[pizza_nightmare]

Hi everyone. I know what the consensus is on dealerships here on the forum. I got this email and was wondering what everyone's thoughts are. Has anyone done this?

Is this like a PPI? I won't have service done at this dealer but if they are willing to check things out for free on my 2007 328xi with 165,000 miles why not?

[bluewater328]

That's all it is in reality. It's a free checkup, just like at Jiffy Lube, so they can recommend more repairs that are (sometimes) needed. Booking time is their end goal while giving you the appearance that they care. That said, not all mechanics at BMW are dishonest, but service techs and shop heads are there for their persuasion ability. Take it with a grain of salt, but it's a marketing technique to get you in the door.

That said, maybe they have some free giveaways and stuff while you're there, and they give you an idea of what you should "look" at. Then take it to an indy or do it yourself if its actually justified.

[pizza_nightmare]

Originally Posted by bluewater328

That's all it is in reality. It's a free checkup, just like at Jiffy Lube, so they can recommend more repairs that are (sometimes) needed. Booking time is their end goal while giving you the appearance that they care. That said, not all mechanics at BMW are dishonest, but service techs and shop heads are there for their persuasion ability. Take it with a grain of salt, but it's a marketing technique to get you in the door.

That said, maybe they have some free giveaways and stuff while you're there, and they give you an idea of what you should "look" at. Then take it to an indy or do it yourself if its actually justified.

Ok, thank you for the reply. I can't afford to have repairs done right now so they can't get blood from a stone, so to speak.

If they do give me a printed list of what's up with my car I could parse our the repairs in order of most urgent first. And proceed make an appointment with my indy who seems too busy for me most the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[ibd12nv]

I've done this a couple of years ago. It was thorough and worth the time. They could not find anything but recommended I replace the hood struts. Lol.

[macheff03]

Originally Posted by ibd12nv

I've done this a couple of years ago. It was thorough and worth the time. They could not find anything but recommended I replace the hood struts. Lol.

Interesting-

I would have thought it's more like a 'you get what you pay for' situation

[Bufalo]

I've done a few of these and had good experiences. I never agree to have any of the work done, I do that on my own, but it's good to have a set of trained eyes looking at the car every so often to catch anything I might miss or not realize is needed. Typically they will then have extra coffee and stuff in the waiting center, I often will test/joy-ride in something new, and just enjoy being around the cars.

[macheff03]

Originally Posted by Bufalo

I've done a few of these and had good experiences. I never agree to have any of the work done, I do that on my own, but it's good to have a set of trained eyes looking at the car every so often to catch anything I might miss or not realize is needed. Typically they will then have extra coffee and stuff in the waiting center, I often will test/joy-ride in something new, and just enjoy being around the cars.

Wish I knew this the other day-
Just paid my mechanic $150 for a check

[pizza_nightmare]

Thanks to everyone that posted a reply. I scheduled a check-up for May 18. I'll report back in detail how it all went down at BMW Manhattan.

[pizza_nightmare]

Spent the day at BMW Manhattan yesterday. My appointment was for 11:40am. I showed up on time.

Car was finished and given back to me at around 4pm. They quoted an hour and a half. Oh well. I'm a patient person and this was free.

Representative said mechanics will put the car on the lift and give everything a once over. He asked if there were any areas the mechanic should look at. I said valve cover gasket (faint burning oil smell) and a light squeaky noise was coming from the belts.

Attached are the documents they gave back to me with discounted dealer cost to perform the work:

- valve cover gasket $1,551.93
- oil filter housing gasket $711.87

I had the valve cover gasket done about 6,000 miles ago for about $750-ish. He said it could be the valve cover itself is warped.

Not noted but was verbalized was my rear suspension was rusty (control arms). He said bushings weren't rotted out. No mention of the squeaky belts.

[Biginboca]

Ugh here we go again with these dealerships. I did my own valve cover gasket on my 328i using online tutorials and it took me 5-6 hours. They want $1500 after discount for that job which would now take me about 3 hours since I now understand it, and likely takes them even less.

Then there’s that oil filter housing gasket. I did that myself also took me about 1.5 hours and they want $670 for labor (after discount) on that. I could do it again in an hour now that I understand that job too.

This is why my car has not been to the dealer. It really is a joke. Even their parts prices for the Gasket’s are too high!