[fdriller9]

My car has been in for service for the past 3 days. All they had to do was code my alarm, check out the washer fluid system, lubricate my steering rack, and replace my AC blower. I understand that the blower replacement involves removing allot of components in the dash so I wasn't too annoyed by leaving it there for 2 days. But here is what annoys me! BMW NA decided to update all the programming software for the dealer and all the cars that were being reprogrammed were halted and now have to be restarted. I was suppose to install my SWS-8's and JL 500/1 amp today after I got the car back but now I have to wait till tomorrow...after jury duty and after coming back from Blauvelt, NY. This sucks.

On a brighter note, I got a new LCI E90 328i in red for a loaner. Quick question. My mom signed the loaner out under her name because I am 19 and BMW doesn't loan cars out to customers under 23. Can I return the car? Or does my mom have to? Can they really do anything if I return it?

Thanks

[John 070]

In the beginning, I found it very odd, too. In for an oil change, and then a phone call that they'll need the car another day. I think it's this whole "free maintenance" "factory loaner" gig. My guess is there are other cars that are paying full retail for a repair, they can't po those customers and lose them at the expense of fixing free maintenance cars.

Last time my car went in and I was told to p/u at 5 pm, it ended up being 3 days and I was given a 0 mile 328 x-drive coupe. It was amazing, it's like I was the only person who ever used that loaner car. But it was boring to drive, no zsp and steptronic....

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by John 070

In the beginning, I found it very odd, too. In for an oil change, and then a phone call that they'll need the car another day. I think it's this whole "free maintenance" "factory loaner" gig. My guess is there are other cars that are paying full retail for a repair, they can't po those customers and lose them at the expense of fixing free maintenance cars.

Not at all.

First, it adds to their costs since they have to keep you in a loaner longer than planned.

Second, while you may not be paying for maintenance, BMW pays the dealer for all warranty and maintenance and the workshops make most of their money on BMW-reimbursable work, not retail, as most customers out of warranty do not come to the BMW workshops.

So there is no conspiracy at the workshop involving second-class "free maintenance" cars. Rather, it´s probably a combination of insufficient manpower (a tech calls in sick, others have to cover, work backs up) and unexpected challenges (updating the car´s software fails, burns out CCC or CIC or another module, PUMA opened, etc.).

Ask any SA, the quicker they can get you in and out the better it is for them cost wise and the better it is for them in customer satisfaction.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by JSpira

Not at all.

First, it adds to their costs since they have to keep you in a loaner longer than planned.

Second, while you may not be paying for maintenance, BMW pays the dealer for all warranty and maintenance and the workshops make most of their money on BMW-reimbursable work, not retail, as most customers out of warranty do not come to the BMW workshops.

But they are running a business--how can an oil change take two days and they've loaned out a car to boot, yet they stay in business? Last time I had the x-drive coupe for 3 days? I was joking to myself that there would be hundreds of extra miles on my ODO, but there were 4. That means my car just sat there.

They are still charging non free maintenance people an arm and a leg for service. That must be built into the business model, it's not like people are starving at the BMW dealership. I have seen on several occasions they were on facebook when I walked in--morning only though. Never caught them in the evening.

[JSpira]

Originally Posted by John 070

But they are running a business--how can an oil change take two days and they've loaned out a car to boot, yet they stay in business?

Hopefully most oil changes are done while customers wait the 2 hrs. I agree - it is no way to run a business and they lose on such cases but hopefully they are few and far between.

Originally Posted by John 070

They are still charging non free maintenance people an arm and a leg for service. That must be built into the business model, it's not like people are starving at the BMW dealership.

Ja but there are fewer and fewer customers in the workshop who are paying the bill versus free maintenance and warranty. They get a fairly high reimb. from BMW for warranty work - it´s not done at a huge discount or anything btw.

[LostMarine]

it takes about a wholw day for the update, but its worth it.. trust me..

[fdriller9]

Yea I mean it was an unexpected challenge like you said. But my SA said BMW NA did not warn them that they were updating all the programming stations. So therefore my dealer could not inform me until today when it happened. I'm not really mad about it. I'm just annoyed my audio upgrade is going to be set back a couple days. Would have been real nice to listen to my news subs on my way up to NY.

[jpsum]

I don't know about BMW, but I know for sure that MB gives the dealers incentives for each and every loaner car they made available. An average dealership has about 50 - 100 loaners; some larger ones have even more. You just don't see them because most of them are out. It's not a bad gig for them, dealers love their loaner/CPOs.

I had a loaner for a whole week just for a single strut replacement.

[smallseafishie]

My car went in for 30k service and a SW update on monday. They had issues with updating and it's still there. They said they're replacing my CCC now since it won't communicate anymore....

My idrive was perfectly fine...

