This is intended to highlight what the common practice is amongst BMW dealers in different regions. To be honest I don't know if I'm out of touch, but today I went into my local dealers to have some warranty work carried out on my car which is only 1 month old. A courtesy / loan car had already been arranged but to my amazement they tried to charge me a daily rate stating that this was the standard practice.

As far as I am concerned I purchased a car from them (?36k) in good faith 1 month ago which has now let me down and they are trying to make me pay for the cars failure - not exactly my fault. To make matters worse, the only loan cars they offer are drastically lower graded than my own (116i's) meaning that not only am I being asked to pay for the use of a vehicle due to mine being fixed, but I also get the use of an inferior car for good measure. Something seriously doesn't add up to me here. Anyway I didn't end up paying in the end as I refused point blank under the circumstances!

If the charge was made when using a courtesy / loan car whilst a vehicle was having routine maintaining carried out then that is a different matter which I understand. Just interested in peoples views / experiences when having warranty work done.

 

I think that common practice amoung US luxury car dealers is to provide free loaner cars to customers having warranty work done. However, I believe that many dealers will only provide a free car if you purchased the car at that dealership.

 

This is what I would have expected. I will be interested to see what the general theme here is and if my dealer is 'trying it on'. As I said in my first post, if the loan car is for general maintenance / service related purposes then I accept that is a different case, but surely not for warranty work and even more so when related to warranty work on such a 'new' vehicle.

 

Its not just luxury car dealers in the US that provide free loaner cars. I still get a free loaner on my 11 year old Toyota 4 Runner when im paying for repair work. It really is amazing that with a new BMW in Europe that you don't get a free loaner. I guess this is something that you should have asked when ordering the car.

It may be the practice is different than in the US where I believe dealers inventory more cars making more available for loaner use. Where I am in the Chicago area it is very competitive amony BMW dealers where we have I believe 8 dealers in a relative close area. There are 2 on my way to work. They have to offer free loaners to get business.

 

Even service work we get a free loaner. The dealer will even pick the car up from our house and drop off the loaner. That was offered to us when we purchased my wifes car.

 

I got a new 328i loaner last month. Free.


The car rental place around the corner had an entire fleet of 3 series and were shuttling people who were in for service back and forth from the dealership in a van. Good service. Let me return it at the dealership too so I didn't have to ride the shuttle van back when I picked up my car.

 

In NYC area Benz and Jaguar both stink giving you dirty low budget loaner cars. Not only does it waste time when you drop off they give you a cheapo car not even comparable.

Now if your car is ready and they call you and you cant make it back that day they do try and charge you, its just insane


Service is terrible at Jaguar even at a Factory store, Benz factory stores i dont know, BMW factory stores are superb.

I mean hey if the car breaks i dont mind because they get you in quick, you get a clean and sometimes brand new car of equal value and your on your way. My prior 545 experience was horrible but the service was so good and my dealership was just supportive i am now 99% sure im switching back to BMW



I mean BMW can loan out a X5 V8, 750 etc depending on your situation and thats good support

 

I think my local dealer charges around ?12 a day to cover insurance. It stinks ,especially if you bought the car from that dealer.

As I can live without the car during work hours,i usually arrange for them to do collection and delivery instead which is free.

 

My car is 1 month old and I've already had 3 bmw loaners. The current one is a X3 sport with the M kit. Very nice truck, good ride, I like this one alot. I told them that I wanted something sporty to drive and they accommodated me . I was there to have the NEW!! shifter put in on my NEW!! car. OK, i'm calm now..

 

Same here. I bought the car just a month back. At the time of delivery, I found some scratches on the body. They offered me to cover it for free. So I dropped my car in and picked up the loaner. To my surprise, I found a charge in my credit card statement after a couple of days. Moreover they still missed the paintwork at one place and told me to drop my car again and pick up the loaner!

But I'm surprised by the overwhelming ~71% who do not get charged for a loaner!! I can see I'm the only one in the US voted "Yes".