Ok, i am going to make it relatively short and sweet, someone tell me if i am thinking about this incorrectly, but what happened at the dealer today i just didnt agree with.

I have an 04 530i. bought it a local BMW dealership, 38k miles, bought it in december. CPO. so in short it is under both factory warranty and has the CPO warranty. i have a wobble in the car at 15-30mph so i made an appointment to take it into the dealer and have it checked out, i told them that i know it is either the wheels, tires, or suspension and i just want to get it figured out which it is.

So the check it out and tell me it needs two passenger side tires. ok, cool, i tell them i am not interested in the tires and i am going to buy new wheels and tires, well they charge me for looking at it, is that right, i couldnt believe it. i dont want new tires, i understand if they are bad they are bad and it is warranty-able. fine with me, but charge me to look at my car that is under warranty! that is ridiculous IMO. what is it? a gamble to my car in for warranty work? i wonder how much i get nailed for today!

I have a pretty sour taste in my mouth, i just dont agree with this line of thinking. i spoke my piece on the phone to the advisor(also the service manager) and he wasnt really having it, so when i picked it up i just paid it, didnt say a word(i dont think anyone was there anyways) but i did write an email to the Servie manager and Dealership owner.

btw it was 61 dollars, hardly worth it to leave such a bad taste in a customers mouth, mind you i am 22 years old, and i currently own two businesses prob plenty more BMWs to come.

 

wow wasnt as short as i thought sorry.

 

I'm not sure you have grounds to be annoyed. They dealer spend time and money diagnosing the problem on your car, and has a right to be compensated for that.

Tires aren't part of your warranty, even when the car is new. They are covered by the tire manufacturer. The wobble you describe is likely the result of tire rotation, which is why you shouldn't rotate your tires, and BMW does not recommend it. (I know the car is new to you.)

 

Most dealerships and even some mechanic shops will charge you a service fee if you bring a car in with problem and they diagnose a problem and you take somewheres else to be repaired. If however you get the work done with the center that dianoses the problem, then they usually wont charge. I know you said you would just get new rims and tires, but since youre not ordering the rims tires from the dealer right there on the spot, thats just the same as ordering from another supplier to them.

Sorry to hear about the hassle and the shock they would be charging you, but in my experience thats pretty typical.

Good luck on your wheel tire purchase!

 

I agree with Iversonm that the dealer has a right to be paid for the time and work done. However - you brought the car in for what you believed was warranty work - and the dealer (I assume) didn't inform you that if it turned out to be unrelated to a warranty-covered item you would be charged an inspection fee. It might not have crossed your mind - but it certainly should have crossed the dealer's mind... IMHO. That's their business and part of it is avoiding these kinds of disputes - which in hind sight are entirely predictable and probably reoccur on a regular basis for them.

On top of that - why would a dealer be willing to piss off a customer who might bring in thousands of future dollars in work - over $60????? That is short sighted... unless there are no other BMW dealers in the area... in which case....... you are stuck with them.

In my experience you probably will not be getting a call from BMW for a survey on how satisfied you were with the service. Funny how that works.....

Good luck!

 

After the walk around and you get the printout from your SA listing the work to be done, isn't what is and isn't warranty discussed? Wouldn't/Shouldn't the SA at least called the customer prior to the work to let him know it wasn't warranty and would be charged? I am asking because my car only has 2200 miles on it, no service done yet ...so no experience with warranty vs. non-warranty work...

 

i scheduled an appointment for the wobble, no walk-around nothing, just gave them the keys and they told me they would call when it was done. i get a phone call later saying that i need new tires and we know the story from there.

it was a shock, i dont really care about the 60 dollars to be honest, but i am just very unhappy about the whole situation i think it was very wrong of them. i mean do you know how many tire places that i dont have warranties at would have told me that for free!

so to answer above poster i was not given any sheet before leaving, only when i showed up to pick up and paid.

 

I guess it depends on the dealer. I used to live in Chicago proper, and Perillo never once charged me for a "warranty check" even if they did not find anything or found something outside the warranty. Now Bill Jacobs in Naperville had a tendency to charge you for just walking in the door. So I guess you have one of those dealers.

 

I think it basically came down to your taking up there time for them to diagnose your problem. They told you what the problem was and what it needed, and you basically said, "No thanks. I'll go elsewhere." That probably irked the SA or made him resentful for essentially wasting his time (in his mind at least). So, he nailed you for his time, which I believe is reasonable. As said before, had you gotten the replacement tires there, I doubt they'd have charged you for diagnosing the initial problem.

However, you didn't really state what work they did to the car...balance, etc.? Or did they just give it a once-over? Either way, they probably don't appreciate giving out time and advise for free. It is a business after all. I think it would depend on your SA and his mood at the time.

 

4 months into your '04 ... you did say it was CPO.

The CPO Program Cars are supposed to undergo rigorous inspection and if I recall wear items like tires are supposed to be replaced if they are more than 50% worn.

Other parts, like brakes, etc are covered under the BMW Maintenance Plan. Refer to the inspection done on the car when you bought it. You might be in a good position to get them to cut you a break on replacement tires - unless of course you racked up lots of miles or have some suspension problem that accelerated wear on BOTH passenger side tires.

As for charging for looking that is a bit much. The manufacturer's warranty should cover an inspection for a "customer concern" but in the time ahead there is no free lunch for CPO cars after warranty - there is a deductible for each covered repair. As a young entrepreneur I'm sure you can appreciate that.