So, I recently bought my 99 328i (e46) with 45,000mi on it and brought it in for routine maintance and to have a few parts put on. I never dreamed what the charges would amount to. Now, they charge $70/hr for service, which looking at other dealers in the area isn't too too bad. HOWEVER, look at how long they claimed it took to do various things.

1) Install alarm (remember, car is pre-wired for it): 2 hours
2) Oil service: 1hour
3) Replace drive belts: 1 hour
4) replace 4 tires: 2 hours
5) Brake fluid flush: 1 hour
6) Coolant flush: 1 hour
7) Install 4 mudflaps (3 screws per mudflap): 2 hours
8) Install sunroof wind deflector (secured only by 2 clips): 1 hour

Big sign they cheated: Service opens at 8am (when I dropped it off) and I picked up my car at 3 pm; if the guy took no breaks and worked straight through lunch that would be only 7 hours. Hmmmmm they charged for 11 hours which means they must have started working at 4am.....??? Fuzzy math....

If anyone knows reasonable times it should take a trained BMW service technician to do these activities please let me know because I'm going to go down there and raise some hell (2 hours, 4 mudflaps, 3screws per mudflap, = 10 minutes per screw???).

-Dave

Ouch

Thats bad..

In the future... PLEASE dont goto the bmw dealer. Find a good competant mechanic to take your car to - if you dont know one in your area ask here, chances are someone knows a good place. Chances are they will do a better job then the dealership and they wont rape you on costs.

Or invest $50 in a bentley manual and do alot of this yourself and save the rest of the money or blow it on modifying your car

ya my $tealer wanted 500 dollars to do my I-Bus CD changer swap. The part they wanted 500 for didnt take more than MAYBE 2 hours.

Which Dealer?

->Dealer Comments

I dont think this belongs in dealer comments at all

He never said what dealer and may have no intention of saying what dealer --- he wants advice on what to do, not to just complain

Call them back, don't let them know who you are, and tell them you need a few things done...like the oil change, collant flush, brake fluid flush and ask for a quote. See if it is any different from what they charged you.

Even if it is the same, talk to the service manager and ask he/she about the actual labor charges. They should have a standard rate of time for each item. I have a mechanic that does work on my turbo z. He uses a guide, Petersen's maybe, that shows how much labor it should take. It is a standard he uses for all his work. If the job should only take him 2 hours, he only charges me for that. If he takes 4, then it is on his own time.

If anyone knows reasonable times it should take a trained BMW service technician to do these activities please let me know because I'm going to go down there and raise some hell (2 hours, 4 mudflaps, 3screws per mudflap, = 10 minutes per screw???).

Trained BMW techicians [at a BMW dealership]... and he's complaining about the service found at a dealer/vendor... Regardless if it was a dealer or a regular vendor... it's still a complaint/comment.

My guess is that they had more than one guy working on the car. Since they charge in whole hour blocks of time then with two guys working on the car they would be charging for the two. But still it really sounds lame to charge 11 hours of work when the car was probably actually being worked on for 6 or less.