:-(

[Neutrino45]

That sucks. You should make someone pay when you go to jury duty. GUILTY!!! lol

[cfabluenose]

I haven't taken my car in for any service yet. But judging from the postings on the forum many BMW's seem to require marathon service appointments. My Saab was in and out of the dealer with little delay even for major repairs. I guess if I have a good loaner it won't be too painful.

[jopa489]

Originally Posted by *********

On a brighter note, I got a new LCI E90 328i in red for a loaner. Quick question. My mom signed the loaner out under her name because I am 19 and BMW doesn't loan cars out to customers under 23. Can I return the car? Or does my mom have to? Can they really do anything if I return it?

Wouldn't return it yourself, and wouldn't have your mom sign for it again. If you get in an accident, you won't be insured. It varies dealer-to-dealer, but the reason they don't loan cars to people under a certain age is because of insurance costs.

To answer your question more specifically, programming is a big deal for these cars. It's not plug-and-play and needs to be checked and rechecked before the car is given back. Yeah, it's kind of lame they just decided to do it but be patient and consider yourself lucky - they're doing it right.

[Seminole]

Shoot three days for all that stuff? My car was in the dealer for 5 days once just to get a new tire put on it when I got a flat.

I dropped it off on a Saturday (they have reduced hours on Sat.) but the BMW SA wasn't in, only the Mercedes (it's a dual dealership). He didn't know how to get authorization to replace my tire under the warranty policy that I bought during weekend hours, so it would take until Monday to get to the car. Keep in mind they have the exact tire I need sitting in the stock room. So I get put in a Kia loaner. Monday comes, no call. I call Tuesday morning and get told they will get to it that day and they had a backlog of cars. Tuesday comes and goes. Wednesday, same deal. Finally got my car back on Thursday. I heard from a guy I know that the used car manager had bought a bunch of cars over the weekend at auction and pulled all the techs off service duty to do inspections/repairs in order to get all the used cars certified for the CPO program. Because of that they couldn't work on any other cars. The SA was nice enough to comp my loaner (the tire policy only covered it for two days) and I knew he had to be under a ton of stress from all the PO'd customers so I just let it go and didn't complain, it wasn't like I didn't have a mode of transportation or anything.

[bsamoul]

BTW I'm pretty sure you CAN'T drive the loaner until you are 23 otherwise they would loan it out to you to begin with, so be very careful with that...

[sherlock]

Take it easy, my friend. Coding an alarm can take a few hours (if everything works)

I got the factory alarm kit for my '06 325i and the BMW instruction paper states that the installation AND programming should take approximately 1.5 hours. It even lists the programming steps and the testing procedure. I'll hopefully install it this weekend. The dealer said they would need the car all day to program it. Don't they read their own bulletins?

[Jeff@TopGearSolutions]

Originally Posted by jopa489

Wouldn't return it yourself, and wouldn't have your mom sign for it again. If you get in an accident, you won't be insured. It varies dealer-to-dealer, but the reason they don't loan cars to people under a certain age is because of insurance costs.

To answer your question more specifically, programming is a big deal for these cars. It's not plug-and-play and needs to be checked and rechecked before the car is given back. Yeah, it's kind of lame they just decided to do it but be patient and consider yourself lucky - they're doing it right.

I just want to reiterate the importance of the contract you sign on the loaner and that is...


9 times out of 10, what your signing is that you or your insurance will cover any damages to the car.

As far as the under-age thing, just like rental car companies they find those indivuduals are not as responsible blah blah and its just an increased head ache to them. Plus commonly those individuals dont have a lot of assets and equity to go after if they total the car, and end up not having insurance or something.

He can return the loaner back all day, what are they going to do? Call the cops?

Nothing...

[E92-Lighting]

3 days for service is quite some time

[fdriller9]

I drove off the lot with it...they didn't say anything and my sister has been doing it for years but she usually signs it out herself she's 21 now and has had a BMW since she was 17

[Fugly M3]

haha mine was in service for 4 days last week and I'm still waiting for the new armrest to get here. got it back last thursday. by sunday the brakes were squaling again!!!

[pruettfan]

As long as they give me a cool loaner I am fine with an extra day or two. I got to drive a 135i for 3 1/2 days a while back, didn't miss my 330i a bit.

[fdriller9]

I just returned the loaner...no problems. When I picked up my car I noticed they updated my idrive...new layout and settings! They said they should have charged me but they did it for free!

[Oulixes]

Originally Posted by John 070

In the beginning, I found it very odd, too. In for an oil change, and then a phone call that they'll need the car another day. I think it's this whole "free maintenance" "factory loaner" gig.
....

The maintenance is not free. Its cost of maintenance is prepaid by the customer at the time the car is purchased.