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Are all BMW dealers rubbish as customer service?

195 miles will be at a constant 50 mph with no heating, aircon or lights, at 20C ambient and a following wind
 
My local Skoda dealer, who I use to service a VW, is brilliant.

I do believe our next car will be a Skoda, the Kodiaq in the metal is amazing, they do make lovely cars nowadays with far better appeal than any VW this side of a Golf R maybe.
 
Well it looks like she is smitten with the i3. It was interesting to see her get back some of the 'mojo' she used to have when she did drive with gusto. Whilst we were driving last night a yoof in his souped up Honda Civic complete with dustbin lid sized exhaust pulled in front of her and then accelerated hard. He then did this at the next two roundabouts. Much to my amazement she booted it and let him know he really wasn't that fast.
 
I was thinking that this at least toned it down but maybe not.

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She only likes the white or blue version. We will test drive the Mercedes B250e but I suspect the real world range will be poor given it is standard car without the weight savings the i3 has. However I may be posting a new thread regarding Mercedes service as guess what? There was no salesman available to talk about a test drive and nobody rang me back after I left my details.
 
I happen to love the i3, but would never call it pretty. We've driven around 11k miles since December 2015, and (for our purposes, i.e. a 25-mile commute into and out of Edinburgh) it cannot be beaten. It's easy to drive, quick, very, very smooth in traffic, reliable, and is extremely cheap to run. However, BMW and the dealer network will f**k you in the ass at every opportunity when it comes to servicing and the like, so beware that. I can talk at length about what you should and shouldn't do as regards the i3, but instead would point you to the BMW i3 UK group on Facebook where I spend a fair bit of time.

Our i3 will go back in December and I'm sorely tempted to get another; one thing is for sure, I'd hate to have to go back to a petrol or diesel car for the commute, and will be trying out the latest Zoe and maybe even the Bolt (though I fear it may be as woefully constructed as the abhorrent Ypsilon). I'd buy a Tesla, but I'm uncomfortable spending that much money on something that depreciates, and in any case they're a bit on the big side for UK roads IMHO....

Rodrat, please feel free to PM or phone if you want an owner's opinion after a year-and-a-bit of ownership*.

* OK, I'm leasing, but same difference...
 
I've tried to deal with four or five of them and they are pretty poor in my experience. I went to buy an M3, X5 and 3 series on a number of occasions with the cash waiting and their service has been what can only be described as being disinterested or shambolic and (my) time wasting.

Their loss as we went to other brands in the end.
 
I often wonder if us punters give off certain signals that an experienced car salesman can detect. I know that when I went to the various Audi garages to view and get information and have test drives I was looking at them as a possible alternative to my preferred choice. I feel that I did have an open mind and that I wanted to find a great car but maybe my subconcious was sending "time waster or tyre kicker" messages out?
 
As the extended warranty on my ageing BMW 325d M Touring finally hit the buffers last summer I decided to seek out a decent specialist not too far away. I settled on a company called Munich Legends in the Ashdown forest. These people come across as real BMW fans and you get the impression they love working on the cars. I reckon I'll be going back to them again.
 
cutting42 said:
I often wonder if us punters give off certain signals that an experienced car salesman can detect. I know that when I went to the various Audi garages to view and get information and have test drives I was looking at them as a possible alternative to my preferred choice. I feel that I did have an open mind and that I wanted to find a great car but maybe my subconcious was sending "time waster or tyre kicker" messages out?
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I think there is an element of that. Sales people get very astute at picking up who's there to buy and who's there to browse. They get paid by commission so they follow the easy money.

The other thing to bear in mind with the more expensive brands is that the supply of product is tightly controlled so they're often not interested in the hassle of convincing people why one brand is better than another, they'd rather just sell one to someone who has already decided they want to buy one.
 
The dealers who I bought my first BMW from, a 525tds Touring (and a very good car), had a sign, in big letters - DWYSYWD - over each salesperson's desk. It stood for Do What You Say You Will Do apparently, very admirable. Unfortunately, they were cr*p.
 
My issues revolved around the dis-service department. This dates back to the days of my old E46 M3.

I don't cut corners when it comes to maintaining a car.

I had some work done on the car in December 2015 and there was an advisory relating to some work that needed to be done to the car. It was left that the service department would get back to me to organise a date for the work in the New Year. I didnt hear anything so during the course of January and February last year I called the service department on at least three (likely to have been more) occasions and the service personnel promised to get back to me, nothing happened. I then resorted to physically popping into the service department twice for the same service personnel to faithfully promise that so and so would get back to me. Of course that didn't happen. It was at that point I went elsewhere, and lo and behold it transpired that the advisory was a load of old bull! Quite frankly if service at BMW had got back to me I would have without question had the work done, but on seeing the independent and their view of the advisory I think you will understand that I will not be going back to BMW for service requirements.
 
My story on that vein was the proposed dealer fix for a headlight levelling issue in pre-MOT check - two new xenon lights at £690+vat - each. Oh, and and £670-odd for new rear brakes because the handbrake was unbalanced.

My new favourite indy started at the other end and found a duff levelling sensor - £50. With which I had them replaces the rear brakeset /and handbrake minishoes/adjusters etc complete anyway (because the effort is removing the discs at all, whether to free a stuck adjuster or just to check) Done, £290 for all-BMW parts. That told me volumes.
 
All the BMW dealers I've dealt with have been, lets be kind, average.

I organised a test drive only to be told on arriving that the car was in storage and I'd have to come back. Organised for a second time and it actually happened again, but this time we went and picked it up after I insisted. Then I had to listen to the 2 salesmen banter the whole journey. I'm a relaxed kinda guy but it didn't half piss me off that I had to interrupt their conversations to ask questions about the car.

Once it was bought the servicing folks didn't really improve matters, although the car was spotless every time I picked it up. Eye wateringly expensive at times and I just about paid for official recall work at least once.

On replacing I went elsewhere after being promised a demo car was to be dropped off with me for a weekend, which obviously didn't arrive!
 
jay said:
All the BMW dealers I've dealt with have been, lets be kind, average.

I organised a test drive only to be told on arriving that the car was in storage and I'd have to come back.
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I don't think I'd have given them a second chance, unless there were serious extenuating circumstances. If I was still interested in the car, I'd have asked them if they could help me find a BMW dealer in another nearby town. Or maybe asked them if I could borrow their computer to look up the local Merc dealer's address.
 
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