I had a right tailight malfunction come up on my I-drive about a month ago. I went to the service department, and they said there were two bulbs out, and replaced them, no charge. On the invoice it said they were covered under warranty. Just yesterday it came up again, but it was the left tailight. I went over to the service department, they took it right in, replaced two bulbs. However this time they charged me $73.00, saying they were not covered under the extended maintenance program, it is different from the factory warranty which ended Jan. 15. When I spoke to BMW of NA, they said it depends if it was a malfunction or just a bulb that burnt out. Whats the difference? Sound a little shady to anyone else? Obviously I would have replaced the bulbs myself if I knew that!

 

Extended warranty/maintenance programs are different and cover far less than the 4 yr/50k programs that come with a new vehicle (which is partly why I haven't purchased either at this point). I haven't read specifically about the bulbs, but I don't remember my sales manager mentioning that these were included when he tried to sell the extended maint/warranty programs to me.

That's still a huge bill for two bulbs, especially since you are less than a month out of warranty. I'm pretty confident that my local dealership would have comp'd it since it was so close to original warranty/maintenance period.

 

As illogical as that sounds, I think it's pretty logical. A bulb that just burns out is a "wear item" but if it burned out prematurely (in an unreasonably short time), the claim could be made that the bulb was defective. Also, I've seen cases where the bulb malfunction occurs but it's really a problem with the carrier assembly. If that's the case, I'm betting it would be covered. Make sense?

I agree that it's a pretty steep price to pay for some bulb replacements but I see why you assumed it would be no charge (or a very minimal charge)...

 

$70 of the price was labor, no? Better to just replace these kinds of things yourself and not worry about warranty or lack thereof.
Cal

 

I agree ... less than 30 days after warranty should have deserved some consideration. $70 to replace 2 conventional tail lamp bulbs is steep even for BMW. Did they also charge for shop materials, diagnosis, and preparation of the service order? I've seen those charges on more and more service invoices.

Service centers, even independent garages want customers to cover the cost of WD-40 and latex gloves on top of hefty labor rates.

 

my rear license plate bulb failed at 2 weeks old. Replaced it with a $1 part, it would have cost more to drive to the dealer!!!!!!!!!!!

 

They charged me $55.00 in labor for a half hour, $5.40 for each bulb and $2.00 for hazardous waste removal. With tax, it was $73.31. I certainly would have done it myself, obviously, if I knew it was not covered, but since the earlier repair was only 3 weeks ago and I was in the area I took it in.

 

Should have gone to my place in PLainview, would have charged you like 25 bucks

 

A few years ago I took my M3 to Prestige BMW in Ramsey NJ for an oil change. Having heard horror stories about their ridiculous charges I inquired as to the price beforehand. The SA told me that a simple oil change was $270 because BMW would not allow them to reset the service indicator unless the car underwent a thorough inspection and road test. Uh huh. I drove a few miles down the road to Park Ave BMW who charged me about $80. Needless to say, Prestige lost my business that day and the business of every single one of my friends and relatives. Fairly expensive line of crap they gave me because I know of at least 10 cars and counting they haven't sold (or serviced, for that matter.)

 

i don't know but it depends on the dealer you go to too and who you talk to. Because i've read from the forum that our sunroof has a clunk noise when it closes and its a warranty issue i took it in to the dealer they charged me $400 dollar to file down the one part from the moon roof now it doesn't make a clunk noise anymore. I thought it was kinda steep with the price when it's suppose to be free so i know i'm not going to go back to that dealer anymore. and with lights bulbs that's a ridiculous price i mean you can buy them for $20.00 a pair. it's not that hard to replace bulbs. Yeah get to know your SA once they know you and their cool with you they can waive lots of things. =).