[vdubturbo]

So this is part question and part story...

A few weeks ago I noticed what I would consider excessive carbon buildup on the decorative exhaust tips. In 1,200 miles, the BMW has more carbon on the chrome tips than my IS350 did in 28,000 miles. I happened to be at the dealer for something unrelated so I decided to pop my head into the service department and ask the question.

Being a new customer and having a new car, I do not have a service adviser assigned to me, so I just asked to speak to someone. Dude comes out and real nicely I ask if this condition is normal. His response killed me...

SA "What kind of fuel are you using?"

Me "Premium, all the time."

SA "Oh... well... you see, the engines in the 5-series are bigger than the engines in the 3 Series... and with the bigger engines you get higher performance. You see, carbon is a... well, you see there's a lot more combustion going on in those cylinders because they're bigger... bigger than most engines. All that combustion is going to cause carbon. It's because it's a high performance engine."

Me "I see"

SA "yeah, I mean, if you told me it was all over the back bumper I would say there's something wrong. But if it's just on the tips it's normal."

Me "Well it looks like crap"

SA "Yeah... uhhh, just use some cleaner on it. It'll come off."

At this point I'm so stunned by this completely uneducated and BS answer I kind of walk myself backwards out of the service area and get back in my car.

I don't know if the amount of buildup on the pipes is normal or not, but I would have liked someone to LOOK at it and provide an educated response. I mean, I'm not some boy racer in his 3-Series with cheesy mods. And here I was told I would get more respect from the dealer/service guys as a 5-Series owner. huh.


So I'll ask this crowd... is the carbon buildup on the pipes normal with such little mileage? I probably need to take a pic, but I'm at work right now.

Oh, and just because it's my New Years resolution to hold people accountable, I will be calling the service manager. And I will let you know it was Fairfax BMW in Virginia. Didn't get the SA's name.