My friend has 2005 - 530i w/ Auto Transmission and he was getting some sort of warning around 8,500 miles so he took it to Irvine BMW (Irvine, California) to get it checked out.

They told him that he was low on oil and they had to top it off. They ended-up charging him $5.00 for oil.

What's deal here, I thought everything was covered under the 4-Years, 50,000 miles warranty, except battery and tires??

Like to hear from others if this is legit or bull S%*@?

 

Its suppose to be covered under warranty... They just took advantage of your friend!

 

Everything is taken care of. You friend was ripped off! On the various boards, I've never heard good things about Irvine BMW and this is just another data point

 

i think whoever charged your friend that $5 used it for beer. he should talk to the service mgr next time, if he still wants to go back again.

 

Unless the warranty is different between series, I think that they are correct. My dealer, whom I've bought from 3 times, told me last week when I called about my 3 series that the oil service is all covered, but not topping off the oil in between services. He seemed unhappy about it ('the bitch of it is' was the phrase he used, IIRC), but said he'd have to charge me ('04 330i is my car). I asked if they sold the oil there and he said yes, but it was really expensive. He said I could buy any full synthetic 5w30 oil to top it off, so I bought Mobil 1 and did so. He's always been very straight with me before (in addition to the repeat customer part, his brother works at the same company I do), so I tend to believe him on this.

I'm willing to be corrected, of course!

 

Thanks for the info...very interesting perspectives.

So, it's a legit charge but for the long term customer service, they should have done it for free and since the car was also purchased from the Irvine BMW.

Since Irvine BMW does not have good reputation, what are some of the good BMW dealerships in Southern California??

I still think it's not right for BMWNA to charge for any type of service under the warranty period.

 

I still don't think it is a legit charge. EVERYTHING is covered under the 4 yr/50,000 warranty, including repair work and general maintenance, inlcuding oil changes, wiper blades and brakes. At least it is on my 2004 545. I thought all 5 series had the same deal. The only thing not covered are tires. I know the $5 is trivial, but it's the principal. Now being California, maybe it is some BS charge from the state for recycling oil or some other nonsense. That might be forgiven.