BMW expensive wipers

adrian92

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.
Seems very expensive, or is this normal?

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Del2005

adrian92 wrote: »

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.
Seems very expensive, or is this normal?

It's expensive and normal for a main dealer. How much did they charge you for the washer water? That's another scam they have.

The Bishop Basher

adrian92 wrote: »

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.

:eek:

adrian92 wrote: »

Seems very expensive

It is..

adrian92 wrote: »

or is this normal?

Yes. Never go to a main dealer unless you have to maintain a warranty and even then I wouldn't let them near my wipers at €95..

EPAndlee

Last time I changed mine it was 35 euro for the wipers and about 30 seconds to fit them

Reati

adrian92 wrote: »

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.
Seems very expensive, or is this normal?

There ie getting rode and then there is that. I'd had have laughed down the phone if I heard that quoted.

CalamariFritti

I dont get the wipers thing actually. Even €35 for 2 slightly fancy pieces of rubber in cheap metal frame seems absolutely insane. You'd think wipers should/would be a fiver. Don't get me started on €95. Is there something I dont know about wipers ? Like the rubber must be harvested by a virgin under a full moon or something?

Gumbo

adrian92 wrote: »

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.
Seems very expensive, or is this normal?

Its not expensive for a main dealer service item with receipt from the main dealer and a record that you were there at a particular time with a particular mileage.

I love buying cars that people done this

But, yes, you could have got them cheaper online or in a local motor factors. Probably about €50 for the genuine Bosch versions that BMW use and then you fit them yourself.

mickdw

35 is what bosch ones cost for my car. They are the single piece blade type and to be honest considering the improvement these are over the older style wipers, I happily pay that. They never screech or jump and are completely silent. I only swap them as in time they start to mark a slight noise when changing direction but I could see them lasting me 2 years without issue if I so wished.
Having used all types down the years, these wipers are a god send and one of the most useful improvements in modern cars.

95 is of course taking the piss.

Gumbo

mickdw wrote: »

35 is what bosch ones cost for my car. They are the single piece blade type and to be honest considering the improvement these are over the older style wipers, I happily pay that. They never screech or jump and are completely silent. I only swap them as in time they start to mark a slight noise when changing direction but I could see them lasting me 2 years without issue if I so wished.
Having used all types down the years, these wipers are a god send and one of the most useful improvements in modern cars.

95 is of course taking the piss.

€40 plus postage for the Bosch ones on Micks Garage for my 5 Series.
So OP could of saved approx. €48.


In reality, what would a decent price from a Main Dealer to supply and fit these be?

bazz26

I priced them for an F10 recently and local main dealer wanted €50.

bop1977

Skoda superb front wipers are €55 from Skoda.

Uncharted

For €95,they would have to wipe my arse after a feed of curry too....

AndyBoBandy

Bosch wipers in Halfords for about €35 for my 3 Series, fitted in less than 20 seconds!!

Wailin

Just ordered a pair of bosch blades on Amazon for €29 plus a free bottle of screenwash. Ridiculous prices as usual from a bmw dealer.

CalamariFritti

BMW are still making good cars. My current one is a BMW and my previous one was a BMW too. And I couldn't fault them. But the ridiculous carry on with regards to service and parts pricing is going to anger a lot of otherwise loyal customers. They want to cut that sh1t out or they're going to lose business in the long run.

Colleague of mine was asked for just shy of €30 for a fkn light bulb and it was just a silly side light bulb, nothing fancy, no main headlight, no xenon or led. Just a fkn light bulb like you'd expect to pay a couple of Euro for.

JohnBoy26

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

Bosch wipers in Halfords for about €35 for my 3 Series, fitted in less than 20 seconds!!

I bet you'd get them cheaper at a factors. Halfords is very expensive usually when it comes to wipers.

Eamonn8448

Main Dealer = mean stealer , avoid the stealerships if you can !!

delly

Tesco did great wipers for under a tenner, but stopped selling them recently unfortunately.

Related to this though, I remember seeing a device online recently that skimmed the base few millimetres off the wiper, essentially making them fresh for another while. No idea if it worked, but the video looked convincing.

grogi

adrian92 wrote: »

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.
Seems very expensive, or is this normal?

It is expensive, but absolutely normal for BMW dealership.

In their defence, the price is perfectly justified. Wipers in a BMW have special construction - they blend especially formed rubber, reinforced with metal construction and carefully shaped to use the dynamic pressure of passing air to increase the wiping strength.

All that to unleash maximum wiping performance under all conditions, from sunny California to snowy mountains of Norway. ...

hognef

Anybody tried this? https://ecocut-pro.de/en/

Dakota Dan

adrian92 wrote: »

I was charged €95 for wipers, supplied and fitted yesterday, from a BMW dealership.
Seems very expensive, or is this normal?

Did you ask them for a quote beforehand?

Dakota Dan

Eamonn8448 wrote: »

Main Dealer = mean stealer , avoid the stealerships if you can !!

I bought wipers in the main dealer store for a mazda 6 €17 for the pair and fitted them myself.

