate, garages are happy to do deals, so it's more money in your pocket. It's impotant to get multiple quotes and also feedback on how good the garage is so you cover yourself and don't end up with lots of added extras. This protects you in the long run, if you need to use them again

Typical Inspection 2 Quotes from a number of garages I've contacted are around £400, but I would hope you could get slightly less, although the increase in VAT, will mean it's probably close to £400.

So get some quotes, factor in the other faults you have and try and get the best deal

Let me know how it goes and have fun

Steve

[Sticks.]

If you don't have a good indy near you and you go to the main dealer, they ought to charge at a lower hourly rate for cars over 4 years old, so make sure they haen't forgotten that. Mine doesn't come out at that much more than my local garage.

Eta yes, Z4forum well worth frequenting.

Edited by Sticks. on Sunday 2nd January 10:39

[4rephill]

Sticks. said:

If you don't have a good indy near you and you go to the main dealer, they ought to charge at a lower hourly rate for cars over 4 years old, so make sure they haen't forgotten that. Mine doesn't come out at that much more than my local garage.

Eta yes, Z4forum well worth frequenting.

Edited by Sticks. on Sunday 2nd January 10:39

At a lot of Main Dealers you have to specifically ask for the 4 plus service rates. It's not that they "forget" about it, they simply leave it to the customer to ask so that if the customer doesn't realise or forgets to ask then they can charge the full rate and make a bit more money for the same job.

OP: Be aware that your car should also qualify for the 6 plus service rates which I believe are slightly lower again.

[mmm-five]

4rephill said:

At a lot of Main Dealers you have to specifically ask for the 4 plus service rates. It's not that they "forget" about it, they simply leave it to the customer to ask so that if the customer doesn't realise or forgets to ask then they can charge the full rate and make a bit more money for the same job.

OP: Be aware that your car should also qualify for the 6 plus service rates which I believe are slightly lower again.

I'd bet a lot of main dealers also purposely mislead customers about it too.

There have been times where I've asked for a quote for an inspection on a car, then asked what the price will be with my BMW Car Club and/or plus4/6 discount (on cars ranging from 2 years old to 10 years old), only to be told "they've already been included sir.", despite me not giving any age related details out to the service advisor, and despite them still being 10% more expensive than the one slightly further away who doesn't partake in the discount scheme.

[4rephill]

mmm-five said:

4rephill said:

At a lot of Main Dealers you have to specifically ask for the 4 plus service rates. It's not that they "forget" about it, they simply leave it to the customer to ask so that if the customer doesn't realise or forgets to ask then they can charge the full rate and make a bit more money for the same job.

OP: Be aware that your car should also qualify for the 6 plus service rates which I believe are slightly lower again.

I'd bet a lot of main dealers also purposely mislead customers about it too.

There have been times where I've asked for a quote for an inspection on a car, then asked what the price will be with my BMW Car Club and/or plus4/6 discount (on cars ranging from 2 years old to 10 years old), only to be told "they've already been included sir.", despite me not giving any age related details out to the service advisor, and despite them still being 10% more expensive than the one slightly further away who doesn't partake in the discount scheme.

To be fair, at some Dealerships, if they have you on their record books for previous work and the car qualified for the discount, they automatically assume it's the same car and do apply the discount. What will then happen is that if the car brought in for the work is a different one and does not qualify for the discount they will adjust the bill accordingly.

As I say, at some Dealerships you have to ask for the discount, at some others they apply it automatically, and as you have found, some Dealerships seem to have lowered their prices across the board without using the age discount system. All the individual Dealerships seem to operate their own individual systems when it comes to discounts, there doesn't seem to one single system for all.

I don't normally have to ask for the discount anymore as it tends to be automatically applied, but then My Dealership have known Me for over 22 years so that helps, but as you say, I'm sure there are many dealerships who mislead their customers.

(BTW, on this last theme, are you sure "the one slightly further away who doesn't partake in the discount scheme", really doesn't take part in the scheme?, you've only got their word for it! ).

[mmm-five]

4rephill said:

(BTW, on this last theme, are you sure "the one slightly further away who doesn't partake in the discount scheme", really doesn't take part in the scheme?, you've only got their word for it! ).

Can't be sure of anything these days, with a dealership in the NW charging the same for an Inspection as one in West London, despite there being almost a £50/hour labour charge difference.

The one slightly further away has never had any of my cars, but their quote was £700 compared to the discounted rate at the local one of £800 (which has seen mine a few times over the years) - and different people have related the same price even though there car is younger/older than mine.

[4rephill]

mmm-five said:

4rephill said:

(BTW, on this last theme, are you sure "the one slightly further away who doesn't partake in the discount scheme", really doesn't take part in the scheme?, you've only got their word for it! ).

Can't be sure of anything these days, with a dealership in the NW charging the same for an Inspection as one in West London, despite there being almost a £50/hour labour charge difference.

The one slightly further away has never had any of my cars, but their quote was £700 compared to the discounted rate at the local one of £800 (which has seen mine a few times over the years) - and different people have related the same price even though there car is younger/older than mine.

Ah!, the joys of the BMW dealership lottery!. It would be nice if there was some consistency to their service pricing wouldn't it. You can have two Dealerships in the same area operating to two completely different systems with different prices.

I'm fortunate enough to have a good relationship with My local Dealership (knowing them for 22 years helps) and they're just up the road from where I work so I can drop the car off in the morning, walk to work and then collect the car at the end of the day.

I've lost count of the number of times that they've done favours for Me like not charging for some small jobs, service managers lending Me their own cars overnight to go home in because of unexpected delays with My car, finding Me a loan car for a weekend, free of charge, as parts ordered for My car had not turned up on time, all manner of things that make the experience of using them a pleasurable one.

(Mind you, I have joked with them that with the amount of money I have spent with them over 22 years, it should be My name above the door! ).

[mmm-five]

I had an easy solution when I had my e34s. Once they were out of the expensive extended warranty I simply took them to ///M specialists (CPC, Birds, BayMoW, Darjac, NCB Autokraft), pity the damage was already done.

I've now got the same dilemma with the Z4MC, as it's got a BMW Extended warranty on it, so it means it has to go to BMW for scheduled maintenance - although for everything else the specialist wins.