Opinion

Hey all.  I bought a low mileage 00 320i with 56Kmiles, one owner and full history.   Trouble would seem is car hadnt been serviced for two years because mileage was so low.  Brought it to BMW dealer last week and there is a long list of things to be done.  I had some taken care of:

Steering tie rod; Rear diff seal; front end resistor on fan; control arm bushings; brake discs and pads and a full service.  This cost me €1,400.

It also needs:  gearshift rod seal - output seal and shift shaft seal (it's leaking slightly); rear tracking arm bushings (going soft); and recommending water pump and thermostat change as well as p/s, a/c, alt, belts and the rear left brake pipe as it's corroding.

This sounds like an awful lot of work on what seems to be a car in very good condition, with low mileage? 

What do you guys think?

Edited by agaafear

Unfortunately, most of the items you listed are fairly standard BMW maintenance items.  Its just unusual to have to replace all of them at once, usually they will be done in dribs and drabs over time. 

With a low mileage car like yours and the longer intervals (time and/or mileage) between services, it means that a good few things have accumulated since the last service.  I find that although the official intervals have extended significantly over recent generations of BMW's, you still end up making as many trips to the workshop as before to attend to the wear and tear items that crop up. 

The intervals on an e30 325i were about 8k-ish for me.  Low mileage cars were prompted by the annual inspection interval.  If wear and tear items needed attention then the time/miles until the next scheduled service wasn't excessive.

My 330 will do 15k+ between services.  Even for me, doing a biggish mileage, its too long to leave wear and tear items until the next scheduled service.  The bills for the unscheduled work always seem to be bigger than if the same job was dealt with at a scheduled service. 

(Maybe I'm a bit paranoid about the money making racket approach that dealers use for this kind of work!  )

Best bit of advice I can give is to find a local independant specialist who can do the maintenance jobs for you. You probably could have halved the figure you paid.

 

BB

I intend finding a good independent dealer and getting the car serviced every 10K miles or so.  Apart from the cost, I didn't like the dealer attitude and the fact the I couldn't discuss the 'to do' list with the technician.  They also tried to overcharge me - €30 labour for a microfilter which should have been included in the oil service!  The car was used very infrequently, but was in the country rather than the city.  I guess it's age rather than mileage that causes rubber type components to go bad.  The car runs perfectly and there isn't a squeak from it or a scratch to be seen.  The only thing I find odd is the clutch - it's very easy to cut the car out.  I read somewhere that there is a clutch delay valve which the car is much better without.  Is this true?  Also, from what I read on other forums, bushing seem to be a usual replacement item on the 3 series.

Congrats on the new car but I would recommend avoiding the dealers - the labour rate is just too expensive for an 8 year old car.

If you're wondering where else to go, try ACcarsales on the SCR if you work in Dublin or the various independents in Naas, Maynooth, Blanch or Kells.

Contacts clicky

agaafear wrote: I'm inclined to think that the dealers are trying to generate income and the labour charges seem astonishing.

IMHO - and it appears also the opinion of others - Dealers are just not interested in (or understand) older cars.

I found they have a tendancy to find fault in everything, trying to replace components so the car is back to original, just left showroom, condition.

When I took up a special 'fluid' service they offered on my E30 325i, they tried to overcharge me, and not replace the special washer fluid, as well giving me a huge list of things they said needed replacing.

Two days later the car passed an MOT - without replacing any of the parts - with no problem at all!

Find an indy

 

agaafear wrote: It would nearly drive you to buying a Toyota!

not quite