[changed]

Hi all... does anyone have any experience of servicing costs?

I have just dropped my 14 plate 520d in for service at 38k, I was assured when I bought it 1 year and 12k it was only a small service next time so I was shocked when the agent quoted £631.00

It apparently needs all filters doing and a vehicle check.

By the time the obligatory wipers are added that's going to be over £700!!

Any views or is it me?

[MrPogle]

Luxury. I recently paid a 1000 GBP for the same service. I suspect that my engine has double the number of each of the filters (except pollen) and needs more oil. So 700 for yours sounds consistent.

[Martin2C]

Yes, sounds about right. It costs about the same as my Boxster does at a Porsche dealer, which was a bit of a surprise, but my last 5 series was a company car so I had no idea what it cost to service.

[suj999]

Damn... £631!!

Always got my indi to do my service with original /MANN filters.

Fuel: £18
Air: £38
Pollen carbon: £30
Oil:£11

5.2L of Castrol Edge 5W30 ~= £45

£60 labour.

[changed]

So I told them not to do it... Rang around today and was quoted £478 and £540 by other main dealers.. both wouldn't confirm until they had the key to read. Loosing battle really I guess. Lesson learned is to not take anything salesmen say that's not in writing!

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by changed

I have just dropped my 14 plate 520d in for service at 38k, I was assured when I bought it 1 year and 12k it was only a small service next time so I was shocked when the agent quoted £631.00

Any views or is it me?

Something is not adding up... bought at 12k miles, at 1-year old, should normally be a straight forward oil service at something like 18 - 20k miles. Now at 38k, haven't you already had the 'cheaper' oil service? Surely this will be the second 'larger' service since new?

[IanS100]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Something is not adding up... bought at 12k miles, at 1-year old, should normally be a straight forward oil service at something like 18 - 20k miles. Now at 38k, haven't you already had the 'cheaper' oil service? Surely this will be the second 'larger' service since new?

Maybe he means he bought the car 1 year and 12k miles ago?

[mrashton]

Originally Posted by changed

So I told them not to do it... Rang around today and was quoted £478 and £540 by other main dealers.. both wouldn't confirm until they had the key to read. Loosing battle really I guess. Lesson learned is to not take anything salesmen say that's not in writing!

Depending when in 2014 your car was first registered it may be out of warranty and entitled to BMW "Value" servicing. You can take a look here just enter your vehicle details to get the prices. Your iDrive should give you a good idea about what the car is expecting to have serviced.

https://www.bmw-service.co.uk/

[changed]

The car is a 14 plate.. I bought on 26k 10 mths ago. I was assured it had just had the expensive service on 2 yrs old with filters so the next one was just a small service. Although it appears that advice was simply wrong.

Anyway strangely they have managed to discount it by the best part of £100 to make competative.

Interesting the above on value service.. I'm out of warranty by 2 moths so I according to that it should be a max of £552 whatever!

[The Beast]

I think that you've been quoted for two separate service items that are currently due.

You have a standard service and also the vehicle inspection. The BMW service schedule is made up of; service minor/major (condition based), a vehicle inspection (around every two years), brake fluid change (every two years) and brake pads (condition based)

It appears to me that you have two of these due at the same time...

[Piers]

Wow makes you realise how important the service pack is, not owned one without so never knew how expensive it was!!

[The Beast]

Originally Posted by Piers

Wow makes you realise how important the service pack is, not owned one without so never knew how expensive it was!!

Too right, can't believe people buy these cars without one...

Mine has just expired so I'm coming up to my first service that I've had to pay for, it's just the vehicle inspection so hopefully not too expensive

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by Piers

Wow makes you realise how important the service pack is, not owned one without so never knew how expensive it was!!

5-year Service Pack was added to my car (535i) as a goodwill gesture when I bought it, at just over a year old. So far it has had over £1,200 worth of BMW dealer servicing, with one more oil and brake fluid service (~£500) later this month, before it expires.

[Martin2C]

The service pack used to be really good value, but that value has reduced over time. It started off with a 5 year / 60k mile cover (4 services), which reduced to 50k miles in 2013 (3 services) and is now down to 3 years / 36k miles, which is only 1 service!

[Pottsy]

50k is only two services for me, so I didn't buy it (as it turned out to be more than the cost of two services if you shop wisely).

Buying a service "pack" now and only getting one service is just taking the mick. How is it a "pack"?

[CeeTee]

Get the 'service pack' by all means, but if your car is owned by you and you intend to keep it long term, then an oil and filter change every year must be the way to go, rather than hanging on for 20K miles, which is only of interest to company car drivers and their companies who are going to ditch the car, and have no interest in what happens to it after that?

[MrPogle]

Good advice. If you aren't going to use BMW to do the additional oil change you may run into the problem I did. I wanted to use a BMW filter to avoid any warranty issues so I bought one and attempted to get various high-st places to use it in place of the filter they would have otherwise provided. I wasn't looking for any kind of discount but almost all of them refused citing "company policy".

[Martin2C]

Originally Posted by CeeTee

Get the 'service pack' by all means, but if your car is owned by you and you intend to keep it long term, then an oil and filter change every year must be the way to go, rather than hanging on for 20K miles, which is only of interest to company car drivers and their companies who are going to ditch the car, and have no interest in what happens to it after that?

I agree. Mine is privately owned, but as I do 30k a year, it's serviced every 8 months, so I'm happy with 20k miles service intervals.

