Amen brotha...

People get all bent out of shape because they get ****ty service at a dealer, or have a lemon, and generalize that all cars of that manufacterer are a POS.

Well, BMW happens to make one of the best engines around, there n/a engines are spanking Mercedes and Audi FI engines all day long. BMW has free maintainence, and whenever there is a problem, they jump on it right away and do everything they can to satisfy their customers. Not bad to have a 6 year/100k powertrain warranty on all pre-'04 M3s, and never have to pay for service.

Take your BMW to the right dealer, form a relationship with a nice service advisor, and meet the service manager and you will be fine.

 

Free maintainence? You pay a premium for the car. That premium includes your maintainence. Its hardly free but a marketing gimmic. I am a BMW guy, love the brand but know I am paying for this BS at the end of the day.

 

Most BMW sales and service reps I've dealt with think they're hot **** because they work at a BMW dealer. They all have a chip on their shoulders.

I've had nothing but problems with my bimmer since day one especially with the electricals. Hate replacing brakes so frequently. Now aircond fan is acting up.

The worse thing is it takes months to make an appt because there are so many damn yuppies driving bimmers in the bay area.

 

Multiple BMWs (have owned - not SOLD to other people - a couple dozen of them over the last 20 years) serviced at multiple dealers in four cities in three states and I can tell you service SUCKS BIG! I've no doubt you work for BMW because only someone working for them or just plain ignorant would be posting what you post. BMW used to have great cars (save for the electrical gremlins and weak auto trannies) with great service. They are now building exclusively schit which they R&D on their customers who they give crap to anytime stuff goes wrong. I wouldn't drive a current model BMW if you put the keys in my hand and said "it's free". Being stranded and wasting hours and trips to arrogant service depts staffed with morons just doesn't appeal to me.

 

BMW used to make great cars. I agree that their quality and service has plummeted recently.

The people you deal with at the dealership are a living, breathing version of the actual "***** bmw driver" stereotype. They're lucky I still love the M cars, because their service alone almost makes me want to just buy another car. My experiences with them is nearing worthy enough to drive a car I wont be satisfied with. Maybe I've owned one to many Lexus's.


-Jesse
1995 BMW M3 - Love the car, Hate the people.

 

I have had nothing but great service when it came to my BMW. Then again, I haven't really had much wrong with it. I hope it stays like that

 

Mercedes Benz

Audi

 

MB no longer offers free maintenance starting with their '05 cars.

 

Great "I" Drive ...............

 

Gotta love leasing!

 

Yep, exactly why we leased our E46 M3. However, when resales start to plummet owing to progressively lower build quality and service, so too will residuals making leasing BMWs unattractive.

 

Actually no, MBZ will no longer pay for ANY maintainence starting with '05 model because they cant give cars away, and are losing more money every day because people are going to BMW. Mercedes used to pay for some maintainence, but does not cover brakes, wiper blades, and other misc. stuff.

Audi also, does not pay for brakes, wiper blades, etc.

BMW is the ONLY company that pays for ALL of your maintainence on all of their models. BMW is the only company that you have to change the oil in 15k mile intervals.

Who ever is saying that I am ignorant because I work for BMW, etc. you have some serious personal issues that you need to work out. First of all, assumption is the mother of all ****-ups, and I had 2 BMWs over the last 4 years with almost no problems, except for a speaker blowing out, and the sunroof regulator breaking a few times on my 330.

The dealer I work for is a family owned business, and we treat people with a different attitude than the typical dealer. I have owned several cars, Audi, BMW, Porsche... I have found that service at just about every dealer is ****ty, because all people who work for these dealerships seem to have a pretentious attitude. That is not the case where I work, and anyone who used to work here that has that attitude has been fired by now. We treat people with respect, courtesy, and honesty all the time, and do whatever it takes to accomodate.

What many people dont realize, is that they are the *******, not the customer service. They are the people who have unreasonable needs and requests, and expect everyone at the drop of a hat to cater to their needs because they bought 1 car from BMW (not even our dealer most of the time). If you meet more than one ******* each day, it is a good idea to take a look in the mirror. People think that car salesmen are rude, but you have no idea how tainted car salesmen can become by all the customers who lie, cheat you, waste your time, dont show up for appts., and much more. I dare any of you who are complaining to work one week in car sales, and see if your attitude towards salesmen changes afterwords. I used to work in a resturaunt when I was younger, and I know that it defineately changed how I felt when I would go out ot eat. I work 6, sometimes 7 days a week, many times working over 10-12 hours in a day. I have no time to get things done outside of work many times. I do everything I can to take car of my customers... I give them my cell number so they can call me on my day off, sometimes making me come to work on my day off, and half the time they just go to another dealer to get 5 bucks a month of their payments. This makes you want to kill people. Sometimes you need to stop looking at things through your perspective only, and realize that there are 2 sides to the coin.

 

totally OT - Audi does pay for wipers - just had the ones on my wife's allroad replaced.

 

Good luck owning a BMW out of warranty... Just hand them your wallet and bend over....

Could anyone imagine having the new 7 series out of warranty !!!

 

Sounds like your dealer might be better than the two I've tried in the past here in the bay area. What dealer is it?

I've taken my total POS%$& 2000 540i into Allison BMW in Mountain View and have gotten only bad service.
Another time I got a call from the service rep at Stevens Creek BMW chiding me for giving him negative feedback on the customer response follow up call.

The electronics on my car are worse than my housekeepers' 1986 honda accord. On a $60K car I expect more reliability and customer service without trading the benefits of a nice strong 4.4L V8.

The Z8 is still one of the coolest cars on the road!