[ZedsRedBaby]

I've had my share of crap BMW dealers over the years. I have to say though that Warwick have seized the crown with their piss-poor so-called service department.

Took the car in just before Christmas for a service, and as the steering wheel seemed a bit off-centre, I asked for a KDS wheel alignment. Collected my car later the same day and paid £540 (of which £120 was for the KDS).

Driving the car over Christmas and New Year, I couldn't find any difference in the steering. I spoke to the service rep three weeks ago and asked for the KDS report. He told me the machine stores reports for all alignments carried out, but sent me a report for one done last May.

I pointed this out to him and asked for the correct report, since when there's been total radio silence. I've emailed, left two messages for him and three for the service manager, but no-one returns my calls.

Call me cynical, but given that the car's no different, they can't produce a KDS report, and they obviously don't want to discuss the matter, I'm wondering whether the work was actually carried out.

Even by dealer standards, this seems pretty crap, no?

[Beemer5to3]

Pretty crap yeah, but I think quite easily resolved (hopefully) by asking them to do the work again FOC and giving you the relevant before & after alignment reports.

I will however raise you on the nomination for the worst dealer ever…

Bought my (at the time) 1 year old 840i with 4k miles on it, and discovered not long on the trip home when it got dark that it had a giant scratch in the windscreen. I of course alerted them to the fact when I arrived home, and actually offered to try and sort it out myself as it was going in for PPF and ceramic…

Long and the short of it was it wasn’t fixable, and they tried to wash their hands completely of it, and at one point saying it must have happened on my drive home / something I did to it. Nearly 3 months of almost daily phone calls and emails with BMW UK and they eventually caved and I had a brand new windscreen fitted.

Disgusting service and I highly recommend no one buys a car from Eastern BMW in Edinburgh. Even made a point of getting new plates made so it doesn’t have their logo at the bottom!

[B6WAF]

If I may widen the discussion to the other (positive) end of the spectrum, I would like to vote for Lloyd Colne BMW as my favourite BMW dealer.

I didn't buy my car from them - I've bought my last two from Tony Lewis at Berrys because no local dealer was interested in competing with him, so I'm a service-only customer.

The first time I called in to their service department, unannounced, before I became a registered customer, I asked them a question about battery charging on my M340i and they went above and beyond, dragging their senior techy specialist out of the workshop to talk to me. At most dealers you have to get through three levels of call centre defence before you have half a chance of speaking to someone who knows how to open the bonnet. I also sold them my previous M340i (ex TRL) and it went without a hitch for a very fair price.

Highly recommended dealer from my experiences so far (but not bought a new car from them yet)

[Assassin]

Good to hear of a customer focussed rather than wallet focussed Dealer. Well done to Lloyd Colne BMW

[Beemer5to3]

That’s a good shout too B6WAF

Lloyd BMW in Newcastle are also excellent - they were a huge help in getting my issues sorted, and they did all the work to put it right. Taken my cars there for years for servicing work.

[ZedsRedBaby]

Originally Posted by Beemer5to3

Pretty crap yeah, but I think quite easily resolved (hopefully) by asking them to do the work again FOC and giving you the relevant before & after alignment reports.

I’ve no intention of letting them anywhere near my car in future. Just the reports for the one I’ve paid for would be fine.

Originally Posted by Beemer5to3

I will however raise you on the nomination for the worst dealer ever…

Bought my (at the time) 1 year old 840i with 4k miles on it, and discovered not long on the trip home when it got dark that it had a giant scratch in the windscreen. I of course alerted them to the fact when I arrived home, and actually offered to try and sort it out myself as it was going in for PPF and ceramic…

Long and the short of it was it wasn’t fixable, and they tried to wash their hands completely of it, and at one point saying it must have happened on my drive home / something I did to it. Nearly 3 months of almost daily phone calls and emails with BMW UK and they eventually caved and I had a brand new windscreen fitted.

Disgusting service and I highly recommend no one buys a car from Eastern BMW in Edinburgh. Even made a point of getting new plates made so it doesn’t have their logo at the bottom!

I had a similar experience with Milton Keynes. Bought a new 428i and noticed it had a scratch in front of the speedo. They spent weeks insisting I’d done it until they actually looked and found it was on the inside of the dash pod. No apology of course, just a grudging replacement.

Good idea with the plates

[Herr Gross Byte]

I had an F82 M4. Individual, fully loaded, M performance carbon kit. It had 4k miles on it and apart from two stone chips, it was mint. The car started making a ticking noise when at ready with the engine off. Common fault. A £20 actuator part is needed but £1k of labour to get at it as the top of the engine has to come off.

I took it to Coopers BMW. This is a warranty job. They told me that the noise was normal. Also when I got the car back there was a slight mark on the leather which I was sure wasn't there before.

I told them to write me a letter stating that the noise was normal so I could take it to the small claims court. They changed their tune and agreed to do the work. I dropped it in but this time I took pics and film of the condition when I left it.

The work was done and I went to collect the car. The chief tech drives it out and hands it over. Tells me it's the nicest M4 he's seen and wishes it was his.

Yeh, alright mate.

I check the car before I leave the dealership. There's a deep 1 inch irregular gouge out of one of the alloys. It's not been kerbed, look like they ran over a screw driver or tool and it pushed it up into the alloy wheel. The cars been washed by them. There's flecks of silver paint around the damage. It's happened after washing.

This should be easy I think.

