bruce_miranda

I took my car in for an MOT yesterday evening. It failed because my rear passanger's side tyre had a rip (from when my wife's kerbed the car!). Anyway BMW tell me they don't have the tyre in stock and they would call me later in the day to give me a price for the tyre. I was hesitant but since I get a free MOT retest on if done in 24 hours I had thought I'd go with BMW even though I knew I'd pay a 'little' more.

I get a call at 1730 in the evening and they said it would cost £410 for the tyre and that they could fit me in for 0945 in the morning. I said OK but something didn't seem quite right.

I jumped online and saw online sellers doing these tyres for as low as £240. I they called up my local Kwik Fit and they had the tyre in stock and it was £345 fitted. I then looked on Kwik Fit online and saw the tyre for £220. I called up the same Kwik Fit and spoke to them about this and he said if I bought it and paid for it online the £220 price was correct.

I paid for this, it gave me an appointment 4 days away at Kwik Fit, so I called the store and they said to come in at 0830 this morning to have it fitted.

Long story short I got a tyre fitted for £220 this morning. Even worse was the Kwik Fit is about 5 mins walk from the BMW dealer and guess what Kwik Fit said they had an order from my dealer for the similar size tyre but BMW cancelled the order with them very suspiciously after I asked them to cancel my order for the tyre with them!!

How sick would I have felt if I had paid the £410....

P.S. The Kwik fit guy couldn't explain at all why their online prices are so good.

theXman

Stealers are all the same, no matter what country it is. I bet MOT doesn't charge £190 for a retest. Smart move, Bruce!

txag_530i

I was sitting in the waiting area of the dealer a few months back and watched the service adviser sell two sets of tires. The customers just said, "Do it." I couldn't believe it. How can someone spend $1000 on tires without doing a price check?

pjinca

There are a lot of people in the "More $$$ than brains" club Bro. i have had people tell they shopped around and the dealer had the "best price" - really? Where did you shop around? Other dealers? :thumbsdown:

theXman

Occasionally (rare), some dealers might have better price than other indy shops. Lately, I've been taking my car to the dealer for oil change ($69) while others might be offering the same or sometimes more. But I like the convenience of having a loaner, that can't be provided by others. And I know that there is always a Jiffylube around the corner but NO THANKS. They ain't touching my car for sure.

pjinca

HAHAHAHA I agree: "Just say 'NO!!!' to JiffyLube" - and you're right in a case like that. I get coupons from my dealer on occasion for oil changes about that price, but their "normal" price is $288, not sure who pays that but they have got to be morons

healthservices

I'm sorry but did you really expect the dealer to do it for free? Time is money, whether it is yours or theirs. You just decided to do the running around yourself, so of course you are going to save some money.

Please don't think I'm money rich, I shop around for the best deals too, but at the cost of my time.

pukka

Just the other day my SA started to give me a quote for new front tires and when he look it up on the computer he said "Geez" and wouldn't even finish the sentence

ron_cb550

apart from the price of the tires themselves, i couldnt help but chuckle at the "124.75$" labor rate the dealer prints on receipts (thankfully, i only had to be at the dealer because of the lousy brake vaccum recall)

124!!

azstar

I'm having 2X rear tyres (275/30/19) replaced tomorrow by blackcircle.com

£185 per tyre, including fitting for a set Falkon FK452's


I would never go to a dealer for wear and tear items, they just rip you off.

I replaced my rear brake pads for a grand total of £40 last weekend!