The second my car was off warranty I avoided the stealership at all costs. I’ve had horrible experiences at my local dealership. An independent bmw specialist will take care of you, and as always, do as much as you can on your own. I love my F80, they are great cars and very capable track cars.
The outrageous parts & labor pricing is pretty much par for the course with BMW dealerships unfortunately. I remember calling my local dealership for some wheel bolts, hoping to save time and money on shipping. Instead, I was quoted $15 per wheel bolt, whereas I could order the EXACT SAME PART on FCP Euro for just over $3. Because of this, I only visit my local BMW dealership for warranty issues and basic fluid changes. They charge about the same as an independent would, except I get the benefit of a nice loaner car.
They don’t call them stealers for nothing dude! I’ve had similar issues with dealers here in the UK, and even had the car bodywork damaged whilst being in their care. I now only use a BMW independent/specialist which is selected based upon reviews and trust - I’m not as brave as you in terms of my own repairs/wrenching, so get them to do most of the key maintenance and keep iDrive green across the board - I’d also recommend you get yourself a copy of ISTA+ to help with diags and maintenance checks 👍
lol bro, the alternate title I had for this video was: "My BMW Dealership Service Experience (they don’t call it stealership for nothing)" so we're on the same page. I actually have a fantastic performance garage nearby that I would have gone to but they book 2 weeks out and I needed the tires ASP but yeah they're my 100% go to for anything BMW related that I can't do. Also I just got ISTA so it's definitely time to get familiar with it.
I am not surprised with the prices for service from the dealer you listed. Ive personally gone to trusted euro shops in my area to get service and once you build a relationship with the service person, they are usually honest with me with stuff I should fix or not fix.
Agreed brother. I have a great euro performance garage nearby and would have gone to them but they typically book 2 weeks out and I needed the tires. If I don't tackle the seat wiring myself, I'll definitely go to them.
The dealer wanted over $2500 to change my front and rear brakes I declined and bought the Oem parts for $1000 shipped ( rotors , pads & sensors) and did it myself. It took me 3 hours because I cleaned the calipers pins etc. No wonder they are called stealer ship. On another note no one should use the dealer for tires.
Yeah I wouldn't have but, like I said, there were other things I wanted checked out (though they did tires in the past as reasonably as any local shop). That was before the changeover. $2500 for brakes is insane (not that my dealer would be any better). DIY is a lifesaver.
The prices are constant with BMW across the board. Do you have adaptive cruise control? If so they will charge you even more for programming & calibration. The calibration will be necessary for the adaptive cruise control to communicate with the ABS module to regulate the vehicle speed based on the distance from the vehicle in front of you. If you do not have adaptive cruise control be thankful, however I can almost guarantee you that they will say that additionally they need to bill you for steering angle sensor relearn and possibly passenger seat occupant sensor the passenger seat occupant sensor is for the passenger airbag. Sorry I got off course there I just want to know the “oh this is also needed” game. The module cost itself is nominal, the issue, even if you have an ISTA license is the pass through device, the ICOM, they start from $250 and up.
Pretty sure it's dynamic cc. I haven't seen any errors since so I'm letting it go for now but if it does completely fail, I'll take a crack at it (although I'm hoping it doesn't cause I think the module is like $900). If all goes wrong, off to my local shop it goes.
Hey man I used to work at BMW Specialist workshop here in Malaysia I primarily worked on F8X and E9X M cars as they were my friend's cars 😂. Anyway yea while I worked there people with out of warranty cars would come our shop based on recommendations and tell what BMW had quoted them, I shit you not it's thing that everyone who worked is waiting for. All the mechanics literally will stop whatever they're doing and huddle in a group and let the customer tell us what the price from BMW is then we'll all laugh for about 5 mins🤣 then tell the customer to leave the car here and that we'll do it for half the price. One of most insane ones was when a customer (F82 M4 Non Comp) came to the shop and told us that his fuel gauge didn't work properly, the wiring had a problem is what BMW said which was correct. But BMW recommended that he replaces the entire harness of his car which here in Malaysia is literally the deposit price to buy an F82 M4. We called a wiring expert and fixed it for 70 bucks. So yeah BMW is ridiculous, if your car is out warranty don't go to BMW! (From an ex BMW specialist mechanic)
I drive a humble Chevy Cruze and have always taken it to the dealer for repairs outside my scope of capability, but I once took it in to have the intake manifold replaced (plastic, part costs less than $100) and they charged me $1,300 to replace it. Well recently it went bad again and I decided to do it myself, found a RU-vid video, and discovered that even with my inexperience it took me less than an hour to do the work. Dealerships are finding any way possible to claw money out of people because cars aren’t selling in our current economy.