I go back in the dealership.

Me "Excuse me, there's been some damage to my car."
(Service bod picks up sheet of paper.)
Service bod: "The damage to the wheel was already there when it came in sir."
Me: "but I didn't tell you what was damaged yet. Get your manager out here."

Out comes the manager. They say they need to investigate. Weeks pass. I chase (I'm getting fed up now). Eventually they agree to refurb the wheel. I decided it would be better just to not to let them near any of my cars ever again.

I sold the M4 a few months later. Decided I couldn't have a complex toy like that without a trusted service partner.

But I still buy BMWs though. Why? The cars are great. The dealers are not. I now take my business to Listers. Much further drive but so far no problems.

[ZedsRedBaby]

Originally Posted by Herr Gross Byte

I still buy BMWs though. Why? The cars are great.

I've been buying new BMWs for over 20 years but I'm tired of the so-so build quality and the complete pain in the arse it takes to get anything fixed. They have a 4-step process for warranty issues:

1. Deny there's a problem
2. Admit there's a problem but fail to diagnose it
3. Fix the wrong thing
4. If you're lucky, sort the problem

I'll definitely be going Japanese or Korean next time.

[Beemer5to3]

Herr Gross Byte we bought my Mrs’ new Polo from Listers in Coventry - brilliant dealership. Gave the best price (we travelled down from Newcastle), and even accommodated a weekend handover for us, despite our salesman only working Mon-Fri. Any one after a VW, then I couldn’t recommend them / Alan enough.

[Charlisdad]

Originally Posted by Beemer5to3

That’s a good shout too B6WAF

Lloyd BMW in Newcastle are also excellent - they were a huge help in getting my issues sorted, and they did all the work to put it right. Taken my cars there for years for servicing work.

I also would recommend Lloyds of Newcastle to buy from. I've bought two 3 series from them and been seamless both times. Only had one service done there but that was also excellent. Gave me a desk to work from while I waited and free tea and biscuits ( but I also got that from Vertu Durham when having my car serviced there).

[paulockenden]

My local dealer (has been through several names, currently Group1 Brighton) seems to vary between good and bad. I keep having to update my Google Review, with the score changing dramatically each time.

One thing that does grind my gears, though, is all the follow up calls, emails, and text messages after each visit. It’s non-stop. Comes across as very needy.

[Carbon dude]

I bought a previous car (320D) from Lloyds Newcastle in 2020 , was happy with the images etc and guaranteed that there was no previous damage to it. I sold my car and took a 2 HR train ride to Newcastle and got picked up by the salesman. About 2 days later I noticed the rear passenger door led light was loose and called up to get it fixed at my local dealer, arranged through Lloyds Newcastle. Several days later my car was parked under a street light at night and the front left wing colour was different from the rest of the car. During the day it looked normal. It was from here that I noticed the car had been in a serious crash. On noted on a further detailed inspection and found the car had about 30 points/signs of repair. Different bolts in the door, clips missing, overspray on the rear seat, masking tape on the under side of the car and engine bay, damaged heat shield, weld repairs on the rear nearside wing...the list goes on. The repairs went from the rear nearside all the way to the front. There was even blue paint on the very bottom of the diffuser.

I immediately called up and the sellers boss became extremely sketchy and I could tell they knew about the previous damage. I wanted the car returned and a day or so later, lockdown started...perfect timing!

Thankfully I managed to get the dealer principle aware and he asked me to use the car as little as possible during lockdown. Once it was lifted they collected the car and got a full refund.

They knew the car was had serious previous damage and tried their luck.

I think it was because I got in touch with BMW direct to resolve the issue is why it was effectively resolved. There was also no repairs logged on any system, which concerned BMW as it was previous a staff members car and appears the repairs were done off the books.

I got the replacement car from ocean Plymouth and it had half a tank of fuel as per the video and images. Once the pickup guy collected it he said the fuel was on the red. I spoke to my sales person and she said we never agreed to have fuel in the car as part of the sale and she can't account for the missing fuel! Once I got it I saw the fuel cap was opened the day prior to collection. So it doesn't take a genius to work out they took fuel from that car to put in another for part of a sales deal.

In summary I wouldn't recommend either dealer and I've not had a good experience with BMW dealers.

[alFR]

Originally Posted by B6WAF

If I've bought my last two from Tony Lewis at Berrys because no local dealer was interested in competing with him, so I'm a service-only customer.

To add another positive experience, I bought my current car from Tony: 100% good experience right from order to (free!) delivery. Recommended.

[Carl99]

Used Warwick for many years but it went downhill when the service manager moved to Cotswold in Cheltenham! Cotswold it is a good dealership in my experience.

[ZedsRedBaby]

Originally Posted by Carl99

Used Warwick for many years but it went downhill when the service manager moved to Cotswold in Cheltenham! Cotswold it is a good dealership in my experience.

Thanks for the tip. Bit of a trek for me though. I'm hoping I can get through the next few months without needing to visit a stealership, then BMW can have their car back with lots of lovely negative equity.

[Dirty Boy]

Originally Posted by Carl99

Used Warwick for many years but it went downhill when the service manager moved to Cotswold in Cheltenham! Cotswold it is a good dealership in my experience.

Ah sh1t ! I bought my used G21 from Cotswold and very happy with the service I received. Warwick is however the closest dealer to me. Im not due a service as yet but now it sounds I may need to look further afield for a service dealer, or take my chances.