Eamonn8448

mazda ford and a few more are ok to buy from Dan its their labour costs im giving out about, 50 max for those beamers is enough, remember years ago back door lock was gone in a ford couirer i was driving under warranty, went to collect the part , said they had it booked in for 3 hours to do the lock, no word of a lie i did it there and then in the yard in under 6 minutes and told them pretend i left it there, only a fecking horseshoe clip holding it on !

Jimmy Dags

I hope the ky jelly was free op.

Toyotafanboi

I'd say @ €95 for 2x front blades, they must have charged for fitting? Which is poor enough form really, they'll unlikely get you back again for other bits.

That said you have to be prepared for premium bills when going to a BMW after sales department, expecting anything else would be naive. €50-60 would have been a fair price for genuine blades from the dealer IMO.

Some main dealer wipers are just seriously expensive though. When I was working for a Renault dealer a set of OEM blades for a Mk3 Megane was around €65 and when we needed wipers for our Astra J, the cheapest set I could find in a bricks and mortar store was €60.

HappyAsLarE

CalamariFritti wrote: »

BMW are still making good cars. My current one is a BMW and my previous one was a BMW too. And I couldn't fault them. But the ridiculous carry on with regards to service and parts pricing is going to anger a lot of otherwise loyal customers. They want to cut that sh1t out or they're going to lose business in the long run.

Colleague of mine was asked for just shy of €30 for a fkn light bulb and it was just a silly side light bulb, nothing fancy, no main headlight, no xenon or led. Just a fkn light bulb like you'd expect to pay a couple of Euro for.

They are great cars up to 5 years old :-D

talla

I usually get mine from https://www.wiperblades.co.uk/.
Fairly cheap for the blades themselves though shipping not so good @ £10.25 (£3.25 if you go down the PM/ PW route).

ION08

€92 is absolutely mad money, especially given how easy they are to change!

I recently replaced the wipers on my Audi. (Bosch Aerotwins)

Priced them at €42 in Halfords and got super lucky and picked up a brand new set off Adverts.ie for €15.

They literally clip on and off in less than 1 minute!!

What model of BMW are you driving OP?

Heres Johnny

Yeah mad money. Why anyone goes to a dealership for wipers and bulbs is beyond me. I understand a main dealer service history helps with warranty and resale but not for this type of stuff. And it's not just BMW but with their huge overheads and fancy showrooms they will gouge you any chance they get.

bazz26

I've used Bosch wipers I bought online before on my BMWs and they were fine for a few months but then started squealing and streaking on the windscreen. I think I paid about €35 for them delivered, I changed them to OEM ones which I bought from the local main dealer for €50 and while they are still made by Bosch they lasted nearly 2 years on the same car so while they were more expensive than buying online and apparently made by Bosch they lasted way longer. €50 to get two years out of a set of wipers is good value imo but I wouldn't pay another €45 euro to have the dealer fit them. It takes less than a minute on the F10.

kenmm

Holy **** - does your car have 5 windscreens?

HappyAsLarE

One thing people often neglect is wiper cleaning. I clean my wipers with the car suds water at every wash. That combined with a glass that is also cleaned weekly means I get years out of a set of blades.

Del2005

bazz26 wrote: »

I've used Bosch wipers I bought online before on my BMWs and they were fine for a few months but then started squealing and streaking on the windscreen. I think I paid about €35 for them delivered, I changed them to OEM ones which I bought from the local main dealer for €50 and while they are still made by Bosch they lasted nearly 2 years on the same car so while they were more expensive than buying online and apparently made by Bosch they lasted way longer. €50 to get two years out of a set of wipers is good value imo but I wouldn't pay another €45 euro to have the dealer fit them. It takes less than a minute on the F10.

Where did you buy online? If eBay it's most likely fakes that you got. BMW don't have special Bosch wipers, it'd cost too much.

grogi

Del2005 wrote: »

Where did you buy online? If eBay it's most likely fakes that you got. BMW don't have special Bosch wipers, it'd cost too much.

It wouldn't cost too much. Not with such volumes...

Denso blades I got from the Toyota dealer outlasted anything else from open market. By a factor of two at least.

PaulKK

Most likely you were charged 50 for the blades which is normal and 45 for labour… most likely minimum half an hour charged for a couple of mins work.

Really you should have bought the blades only and fit yourself.

Bosch blades are generally around the 40/50 mark for my E90 anyway.

mickdw

grogi wrote: »

Del2005 wrote: »

Where did you buy online? If eBay it's most likely fakes that you got. BMW don't have special Bosch wipers, it'd cost too much.

It wouldn't cost too much. Not with such volumes...

Denso blades I got from the Toyota dealer outlasted anything else from open market. By a factor of two at least.

While I don't doubt that BMW could specify a wiper that bosch would produce for that specific car, if that was the case, that wiper would surely be make available to the aftermarket by bosch themselves direct.
I certainly find bosch every bit as good as what came on my Audi from the factory.

bazz26

Del2005 wrote: »

Where did you buy online? If eBay it's most likely fakes that you got. BMW don't have special Bosch wipers, it'd cost too much.

I bought them from a well known UK website that specialises in wiper blades, not ebay.

