First Mercedes got rid of their included maintenance plan, now Audi who was the first to have it, and has had it for like a million years is dropping it, can BMW be next?

http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...12/SUB/60212018

My thinking is that BMW's main competitors no longer have it so BMW who has only recently come to the included maintenance game might not feel they have to keep it. I also thought that it might be increasingly expensive as the euro continues to be strong against the dollar. What do you all think?

 

That will kill sales...the Japanese and now the Koreans have a real advantage over the European car makers.

Mercedes has been plagued with maintenance problems...I am hoping that BMW quality control has improved that they will be less likely to drop it.

 

I hope they don't. That's one of the things I love about BMW. My father has a Lexus and the only thing he got free was his 1st oil change. They don't have scheduled maintenance either.

 

As far as I am concerned, the free maintenance is a huge advantage for the consumers. Hope BMW continues with the program.

 

also considering the free maintenace doesnt really do much (12,000 miles for an oil change?????), why drop it????

 

The free maintenance is a nice marketing idea.... but it's really not that big a deal to the consumer.

I recently paid for an oil change because I think 15,000 miles is too long to go without.... and it was only about $100

My guess is.... the maintenance program saves a customer maybe $2000-2500 total in 50,000 miles. But maybe that estimate is high? I know the 30,000 mile service should be more expensive than a normal oil change..... at least... it is with most cars.

 

The first service at about 24.000 km is not much more than new oil and the filter,
neither is the second service much more expensive.

These 2 services cost about 500-700 €. The third one (oil chnage) cost about 200 €.

So all in all ut to about 60 - 70.000 km's the service fee is about a grand in Euros,
including the front brake pads but the air filters are expensive.

More important is that the garantee is long!

M-B if any would need free service

 

In the UK BMW charge for a maintenance plan.

?1350, I think, Currently for 5 years.

Covers fluids, oils, filters, brake pads/discs and wiper blades

 

My thinking is that BMW did this for a couple reasons. Certainly, one is other manufacturers were doing it. I also think they realized that there is no better way to get quality up and compete with the quality driven Japanese than included maintenance. This way the cars always come back to the dealer and the dealer can feed the problem area data back to the factory and the factory can design a better part/car next time around. This isn't a very fast feedback loop, but unless you start it sometime, the Japanese will run away with the entire business.

I've often thought that if Chrysler made it's engineers (or the engineer's wife) drive and fix every lemon they had, they'd be far better off. But, like a lot of companies, they are focused on next quarter and not long term survival and dominance.

Tom

 

That's a country-by-country marketing ploy, that is certainly not etched in stone. (same as long warranty periods). As mentioned above: Given the lengthy intervals between service now, we really aren't talking about much "required" expenditure; it's those unplanned warranty glitches that cost BIG bucks, and boy, do the dealers stick it to BMW on that stuff.
Cheers,
Ray Hull