I called in the BMW dealer in my area today to schedule an appointment to fix the DTC issue. I found out that this problem seems to be quite common among new BMWs. When I asked for them to prepare a loaner car to drive for the day, they told me that they only gave loaners if I bought a car from them. Is this right? This is my first BMW, so I am not familiar with their policies. I own a Acura CL and Subaru WRX STi, and when I go for a service, I request and am given a loaner car to drive if the wait is more than a few hours. This BMW dealer said that the best they could do was to provide a shuttle service within 15 miles... However, they would not provide transportation BACK to the dealer to pick up the car. If this is the case, I must admit that I am a little dissapointed with BMW. A $60k car with 3k miles; with a problem; and they will not provide me the convenience of a loaner car.

Another thing that was a little annoying was that I asked the service Rep if they had the part in stock (because according to research, the part is on back order in alot of dealers). She did not attempt to help me find this out but merely offered to transfer me to Parts to hunt around. I told her that I do not know the exact part that needs to be replaced and would not feel comfortable asking for a part I am not sure will fix the problem. She did not offer any further assistance. Am I being unreasonable?

 

This is just insane, you should report this service center to BMWNA, I bought my old 545i in NJ because they couldn't find me the one with all the options in FL, and not only that I get a loaner any time I need one, they even replaced the car for me eventually.

Shuttle my *ss - This dealer is a prick.

 

Actually, here in Socal it is SOP not to offer loaner cars for those that did not buy from the dealership doing the repair. You can complain to BMWUSA but they will not do anything about it. The same thing happened to me but fortunately I found a dealership that didn't care where I bought my car from. The only inconvenience was having to wait three weeks to get it serviced.

 

Not getting a loaner is a common a occurrence with BMW dealer. Luckily for me, there's only 1 out of 4 dealers in the area that doesn't offer loaner if I didn't buy the car from them.

 

Some dealers care and some don't. What's your dealer?
We should have a new post talk about which dealer offer loaner if you didn't purchased over there.

I know Assael BMW located in SoCal does not offer loaner to people didn't purchase their BMW over there.

 

My experience is that it really depends on how hungry for business the dealer's service department is. Usually they don't offer loaner or renter if you did not buy the car there. You don't get anything if the car is out of warranty. Even with the selling dealer some time you have to talk to your original salesman to get a loaner or renter. If you go to a newly opened dealer that haven't have much business yet you often get much better treatment. (Well, we are lucky that there are several dealers in the Toronto area to choose from, some are brand new).

Lexus and Audi are about the same, but I found Lexus to be much more customer friendly. For Audi my experience has been that new dealers treat you like king, old established busy dealers treat you like garbage.

 

I think it does depend on whether your dealer is busy or not. When I use to live in Toronto, I would call the stealer and I never go back to the one that I brought my car as they are really a prick. I let them know I wanted my car service and ask them to get me a loaner but usually I have to wait a week before they have time for me. They might not entertain you right away if you don't buy it from them, but if time is not a concern they will do it for you most of the time.

 

I had the same problem with one dealer here. They not only would the not give me a loaner, but they called me up to yell at me when I told BMWNA that they did not get the repairs fully resolved.

They told me never ever tell BMWNA anything bad about them, and that they also would not even look into some warranty work if I did not buy the car from them.

They were really at the point of being verbally abusive, so I now take my car to MAG in Columbus, who treats me like royalty and provides a loaner with no questions asked.

I will def purchase my next one from MAG, not the other one.

 

Same can happen in Europe, or at least in Finland. I had given the car in for some warranty issues
as the warranty time was ending. Asked for a loaner but it was clear NO. Because I had imported the car
by myself and not purchased in Finland. I was really pissed off sitting in a bus and thinking this is my first BMW and -do they actually want me to purchase one day another one ? Just crazy behaviour. Does it really
matter where I bought a brand new BMW ??

Seems to be their policy, but I would not call that customer service

Hartsa

 

Down here in Australia, they give you a loan car, but it comes at $60/day. No freebies regardless of where you bought your car.