I was reading the article on last generation 5 serie in Apr issue of Bimmer. The author mentioned that since BMW rolled out the Dealer Maintenace program for late models, he see a declined in quality of used cars. Basically, he's saying that the Dealer Maintenance program that we get for the first 4 yrs or 50 k is not enough to keep the car healthy in the long run. He mentioned the neglected are trainmission fluid, brake fluid, ...etc..

My E60 is new so I don't know if he is right or wrong. But I hate to have my wallet drained six, seven yrs down the road.

Maybe this is BMW's plan. Their "Maintenance Program" will ensure that we come in to see them often ater the waranty period is up....hahahahaha. :devil:

What do you think?

Yah, I read about this... its scary!

Imagine the cha ching factor on an engine with twin turbos!

And, BMW used is a big big business. My dealer is taking over the pontiac/GMC space which is bigger than the current BMW building JUST FOR USED VEHICLES!!!

Lease them, then sell them to new people and keep the service as thats very profitabble!

Lexus is moving from a small dealership that served two cities into two new ones located in them that has to be 4 times the size of the old one. What are they expecting to do??? The service bay areas on them are enourmous!

I have to disagree. My dealer takes care of everything, including tx fluid and brake fluid. I guess it depends upon the service dept.; of your dealership.

IMO the BMW brand name would be jeopardized if they would do such a thing and it would realy hurt them in the future so I think its plain B/S. They change the brake fluid at the 2 year period so right there he is B/Sing. Also they pick up the warrenty on CPO cars to what 100,000 miles
cheers
vern

Does good maintenance mean not changing the oil for almost Two years (21 months) and 18500 miles. The idrive say's that an oil change is due in 2000 miles. That's the situation with my car. The dealer says they will not change the oil unless there is less than 1000 miles to go.

The initial clock starts at 15,000 miles and counting down right. Sounds like the oil in your car gets better with age.
I would pay out of pocket to change my oil yearly regardless of what the computer says.

The dealers will change oil yearly regardless of mileage, I have 22K miles on mine and have had it changed twice already.

Not here... dealers won't change the oil unless the service indicator gives the ok...
Most modern European cars use high-quality synthetic oil and intervals of 15,000-20,000 miles (or 2 years) is the norm. Brake fluid is changed every 2 years. Any independent tests I have seen indicate that this is quite ok. I can't imagine BMW and other premium manafacturers taking risks on this front.

I have been using synthetic oil since the 1980's. It is different than regular oil. The two problems you have in oil is physical breakdown and combustion contaminants. In the old days with Mobile 1, their test showed that you could go up to 25,000 or two years but they recommended to change the oil filter twice as often as the oil. That was when the cars and oil filter were not designed for extented intervals, now they are.
I think you are ok to follow BMW's recommended service schedules.

+1
If your dealer don't, change dealers.
cheers
vern

My dealer changed the brake fluid when my car was just over 1 year old and had 16,000 miles on it. I hadn't even asked for it, but they did it anyways. Also, regardless of what iDrive says you are allowed to get yearly oil and filter changes under BMW's US Free Maintainence plan. So even if iDrive says that you don't need an oil change for another 10,000 miles, if it's been a year since the last change they will do it for free.

Overall I think the BMW free maintainance plan is pretty good as they even replace parts due to normal wear (like brake pads and disks, wiper blades, etc.).

(i) there is no free maintenence programme in Europe... but you can buy coverage ... it costs around $1500 (USD) for 60,000 miles/ 5 years
(ii) even when you cough up this large sum of money to buy the 'service inclusive' option, you are not entitled to oil and filter changes every year... you have to stick to whatever the service indicator says

Count yourselves very lucky in the US to have this kind of service!

I have my car for over 2 years and I alway check the stuff on my car every year, and just take it to my frend to top thing up.