That's awesome.. this is the way bro. Before this car I was pretty timid when it came to doing my own maintenance but now it's almost a survival trick lol. I guarantee I will never set foot in a dealership again. If I can't do it, it'll go to my local garage. 🍻
Interesting part about the spacers is, they would have replace the lug bolts with the shorter variety. Rear seat heater requires cutting off bull rings and removing the leather cover. The cushion has the seat heater built into it. The technician has to reinstall the leather into the new seat cushion. I have done quite a few, Labor times are certainly a bit exaggerated. I think they were trying to scare you away. Also, new tires does not necessarily mean you need an alignment. If the previous tires were wearing normally, I would pass. The tire cost is absolutely ridiculous. And the spark plug recommendation was funny to see. Techs get paid by flat rate, and that fella was trying to wash your wallet!
Interesting insight into the seat heater and yeah I might have been offended by the spark plugs if it wasn’t so hilarious 😂 Thanks for weighing in bro; I appreciate it.
sounds like you went to Otto BMW? Seat heater... find an upholstery shop, OR document the process and it would be the first refit/retrofit seat heater video I've seen, and its applicable to f30 as well. I say this because I just recently had my interior swapped with an m3 cs interior, but I was admant that I wanted to retain the rear seat heat function, so we had the upholstery shop remove the rear leather and re skin the seats. I was wanting to DIY it, but I couldnt find a solid reference to start.
Yep, that's the place (was the place). And yeah that's the plan now (attempt to tackle it myself and make a video out of it). At the very least I figure it'd be worth it to show how much was saved on labor 👍
@@jgo.m3 UGH what a shame, as you mentioned in the video, Ottos was "the place" for dealer work in the region. PLUS they had their awesome bavarian flag dealer badge. If you ever need independent work in the area, bimmerworks is very good.
I didn’t like them either! Never did service there but they were trying to get me to pay within 3k of a new 2023 m3 for a 2021 that I had an allocation for. It didn’t have as many options and had a good amount of miles and wouldn’t budge! My guess is they either thought I wasn’t serious or didn’t believe I had an allocation. Imagine the look on one of the guys faces when he recognized me a few months later with the same color car when I came to pick up wheel locks. Got a few probing questions that day lol.
@@kentao4 Thats a shame, Otto BMW used to be the gold standard for a dealer experience. Heck, when I was 3 and my dad had his e30 he would go out of his way to take it to Otto, because Hans BMW lacked customer service and expertise.
@@goodnaruk overall it wasn’t too bad but I wasn’t about to overpay! Funny enough they said it would be something like 2 years for an allocation. I just find that hard to believe when I drove a half hr away and got an allocation that got me a car within a few months.
I had been going to the same dealership for years. I got to know several of the advisors and they knew me….and I had always considered pricing to be reasonable. The last time I took my car there (for a burning oil smell) I walked in and did not see anybody I knew. They ultimately said the valve cover needed to be replaced and wanted to charge $5,000 to repair. I told them not to touch it. I picked it up and found an independent mechanic to do it for much less. That dealer has lost my business forever
Sucks doesn't it? They were around for what, 50+ years? Fantastic service and reasonably priced before the switch. Oh well, happy to support an indie garage when needed.
I've got a 2020 540i. BMW wants crazy money for changing a cabin air filter, and an engine air filter. I declined this during my oil change service and did these two myself and probably saved over $500. It's almost crazy to even own a BMW if you're not capable to perform at least these simple filter changes yourself. No decent non-dealership service option in my area.
Good call. There's another guy that commented here with those exact 2 service items and they wanted about $500. That's insane money when you realize how easy it is to do yourself.