I remember having a Peugeot 406 diesel that needed a service every 6,000 miles, it was in the garage every 2 months!

[Dhruv25]

Hello Gents!!

I am nearing 36k on mine car and just about in time for my 2nd service!! Now, the car is out of manufacturer warranty.

What will you guys suggest from the following options?

1. Dealer Servicing around £600-800
2. BMW Specialist around - £280-320
3. Kwik - Fit around - £180 - 220

or

I should get genuine BMW parts and get it done from a trusted Indy.

Would like to know thoughts from experienced users as the price difference is massive.

Thank you guys

[gtthree]

Hi Dhruv25

Personally I'm going down the route of self sourcing of genuine parts and using a trusted garage to fit them as the prices you can obtain genuine part for from ebay both sourcing from UK and Europe are a fraction of the price of a UK dealer.

The OEM filter manufacturer for oil, air, carbon impregnated microfilter (pollen) and fuel is MAHLE.

The downsides to venturing outside of the BMW dealership would be, no soft recalls for known defects, no manufacturer pushed software updates and no goodwill towards large scale failures.
However when repairs are with BMW they are often much more expensive than self sourcing parts and having the repair carried out elsewhere.

For me as my car is a Dec 2010 with 96k miles on the clock I've deceided only to use an independent as the value of the is now between £11k and £15k (June 2017) and I plan to keep the car between 2 and 3 more years so the value will be £5k-£8k (estimate) at which point its all about condition and demonstration of servicing.

Quite simply the savings I made doing interim oil changes at 9k, diff oil change, front brakes using OEM parts from Germany and a full genuine ZF8HP sump/filter and oil change more than makes up for an loss in value I may suffer from not having a full BMW history at this point.
For example how much is a oil and microfilter service versus a oil filter service? The genuine BMW Stamped MAHLE carbon impregnated microfilters are £25 on ebay.

I also believe I am getting a much better and more personal service. Yes there is no showroom and I will not get a new demostrator for the day but at the same time I am not seen as a cashcow for new tyres, oil at £20 a litre (4 litre in costco £30) or brakes because the computer says change despite there being more than enough wear left on the pads.


The real trick is finding a good independent that is happy for you to source your own parts, or who will better the BMW dealership pricing.
Good independents will have a full diagnose computer to enable interogation of any errors stored within the ECU or you can extract them yourself using Rheingold.

However there is nothing to say you cannot challenge your BMW dealer to price match with the introduction of the G series they will be keen to keep your business.
Some even, at a push, will allow you to provide your own oil but they may not give you a full price reduction.

[shiner]

I'm not at all convinced there is ANY loss in residual value on a car out of manufacturer warranty by having a car serviced outside the franchised dealer network - just make sure it is actually serviced and you keep the receipts and you will be fine. When I part chopped my 530 to get my 535 the stealer never even bothered to look at the service history that I kept so meticulously.

As soon as my service pack has expired and my car is out of warranty it is going down to the Indy for all work for a couple of years until I get rid.

[Dhruv25]

Hi Gtthree,

That is a great piece of advice and has given me a lot clearer picture.

Completely agree with you as in getting the OEM parts and getting a trusted indy to get the job done.

I do nearly 12-13k a year and am planning to keep the car for another 4 years so just want to make sure I have maintained it well and it is in a good shape when I plan to sell it.

I spoke to kwik fit yesterday the only problem is, they cannot update the service history on the iDrive since on the cars 2013 onwards they do not provide a service book and everything is updated on the iDrive.


Thank you again for your advice.

Originally Posted by gtthree

Hi Dhruv25

Personally I'm going down the route of self sourcing of genuine parts and using a trusted garage to fit them as the prices you can obtain genuine part for from ebay both sourcing from UK and Europe are a fraction of the price of a UK dealer.

The OEM filter manufacturer for oil, air, carbon impregnated microfilter (pollen) and fuel is MAHLE.

The downsides to venturing outside of the BMW dealership would be, no soft recalls for known defects, no manufacturer pushed software updates and no goodwill towards large scale failures.
However when repairs are with BMW they are often much more expensive than self sourcing parts and having the repair carried out elsewhere.

For me as my car is a Dec 2010 with 96k miles on the clock I've deceided only to use an independent as the value of the is now between £11k and £15k (June 2017) and I plan to keep the car between 2 and 3 more years so the value will be £5k-£8k (estimate) at which point its all about condition and demonstration of servicing.

Quite simply the savings I made doing interim oil changes at 9k, diff oil change, front brakes using OEM parts from Germany and a full genuine ZF8HP sump/filter and oil change more than makes up for an loss in value I may suffer from not having a full BMW history at this point.
For example how much is a oil and microfilter service versus a oil filter service? The genuine BMW Stamped MAHLE carbon impregnated microfilters are £25 on ebay.

I also believe I am getting a much better and more personal service. Yes there is no showroom and I will not get a new demostrator for the day but at the same time I am not seen as a cashcow for new tyres, oil at £20 a litre (4 litre in costco £30) or brakes because the computer says change despite there being more than enough wear left on the pads.


The real trick is finding a good independent that is happy for you to source your own parts, or who will better the BMW dealership pricing.
Good independents will have a full diagnose computer to enable interogation of any errors stored within the ECU or you can extract them yourself using Rheingold.

However there is nothing to say you cannot challenge your BMW dealer to price match with the introduction of the G series they will be keen to keep your business.
Some even, at a push, will allow you to provide your own oil but they may not give you a full price reduction.