Moderator: martauto
kieran325 wrote:My 325 spent 4 weeks in a BMW bodyshop, the old guy working on it used to work on em first time round and it was a treat working on the E30 than the mundane E60/90's etc.
I was going to treat the M3 to a Insp 2 but at £870 I thought not
Munich Legends have new owners now as you know. I went there for a PPI and get the paint depth measured. I met with Dan (who surprisingly knew my name) and Stuart. Stuart took the time to explain the findings and even a little chat over about E46 M3s and showed me around the blue M1 they had which was owned by Coccetto. They offered more of a personal service than a typical BMW Dealer at least when speaking to you.B7 wrote:Some also do a 6+ and a 10+.
Certainly when my e30 goes into Vines for it's MOT it gets very positive comments.
You have to understand, they are main dealers. They are there to make money and of course they will try to upsell. Or is it upselling? Or following the correct service schedule and therefore you are compromising by not doing it?
No they won't chip rust off a brake line and grease it. They'll want to replace it with the correct part and that will incur labour.
But then for every BMW dealer I've heard of trying to pull peoples strides down, I've heard of probably 10 back street bodger types trying it on.
So called specialists? Theres 2 near me, one near Guildford and the other near Horsham. Put one in for a service and I've yet to see much of a saving over a main dealer. They seem to deal on the fact the customer "believes" he's geting a cheaper deal. "oh that was expensive, imaging what it would have been at BMW's!" well actually, in my experience, not a lot more mate!
We've all heard of the specialist in the Ashdown Forest area. I've seen some downright RUDE invoices from them that I know full well Vines would have possibly been cheaper!
It was the water pump that failed the day after - the shagged, cracked belts were replaced by the AA man as he replaced the pump.pacerpete wrote:Andyboy wrote:I recently fettled a 1985 325i that the local main dealer quoted £1700 to get through an MOT. After finding half of the fails were simply made up, it passed after spending around a quarter of that. Old cars need time spending that dealers rarely have the time for. During the time it takes to properly service an E30 they could do about 5 E90 inspection 1's.
I won't mention your 318i bad boy that the dealer fitterz done a cambelt on and it threw its foooked fanbelt off on the way home from collecting it !Hard shoulder FTW
The two specialists I know run rings around the local dealers. The hourly rate is less than half and they are vastly more flexible - would a main dealer fit a good used gearbox?B7 wrote:Some also do a 6+ and a 10+.
Certainly when my e30 goes into Vines for it's MOT it gets very positive comments.
You have to understand, they are main dealers. They are there to make money and of course they will try to upsell. Or is it upselling? Or following the correct service schedule and therefore you are compromising by not doing it?
No they won't chip rust off a brake line and grease it. They'll want to replace it with the correct part and that will incur labour.
But then for every BMW dealer I've heard of trying to pull peoples strides down, I've heard of probably 10 back street bodger types trying it on.
So called specialists? Theres 2 near me, one near Guildford and the other near Horsham. Put one in for a service and I've yet to see much of a saving over a main dealer. They seem to deal on the fact the customer "believes" he's geting a cheaper deal. "oh that was expensive, imaging what it would have been at BMW's!" well actually, in my experience, not a lot more mate!
We've all heard of the specialist in the Ashdown Forest area. I've seen some downright RUDE invoices from them that I know full well Vines would have possibly been cheaper!
I wouldn't expect them to. A second hand box is a compromise as is using a specialist. You pay your money and takes your choc ice.Andyboy wrote:would a main dealer fit a good used gearbox?
he's an ex master techB7 wrote:Andyboy wrote:would a main dealer fit a good used gearbox?
Chris Plummer in Aldershot is a specialist. Ex Dealer Tech cut his teeth on e28's and e30's I understand. His stamp is in my convertiles history and the car was a goodun from the off. Saying to me he made his mark on the car and it was looked after well. Ive since recommended him and only had positive responses.
I treated it and found the price from BMW competitive, it was it safe hands and all the parts inc screws and fittings were all genuine.pony wrote:kieran325 wrote:My 325 spent 4 weeks in a BMW bodyshop, the old guy working on it used to work on em first time round and it was a treat working on the E30 than the mundane E60/90's etc.
I was going to treat the M3 to a Insp 2 but at £870 I thought not
Why did your E30 have to go Bodyshop ?
