Just wondering how everyone feels about their local $tealer. I've heard a lot of horror stories, but I've generally had pretty good experiences with mine--my car is out of warranty now but I'm still having major service done at the dealer. Maybe it's because they are a combination BMW/Nissan dealership and are used to dealing with people in a more down-to-earth way, but every time I have gone there for service the staff has been courteous, helpful, and accommodating.

Also, so far they've done a better job when it comes to repairs. They cost more, but they always get it right. I don't see the point in paying half as much if I have to do it twice as often.

What has been your experience?


EDIT: Whoops, didn't realize we had an entire forum for this. Geesh. Learn something new every day...

The service is usually good at dealerships they just usually rape people on the bill. Open Road BMW in New Jersey definetly hooked me up in my emergency situation. Blew my waterpump, they supplied me with a nice mazda millenia loaner to drive all the way back to NYC and fixed my car within a day, when they had a month waiting list. Definetly premium service and many thanks sent out to them.

For the most part my dealer experiences have been good with Devonhill, can't say the same about DeSimone, though...

screwed hard, screwed fast. did a whole bunch of repairs I could have done, but I let them cause it was under warranty. The bill was $890 - but I paid only the $100 deductable.

I get a call 2 days later saying the warrranty people have gone under - i'm stuck with the bill :(

Yeah, but that's not the dealer hosing you, it's your defunct warranty company!

I've had very good experiences with my dealer. I've dropped the car on them twice without an app't and they gave me a loaner car and had my car back to me the next day.

Mixed results over the past five years of being a Global Imports BMW/MINI customer.

New BMW sales: Great. Hassle-free transaction on a demo car. Unfortunately, the man who sold me my car is now the head of new car sales at Hank Aaron BMW, south of Atlanta. Current sales staff are friendly and don't hover over you as you look over the cars.

BMW service: Good. Sometimes takes them a while to figure out the problem. I occasionally let them work on my car because they're so convenient to my office compared to the local independents.

BMW parts sales: Excellent! Global has a top-notch parts staff.

MINI sales: Almost bad enough to make my husband cancel the order for his '04 Cooper. They really need to pay attention to the information they get from MINI USA. Members of the sales staff know they don't have to try hard to make the sale because the cars are so popular. It's a bad sign when the customer knows more about the car than the sales staff.

I LOVE my dealer and especially the sales department! :laugh

My dealeship, FlOW BMW, has been pretty decent. I usuallly just go to the parts department, never the service but they are always kind and helpful. The one time i was pissed at them though was a few years back when my mom was looking for a new car. She is not a person who is always concerned with looks. But anyway, she had been painting earlier in the day and she wore the same clothes to go look at the then new e46 to replace her Volvo. Well they gave her no help when she went there and when she asked for some they pretty much blew her off. Well this pissed her off as well so she went to Volvo of the triad and bought a new car that day, paid for it all right then. She later drove back to flow and had a friendly conversation with the service manager who ended up being pretty pissed that he lost selling a new car and getting paid for it in full right there.

Park Shore BMW in North Vancouver, BC is top notch. They always are prompt and willing to go the extra mile for any sales / service / parts needs.

Originally posted by BimmerDawg
I LOVE my dealer and especially the sales department! :laugh

uuhh...oookaaayyy:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I've had experience with two dealerships in my area.

Performance BMW in Chapel Hill/ Durham, NC
I haven't used the BMW service department but everyone in the parts department is very friendly and helpful. If it took 30 minutes to find the eight different little bolts I happened to need for a project, they did it and all seemed to enjoy it. Parts they don't stock usually take 1 to 2 days to come in.

Leith BMW in Raleigh, NC.

They advertise in Footnotes, the monthly bulletin of the Tarheel Chapter of the BMWCCA, for free tech inspections for HPDE schools. I needed to get an alignment and an inspection so I decided to try them out (after all, how much can they gouge you for an alignment.)
While waiting for the work to be done, one of the customer liaisons came out and explained to me that my car needed several hundred dollars worth of suspension repairs, and would I like them to do it right then as long as the car was in the shop. Since I get about 15 tech inspections a year for HPDE schools, I knew there was nothing really wrong and told the liaison that I would do the work myself. Almost every other person who was waiting with me in the Convenience Lounge was approached in the same manner and all but one OK'd the extra work. Whether all that was legitimate of not I don't know, but it certainly wasn't in my case.
After a couple hours they presented me with a bill for $175. including $75. for the tech inspection. Fortunately, I had brought along a copy of Footnotes just for that situation, and after 15 minutes of dumfounded looks by everyone in the service department, I got the charge removed.
I have not been back nor do I plan to do so in the future. The alignment was $90.

Originally posted by sirtiger
uuhh...oookaaayyy:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

What? :95 I do! :dunno

I have not been back nor do I plan to do so in the future. The alignment was $90.

Alignment is the one thing I WILL NOT have done at the dealer. Mine charges $160. They claim they are the only ones in town who know how to align an M3 properly... Which may technically be correct, but the difference is certainly not worth an extra $110. :rolleyes:

I took my Roadster to the stealer while it was still under warranty. They had to order some parts, but I got the phone call (the BMWNA customer service poll) between visits.

I couldn't tell them that they did a good job because they weren't finished.

When I went back for them to complete the work, the Service Manager said, "well you didn't give us a very good mark on the poll that you took".

I was like WTF? :dunno what was I supposed to say, you hadn't finished the job... He said, "well what are you going to give us now"?

I said, let's wait & see how good of a job you do.

Not only did they do the work they were supposed to do, they scheduled an appointment for me to come in for a new top...

I'm pretty happy with them for doing that! :D