Cee-Jay-Cee

Why on earth would anyone go to a dealer for wiper blades? Surely if you have the brains to pass a driving test and drive a car, you could change two wiper blades yourself and even if your the most ham fisted creature ever, go to a car accessory shop or motor factors and they’ll fit them for you!

I paid €34 for Bosch aero blades.

Reati

PaulKK wrote: »

Most likely you were charged 50 for the blades which is normal and 45 for labour… most likely minimum half an hour charged for a couple of mins work.

That's not fair. The guy had to look at the car, then walk into the back, find the box with the wipers. Open the box, remove the wipers and put the box in the bin. Walk allllllllllllllllll the way back to the car then attach the wipers then walk allllllllllll the way back to the bin with the old ones.

There is at least 2 hours of work in that. So it's pretty nice they only charged 45 for the labour.... Imagine that for generosity

JohnBoy26

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Why on earth would anyone go to a dealer for wiper blades? Surely if you have the brains to pass a driving test and drive a car, you could change two wiper blades yourself and even if your the most ham fisted creature ever, go to a car accessory shop or motor factors and they’ll fit them for you!

I paid €34 for Bosch aero blades.

Because the oe blades are usually much better than aftermarket blades. I know from experience that this is certainly true of ford and toyota's standard blades. Granted I wouldn't be getting the dealer to fit them though.

sdanseo

Bought Bosch wipers (front set only) for my 1er around Christmas for €21 from Micksgarage, including delivery.

Had the car in for a service at main dealer a few weeks before that and they had quoted €55 + VAT

Pure profiteering. Nothing else.

Toyotafanboi

sdanseo wrote: »

Pure profiteering. Nothing else.

To be fair it's not really. You're comparing apples to oranges.

The dealers overheads probably differ from MicksGarage in that MicksGarage don't have to have a plush retail friendly unit in some high rent part of town, they can just send parts in the post from a warehouse outlet somewhere which is obviously going to be a cheaper service to provide.

Its also very unlikely that the dealer and MicksGarage are buying the wipers from the same source. The MickGarage wipers have also changed hands less times (Bosch, distributor, MG) than the BMW ones (Bosch, BMW Germany, BMW Ireland, Dealer) so less people are looking to get a cut out of them.

Sure, the dealers wipers are dearer and sure, they are making a profit on them but it's likely a profit in line with their operating costs, the same as MicksGarage. You don't (and didn't) have to buy them there. It's hardly profiteering thought.

Clareman

Give them back, get your money and then sign up for the BMW First program, free for the first month and it includes wipers

sdanseo

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

To be fair it's not really. You're comparing apples to oranges.

The dealers overheads probably differ from MicksGarage in that MicksGarage don't have to have a plush retail friendly unit in some high rent part of town, they can just send parts in the post from a warehouse outlet somewhere which is obviously going to be a cheaper service to provide.

Its also very unlikely that the dealer and MicksGarage are buying the wipers from the same source. The MickGarage wipers have also changed hands less times (Bosch, distributor, MG) than the BMW ones (Bosch, BMW Germany, BMW Ireland, Dealer) so less people are looking to get a cut out of them.

Sure, the dealers wipers are dearer and sure, they are making a profit on them but it's likely a profit in line with their operating costs, the same as MicksGarage. You don't (and didn't) have to buy them there. It's hardly profiteering thought.

I'd expect a main dealer to be much more expensive, don't get me wrong. But a 300% difference is extreme. They know they will either beneift through people paying because they aren't bothered by the value or don't know any better - and if they don't have to do it it it's not a big part of their business so they don't care.

Servicing bought as part of a package is the flip side of the coin. Could pay €130-150 for a basic oil service at an indy and have 3 years of servicing for €399 with BMW. That was decent value by comparison.

bazz26

BMW service pack doesn't include wipers though.

Toyotafanboi

This is it. It's all about being savvy and shopping around.

grogi

mickdw wrote: »

While I don't doubt that BMW could specify a wiper that bosch would produce for that specific car, if that was the case, that wiper would surely be make available to the aftermarket by bosch themselves direct.
I certainly find bosch every bit as good as what came on my Audi from the factory.

Usually the thing goes like that: As long as the supplier makes the parts fitter to new cars in the factory, the quality is good enough. But once the production of cars ceases, the quality of product from the same suppliers decreases.

Del2005

grogi wrote: »

It wouldn't cost too much. Not with such volumes...

Denso blades I got from the Toyota dealer outlasted anything else from open market. By a factor of two at least.

That's the thing. If BMW specify a wiper it'll cost a bit more than an off the shelf wiper. Since they can't charge extra then it's an extra cost for them, with high volume small savings add up.

grogi

Del2005 wrote: »

That's the thing. If BMW specify a wiper it'll cost a bit more than an off the shelf wiper. Since they can't charge extra then it's an extra cost for them, with high volume small savings add up.

I thought that this whole thread is 'why BMW is charging extra for wiper blades'...

Del2005

grogi wrote: »

I thought that this whole thread is 'why BMW is charging extra for wiper blades'...

When manufacturing in large volumes small savings quickly ad uo. What they charge retail is nowhere near what they buy them for and as another poster said the OP was also charged for fitting, which is where they really got screwed!