When is it time to stop going to a main dealer for a service

What’s unbelievable about that?? If you get all the Inspection 1 and Inspection 2 services completed in a main dealer, that is considered a FSH by BMW.

Do you often have trouble trusting people?

I got goodwill on my 08 520d late last year. On its third timing chain now. Went away from the dealer after the five year service pack ran out.

In 2014 BMW we’re doing the chains foc for a few weeks but last year it wore again. Cost me €600 but the balance was covered by BMW.

Yesterday.

Amazing service by BMW on a 15 year old car

I had a timing chain done under warranty on a 08 320D estate with 160k miles in December 2018. 3 years main dealer servicing from purchase and independents after that.

Post number 7 on this thread for more details : https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057951065/bmw-timing-belt-chain#latest

I do believe this may have been due to them losing parts of a court case (in respect of disclosure of the number of timing chain failures in IRL & GB if memory serves me correctly) that was running in the courts in relation to timing chains. This is a just a guess on my part!

They had been refusing to give goodwill for years before this. I'm not sure how long they continued with this policy.

It's not always about costs, OP never mentioned money or savings, so it's a bit presumptuous to start claiming that's the reason.

Like most industries in Ireland, I've found if the person doing the work isn't the person getting paid, then the work is much more likely to be substandard. I.E. your man working as a mechanic in the BMW main dealer doesn't give a bollocks about your car or the work he's doing on it. He's getting paid at the end of the week, it doesn't matter if he does a shite job or not, he gets the same wages either way.......and both he and BMW couldn't give a monkeys about your return custom. Why would they, they're booked out the door with lads trying to maintain the main dealer full service history.

The local guy with the lockup behind the housing estate? If he does a shite job he won't get the full whack from his customers. Plus, if word gets out that his work is shoddy, he'll lose custom and end up going out of business. So he takes care and pride in what he does.

I've a long list of issues with Audi North Dublin/Joe Duffy, they're an absolute pain in the gee to deal with. One of the biggest red flags is that they wouldn't reply in writing to emails or complaints raised via their website. Everything was done over the phone, presumably so there's no record of it. I learned this the hard way, so by the end of everything I was emailing them to say "just so I'm clear, as per our conversation earlier, we have agreed upon the following....1....2...etc". They would phone me to confirm this was the case, most of the time.

No responsibility, no accountability, no budging on certain things because 'corporate have our hands tied' etc. I booked in for a major service in 2018 after I'd gotten the car (151 D), followed by a minor service in 2019. Didn't do much mileage in 2020, so just an oil change and another major one in 2021. In 2022, I received a call saying it was due, so I booked another minor one and dropped the car off. When I collected it, they were charging me nearly double (€500 instead of €260 or thereabouts). Turns out, they'd logged it as a major service by mistake, so I said I wasn't going to be paying for it. I told him that's not what I'd asked for, but he said it was my fault because I'd signed the sheet of paper when dropping off my keys which said major instead of minor. They couldn't adjust the price down because the work had already been done. I lost the rag with them and swore I wasn't going near them again. He deducted SOME of the labour costs after much arguing, and said he'd give me a major one next time as well for the price of a minor one. I asked for this in writing, and he refused, said it's on your file.

The following year, drop it off for service and a different guy knows nothing about a major one for the price of a minor one. I insisted it was 'on file' and he said "what file?". I had recorded his name at the time, so I asked to speak with him. He'd been promoted to a different branch and didn't work there any more. I asked the new guy to ring him and he refused. So I rang the different branch myself, put the phone on speaker and asked him about it in front of about 6 staff and the entire waiting area of customers. Before he could answer, a manager came over to me and said they'd honour it, presumably worried about the impending shouting match

I swore I was done with them, until a new issue three days later made me go back in. They made a balls of that too, so I was without a car from start of November until 14th December............nearly ten days before Xmas without a present or a bit of shopping done. Error on car "fault with start/stop system....please contact workshop". Reported on 26th October, couldn't get a slot until 10th November. Phone call, 15 mins before they close: "Problem is start/stop button, which only comes as part of a set that costs €250 or something and has to be ordered as they don't keep them in stock". They won't take payment over the phone, so have to make it to the showroom beside the Finglas M50 exit to pay. If I need to use the car tomorrow, he tells me, I'll have to get a taxi. I ask what time they close, he says ten minutes. "So, when you say get a taxi, what you mean is 'get a taxi tomorrow because we'll be shut by the time you get here and you'll have to get a taxi home and then another one out here tomorrow morning?" Response:......"uhhhhhhhhhh".

Call out to pay and collect car. Part arrives 4 days later. Drop car off again. Collect it that evening. They replaced the start/stop button, but same error comes up on the drive home. They never even took it out for a test drive. Drop it off again and get a call 2 hrs later. Initial diagnosis was incorrect, requires a new 'control unit'. Have to call out to pay for that in person also, then wait another week for an available slot. This is now 5 full weeks after the initial phone call was made.

1st December, get call at 5.15pm AGAIN to come collect car 15 mins before they close. I'm away that weekend, so car doesn't get much use.

Monday 5th December, car won't start at all. Not even a whimper. Call them up, no slots until Friday 9th.

Get car towed to the showroom on the 8th so they have all day on the 9th to work on it.

No word for the guts of a week, phone them on Wednesday 14th and I'm told it hasn't been looked at yet. No explanation of delay, no apology, nothing but "he might get to it today". Spoiler alert "does he, fcuk get to it today." I'm now down the guts of €900 quid for parts, another €150 on taxis, two days' leave from work in the run-up to Christmas and I'm WORSE off than when the problem first appeared (three days after a major service, mind). No even offer of a courtesy car to tide me over.

In the end, I fired off a snotty email and copied as many Audi email addresses as I could find. I got three phone calls within the hour, but not one email response. Bottom line: They fixed the problem with the replacement control unit, but wouldn't refund any of the cash paid. No refund for the taxis either. They refunded the new stop/start button charge and said I could keep it as a courtesy.

About three weeks later, I was telling the story to my Da while we were in the car. He said "what, this stop/start button" and pointed at it. It was only then that I spotted the circular bits in the O and P in STOP had been worn down from use, exactly like my old one. Fcukers charged me for it, refunded it when that wasn't the issue, said I could keep it, then swapped it back out for the old one when they realised it was functioning correctly.

Shower of pricks, and that mentality only proliferates when it doesn't affect their bottom line.

It's not all about being a stingy so-and-so. I'll never darken their doorstep again.

We have used BMW main dealers for years but the level of service over the last 36 months has deteriorated to such a degree that we have sourced an independent BMW technician. The quality of the work, the communication and the cost have made the switch worthwhile.