jochet

I'm out crusing around in my 2007 4.8 X5 which now has 7000 miles on it when the oil light comes on informing me I'm down a quart; since I was not to far from a dealership, I decided to stop.

To my amazement, the guy at the customer service counter after checking with the service manager advised me that the quart of oil was NOT covered, but if I went to their parts dept and purchased the oil, they would put it in for me. I said to this guy, "your kidding right" so I waited for the their serivce manager to finish up what he was doing to speak with me. I was not amused especially when the manager confirmed this; can this be true? BMWNA will only cover scheduled oil sevices, but will not top off fluids.

I would love to hear your experiances

EBMCS03

Thats not true... my service advisor has topped off my oil for me personally before and one time it was low after an oil service and i returned the next day and he filled it up again for me and I asked him just in case its not enough I dont want to come back can you just give me a new bottle of oil and I'll keep it in the trunk and he gave me a brand new un opened quart of oil just like that...

It SHOULD be covered under free maintenance... you tell the service manager if they skimp out of $4 quart of oil dont expect you to come back for service... you'll be going to another dealer.... see what they'll say then...

nextelbuddy

thats what i was told when i bought my CPO 525 as well. top offs are not covered.

luigi524td

This is from your BMW Warranty book:
"Only BMW offers a comprehensive suite of premium vehicle maintenance services for absolutely no cost: buy a BMW now and pay no maintenance costs for 4 years or 50,000 miles, whichever comes first."

A quart low at 7K miles, given the very very long service intervals, isn't a lot of consumption.

But, I'd ask the service manager if his dealership is willing to risk the cost of a court appearance anyway. Tell him you'd like to debate the language of the agreement in court . If he/she is, file a claim in small claims court - it'd probably cost you less than they charged you for the quart of BMW oil!

BTW, my '07 had a quart of BMW oil and paper funnel in the trunk. I think it was delivered that way!?! Anyone else find a quart of oil in their trunk/boot?

EBMCS03

Right. the $4 quart of oil is nothing but BMW advertising every which way you look saying "$0 maintenance for 4 years or 50K miles which ever comes first" or "You pay more to maintain a flashlight than a $50K to $100K BMW" is not what your dealer is presenting... I bet in their showroom floor you can find large cardboard print outs stating something about free maintenance...

Or even better to make a point out of it... I would walk out to the sales floor and look for a sales guy talking to a potential customer and asking the sales guy that specific question... "what happens if after say driving 7,000 miles and the car needs to be topped off with a quart of oil can I just bring it back here?" 99% The salesman will tell you yes and then you also have a potential customer witness... so not honoring a $4 quart of oil you can really do some damage easily to that specific dealer... see what the service manager thinks now....

JSpira

Ja, that?s really smart.

An excellent way to ensure you get GREAT service the next time you pull in.

naszero

Funny I'm at 7600 miles and my low oil light just came on.

luigi524td

I agree that honey usually works better than vinegar. But if I were doing business with a dealer who saw a $4 quart of oil standing between customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction I'll bet the dealership GM wants to know about it! If that's not the case I'd be looking for a new dealership.

If that comes across as "attitude" so be it.

The fact is that I've been treated very fairly by two area BMW dealers ... And it's not because I buy or lease two BMW's every 2-5 years. It's because they know the value of a BMW guy who carries a positive attitude about their sales and service operations and know they can count on me just as I know I can count on them when little issues pop up.

kscarrol

I would complain to the dealer, someone above the service manager, and BMWNA. Full maintenance means $0!! I have had the low oil warning twice in my old 545, along with a couple of low coolant warnings, over the course of nearly four years of ownership. Never once was I charged for a top off.

beaker

I'm sure you could argue the point about a quart of oil being included in the "free maintenance", but if it goes beyond one conversation your ROI compared to the cost of the quart is pretty low.