I have just bought my first M3 ('96 EVO) and will soon be able to enjoy the delights of having an Inspection 1 service carried out. I have had several older BMW's in the past and have always serviced them myself. What i would like to know is how the dealer sevicing intervals work (how do you know what the next service will be) and what is involved in 'Oil service', 'Inspection 1' & 'Inspection 2'.  In other words how do the dealers justify what they charge?

Should the inspections be only carried out by main dealers or are independant specialists ok. My local specialists are either Autobahn in Hexham or Century House garage (Russ Cockburn) in Newsham near Richmond/Scotch Corner If you know of any other good specialists near Co. Durham please let me know.

The schedule is listed in the service books, and show's what is carried out during each service. A specialist can do it, there is no hard and fast rule over that unless you have a BMW warranty in force. The inspections and services are called up depending on how the car is driven, so drive it carefully, and the intervals increase, drive it hard, they decrease etc etc, Mine follows the following (up until now): oil service, Insp I, oil service, Insp II etc, plus the annual service when it needs them for brake fluid and coolant changes. (at BMW dealers, during the Insp II, the valve clearances are done, where as at a specialist this is sometimes skipped as it is said to be unnecessary? don't know the answer to that one, better to be safe than sorry IMO).

When calling the dealers to get prices, ensure they are quoting or can carry it out under there 4+ scheme, some do and some apparently don't.