I live near KOP and I understand first hand why you drive so far. I’m now driving 40 miles and my m3 is not even a year old. I’m betting based on what you said you’re driving, that it’s prob the same dealer. I actually stopped going to where I bought it because they ordered the car wrong, rushed me through the signing process after they were late and also *lost* my original credit app which changed my interest rate. Now they did try to make up for that but then during my break in service, mind you I detailed my car that morning, also have ppf and ceramic coating, asked them to not wash my car…. Well I get my car back and it’s been run thru the auto wash and they keep trying to dry it with wet towels so there’s all sorts of streaks. I’m not going back! If I keep this car out of warranty, I’ll for sure be doing a lot on my own! I’m trying to time it for the last manual so I may buy one more in a few years. BMW is out of control for stuff like what they did to you. They’re looking for suckers.
Man I would have lost my shit with the auto wash. I also had a run in with a douchebag sales guy there maybe a decade ago which ensured I'd never buy a car from them but I gave the service dept a shot. Like I said in the video, I got a fantastic service advisor and the service/pricing when it was the old place was really not bad (at least for tires and warranty work) but now it seems like an absolute rip off. The upside is I never have to make that drive again lol. Good luck with the diy maintenance if you keep it brother.. it's well worth it 👍
@@jgo.m3 thanks man. While under warranty I’ll be at the dealer. Do you mind sharing your tire place? I used to live in Bear and def willing to drive for savings. I’m going to need rear tires soon 😇.
@@kentao4 Absolutely.. I should have mentioned them in the video but it's Campanella's (Paul Campanella's auto & tire center). They have locations around northern Delaware and nearby PA and apparently they have a few BMW techs also 👍
thats actually not a bad deal on the spark plugs, I have heard dealers charging $1500. But yeah both ridiculous, not that hard to do. I just did my belt and pulleys, I can't even imagine how much it would cost for dealer to do. It was a pain in the ass on the S55 but very diyable
Absolute robbery man. Also good to know that the belt/pulleys are doable. Btw nice video at Limerock! I was there last June with my kid who did the 3 day Skip Barber class and thought it would be awesome to come back with my car.
@@jgo.m3 Very cool, the skip barber school looks rad. Its my "local" track so I go a bunch of times. You should definitely bring your F80, it will be fantastic, I beat on the f87 all day and its just so good, has yet to give me a problem. Basically brake fluid and brake pads and just a great hpde car
@@oficina_moomoo Good ol' S55 bro - I definitely plan to bring it up there some time. As for SB, I got to sit in on the classes even though I was just spectating and even that was cool; definitely worth doing 👍
There's nothing weird about those prices, they've always been ridiculous. Anyone with a BMW should be prepared what they are getting into well before even thinking about buying one. If you don't have a good relationship with a mechanic that knows German cars, then you'll get hosed day in and day out.
I think that's true for the majority of cases but like another guy commented here, this specific dealership didn't used to be like that until they got taken over by another company. They were there for decades and were pretty reasonable (although I'd only had my car in for tires and a drivetrain malfunction which was covered under warranty). In any case, this was a lapse in diy judgement with the szl and seat wiring.. both of which I'll fix myself and if that goes south, indie garage it is.
@@jgo.m3 Oh thats not even the best part yet. So the BMW dealership I purchased my car from (out of state) came with other cosmetic issues, the Bumper being one of them. I got them to agree to cover some of the issues and the General Manager said this to me: "Please find a local indy person to do the job, because I know how much all these other bmw dealerships are going to overcharge you, I've been in the business for 30 years and I've been doing the same thing". So yeah Stealerships.
Bmw here charged over $500 for oem engine air filter & cabin air filter...come on man...i need to find a reputable independent bmw dealer. Next either im getting porsche cayenne or gx 550
Never came across such nonsense in the dealerships I went to. The tire and spark plug change for that money… that’s just crazy. Where I live a 285/30 ZR20 99Y Michelin PS4 is roughly $300… your tire prices are steep 😢
You are lucky they didn't give you a quote for the rear diff bushing that would have given you a stroke. Her in Australia I was quoted $445 dollars per injector plus install. Get yourself ista and do it yourself.
Oh trust me, I wouldn't have had them do it. I saw what goes into that job and I can't imagine the price quote but also because when it's time to replace bushings, I'll either go with Powerflex or Turner's setup instead of OEM. Agreed on ISTA; I recently got a copy.. time to get familiar with it.