I can see Barry reading this thread with interest.
kieran325 wrote:Yeah I told em that it wasn't an insurance job and it was my pride and joy, they warmed to the fact I wanted it doing properly and I was forking out of my own pocket instead of the big ins companies.
I lost count of the extras I wanted but it had 2 new wings which it didn't need but I saw the body guy rubbing em down and I said would it be better with new wings, he laughed and I said get 2 wings then.
So were the wings rusty ?kieran325 wrote:Yeah I told em that it wasn't an insurance job and it was my pride and joy, they warmed to the fact I wanted it doing properly and I was forking out of my own pocket instead of the big ins companies.
I lost count of the extras I wanted but it had 2 new wings which it didn't need but I saw the body guy rubbing em down and I said would it be better with new wings, he laughed and I said get 2 wings then.
pony wrote:I think ML have done some good work in emphasising the new ownership.
New branding, new investment, new blood, revitalise and motivate the staff etc as far as I know.
Would be unfair to dismiss them based on previous owners.
If anything you should confront the former owners. Both of these independents have regular articles and columns on the BMW Car Club mag.
If there is a serious case for these allegations maybe there should be lawsuit against perpetrator.
One garage I wouldn't trust is West3 Autos from Bollo Lane. ******* terrible.
What makes you say this is happening under the new owners ?pacerpete wrote:pony wrote:I think ML have done some good work in emphasising the new ownership.
New branding, new investment, new blood, revitalise and motivate the staff etc as far as I know.
Would be unfair to dismiss them based on previous owners.
If anything you should confront the former owners. Both of these independents have regular articles and columns on the BMW Car Club mag.
If there is a serious case for these allegations maybe there should be lawsuit against perpetrator.
One garage I wouldn't trust is West3 Autos from Bollo Lane. ******* terrible.
Sorry Soni but ML are still turning out shoddy work and reaming people. It is very easy when most of your customers have more money than sense
If you need help posting on the Dutch forums just let me know, I can't remember how good/bad your Dutch was.Cloggy Saint wrote:I did but at a hell of a price!
Bang on!gooner1 wrote:I'd say that was entirely dependent on the people working at any given Dealer.
Stands to reason that Technicians will be trained on more modern stuff, as this will
be the Dealers bread and butter.
At the end of the day, we are talking about cars that are fast approaching 30 years of production, so techs that are up on E30's may well be getting a bit thin on the ground now.
Barry may know different.
Out of the 4 BMW dealers i have worked for there has been at least two people that worked on them when new, the current dealer i work for has 5! techs that have worked for BMW long enough to have been PDI'ing E21's!Grrrmachine wrote:It's very rare that a BMW dealer will have someone on site that remembers working on E30s, so if you're looking for the personal touch then there's no reason a dealer would be any better than some other mechanic.
Rob, you should know better than to post the above drivel!capri_rob wrote:Thats because any main dealer service on a modern car basically comprises a sh1tload of "checking" and virtually no actual "doing"Andyboy wrote: During the time it takes to properly service an E30 they could do about 5 E90 inspection 1's.
A main dealer "service" appears now to be a box ticking excersize that you pay through the nose for used to find/make up other ( chargeable ) work - £100+ a pop for a brake fluid or coolant change for example
Great when someone else is paying or if you're rich/stupid ( delete as appropriate ) enough to buy something still within warranty. An utter ripoff for normal people running their own cars from net disposable after-tax income.
Even if I had the shekels I wouldnt take my E30 to a main dealer - the Techs are clueless about anything that cant be plugged in and would probably shat themselves when presented with an engine bay full of metal rather than plastic parts
Yep!Andyboy wrote:The two specialists I know run rings around the local dealers. The hourly rate is less than half and they are vastly more flexible - would a main dealer fit a good used gearbox?
EFAkieran325 wrote:Because it was rusty.
Its called care of duty.capri_rob wrote:I dont doubt there are some good main dealers out there - unfortunately finding out the good ones from the bad is just too much of an expensive gamble for me - plus I despise people trying to sell me stuff I dont want and dont need - it just adds insult to injury when you're already getting dryfooked for the work you've actually asked them to do.
Typical BSS response as per usual.bss325i wrote:EFAkieran325 wrote:Because it was rusty.
