man i think i got bumped!! got charged £150 for full servic

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k13
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:21 pm

full service cost me £150 all they did was...change spark plugs, oil , air filter, and oil filter i think i couldve done that myself !!!!! i think they just got the inspection tool and reset the lights. the spark plugs dont even look new.
maxfield
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:27 pm

Dude the place I was working at charged £400 for a full service.

£175 for an oil service. But that is on more modern cars.

Don't forget during a service they check tyres, brakes, bushes etc too.

As for the service light. A piece of wire can soon sort that one out.
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Alex
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:30 pm

its the labour charges thats a rip off
Steve-E30
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:50 pm

Add the price of the parts up then there labour at probably 40 or 50 quid a hour and they probably charged 2 hours , I dont think its that is that high tbh :)
Alex
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:55 pm

zimmerbimmer1 was saying in another thread that bmw park lane charge £120 per hour for labour :eek:
snoops
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:59 pm

just grab a Bentley Manual and service the car yourself...

but labour costs are quite high
jonb
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:36 pm

Its doubtfull that they wouldnt have fitted new plugs, but check anyways.

As for the price, did you expect them to do it for £28 including the parts? And why did you not do the work yourself?
town325i
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:42 pm

any way what engine is it? if you do it yourself you can save upto half or more on that price its takes a couple of hours or so to do a service so that price is a competative one
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StuBeeDoo
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:48 pm

Did you not ask the price before getting the work done?
TBH, I think I may have been bumped on an Inspection 1 (£140) and a cambelt change (£110) a few years ago, but I couldn't prove anything. So you have my commisserations.
This is why I no longer drive an E30......

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B7
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:11 pm

k13 wrote:full service cost me £150 all they did was...change spark plugs, oil , air filter, and oil filter i think i couldve done that myself !!!!! i think they just got the inspection tool and reset the lights. the spark plugs dont even look new.
Lets put this into perspective. £150 for a FULL service. Believe me you get NOTHING in the car trade service wise for 150 quid. A full service for 150 is a good deal. Parts alone would come to half that at the stealers.

However, if the plugs do not look new then it needs investigating. If you can prove they are not new and plugs are on the invoice, then you've got them and they need taking to the cleaners.

But as an end note, I'd be VERY surprised if you got a FULL service for 150 quid in this day and age.
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NatDJ
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:16 pm

K, that is cheap. Even my local non BMW spanner monkey round the corner wanted £180 and he didn't even know how to open the bonnet on mine.
I am by no means a compitent hands on kinda guy, but I recently service mine no problem. Give it a go yourself next time and save the money. 8)
stonesie
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:17 pm

Where i used to work a service like that would have been £130+ vat, as has been said there is a lot more to a garage service than simply replaceing the parts you have listed.

I would have had all the wheels off and checked all the brakes and suspension bushes/balljoints, adjust the handbrake up the proper way (not on the cable's) and tyre pressures set to autodata levels or door sticker if it has one.
Check and top-up gear and diff oil
Look round the brake lines and paint them (used copper grease thinned down with new engine oil)
All lights and levels checked and coolant streangth tested
Battery water levels checked/topped-up

Few other bits and bobs too.
Simon13
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:20 pm

i think you need to remove the spark plug and LOOK, before you start slagging this place off otherwise you could end up looking a right prize pr!ck

if you add up those parts prices,a bit of labour and VAT and i think thats a good price. Like Max said if they are any good they will have checked over the car noted any worn componets or parts of the car that need attention.
bss325i
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:41 pm

Where i work (Renault serice centre and bodyshop) our service labour rate is £86 +VAT per hour. A small service which only includes an oil and filter change and a pollen filter is it has a/c is 1.6 hours and a big service is 2-2.5 hours depending on model.

A service is more about the inspection of the vehicle than the changing of the filters.
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d6dph
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:43 pm

£150 for the labour alone sounds cheap.

Sorry but if you are not a hands on type of person then you have to get used to coughing up (and that's coming from a mechanical eeedjit)
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monkey
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:45 pm

i think you should be pleased if you got a full service for £150 . is your problem with the price you payed for your service or the service you recived from the garage you used ?
adit
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:57 pm

yes k13 you could have done it yourself and saved your £150 for the parts you wanted from me, without making insulting offers :wink:
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ChrisiS
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Fri Sep 19, 2008 10:51 pm

That sounds fairly cheap to me!

Think all the materials to service when I did the iS (on a trade account too!) cost me about £70

That was
Gear Oil
Diff Oil
Engine oil
Coolant
Plugs
Filters
Pair of wiper blades

Its not rocket science.....
fuzzy
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Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:08 am

if you didnt ask the price before the work was done then thats your own fault. if you could have done it yourself for much less then obviously thats what you need to do.
papercutout
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Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:28 pm

As they've all said, service it yourself in future then!
Also, check those spark plugs.


My engine has an oil leak, so its topped up regularly, I also seem to have the sump off every 2 months or so to patch up the hole I keep scraping in it :D. Diff oil I've done too, that was an EASY job once I got a set of socket hex's thingy's to fit it (paid about £12 for a set of them, 8mm up to about 14mm). Coolant is easy...

Plugs are up next - had them done about 6 months back in a garage though. And the air filter.

Not done gearbox oil or coolant yet though, but the engine has never been NEAR overheating, g/b should be done though tbh, not sure how to do it though - time to get the haynes out again!
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corkie
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Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:21 pm

i think that was a fair price as long as its all done :D
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fuzzy
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Sat Sep 20, 2008 7:47 pm

was this from a bmw main dealer? on an old car such as an e30 is a main dealer history important to you? although a price of £150 suggests it wasnt a main dealer as i reckon theyed charge more than that for a couple of hours work plus parts.theyve got to pay for that fancy shiny new showroom/workshop somehow. even a smaller back street garage will charge about £30+ per hour.
BMWAlpinaC2
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Sun Sep 21, 2008 1:47 am

I once got my Alpina worked on for a day and they charged me 500, they done quite a bit though, I started sweating when the bill came, missus was going to whip me....
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Felix79
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Sun Sep 21, 2008 8:52 am

a basic oil service on mine was £128

They did the oil , filter , coolent and use lube as they shafted me for the money.
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