Some of you here will be aware of my growing dismay at the level of service from the service dept of my local dealer.

Today I think I got the service equivalent of a PFO from them.  The 325i is up for NCT on Friday.  Mrs D has been using it for the past few weeks so I took it for a run last weekend to see that things were in reasonable order for the NCT.  Anyway, the ABS light was up and apparently it has been coming on intermittently for the past fortnight or so.

Because time was short and I've had other things on this week I booked it in to Keoghs to get it looked at and dropped it to them this morning (rather than leave it up to John Roche).

I've just come off the phone with the service receptionist and he's saying they can't read the diags (I asked if its because of my car or their diags - he blamed the car - even though they were able to read it fine at the last service they did a few months ago).  He has effectively told me to come and take the car away (he worded it marginally nicer than that and wondered if I really wanted them to do a trial and error effort at €120 and hour).

I bit my tongue on a previous issue I had with them and voted with my feet on a number of discretionary jobs that have needed doing on the various cars since but there is definitely a letter to the MD in the offing.

Sorry to hear that m8 the problem is with the GT1 diagnostics

Every new TIS that comes out is packet with issues that arrise from updating the software on it to the newest version.

So dealers are caught out as the new version is needed to do the newest fixes on the fleet of cars under warranty that come in. Most of them ar not IT specialists hence if it doesn't work they tell you to ......

I was verry amused when I got my first TIS and read trough the service papers better than anything I ever saw in the early IT days in IBM mainframes or early PC's in the DOS and Windows 3.1 times.

This is the reason I've got diag equipment and work for some indies here in the east as I thought that what happened to you will be happening ,more and more.

Solution:

Get an indy to diag your car and either him or bmw to fix it afterwards

HTH

Chris

Sorry to hear of your difficulties. I have never been very impressed with the service at "our" local dealer.

One always gets the impression that anything more complicated than an oil and filter change is too much for them to bother with. As you say, voting with your feet and/or a letter to the top is the only sensible way to deal with these situations. 

I have voted with me feet but still buy my parts there (I'm on first name terms with all the guys in Parts!).

Good luck.

Having seen this sort of situation from the other side of the fence im not too suprised with their response to be honest, it will be interesting to see what a letter to the MD results in.

"larzyh" hit the nail on the head re: oil and filter servicing.

Hope you get it sorted Diarmuid,

Ben

635CSi wrote: The best BMW dealer for sales and service in Ireland is Frank Keane from what I have heard and experienced. Dealers that get the wooden spoon are Joe Duffy, Maxwell Motors, Murphy & Gunn and Kevin O'Leary Silversprings.

I'd have to give Barry motors in Galway a vote as well. I was frankly stunned at the level of service from Barry's. Staying in Galway for a few days, they offered to collect the car from the hotel, delivered it back to me, carried out a few minor bits of warranty work and replaced a mirror glass that I just hadn't noticed was cracked when I bought the car, for nothing. Saving me €100 + VAT.

Keane's are my local and they are very good too. When they get the s/w updates from BMW they always keep at least one machine on the previous version in case anything stupid has been added or deleted in the update. For i.e. they found one update had removed the ability to code the OBC on the E46 saloon.

635CSi wrote: The best BMW dealer for sales and service in Ireland is Frank Keane from what I have heard and experienced. Dealers that get the wooden spoon are Joe Duffy, Maxwell Motors, Murphy & Gunn and Kevin O'Leary Silversprings.

I think everybody has had some bad experince with the above Dealers I have a great relationship with M&G and know all the mechanics there as well as the sales and other staff and the lads there know I Baby my cars and will always be extra careful with my cars 

At this stage I've drafted a 3 page letter to the MD!  Will need to edit that down fairly significantly before sending!

The car went through (and sailed through) the NCT this morning and luckily the light stayed off for the test.  It came on when Mrs D started it herself this morning so I was prepared for a fail.  Other than the attempted fix of the ABS light the only preparation was a check of tyre pressures and a walk around the lights.  At least I can get John Roche to check it over as time allows now.

Glad to hear your car fared well and good luck with the letter. I would not expect much joy; I think your local dealer has the most aloof and arrogant owners.

Also, I don't think your car would have necessarily failed on the abs light. I may be wrong but would not have thought that working abs was a requirement; working brakes of course but I'm not sure about the abs. One could always remove the bulb/led from the telltale light.

Please let us know how you get on with the dealer.

larzyh wrote: I may be wrong but would not have thought that working abs was a requirement; working brakes of course but I'm not sure about the abs.

I wasn't sure about that so I checked a pdf copy of the NCT manual I picked up somewhere a while back.  If its fitted and the warning light is showing on the dash its a failure item.  Whether its applied or not is another question altogether but I would have thought that they'd have an interest in failing cars where possible.

To be honest it wouldn't have been worth the effort to take the bulb out.  I don't mind getting the fault sorted so the worst that would have happened was a fail and therefore a re-test fee.

635CSi wrote: Care to name and shame the dealer??

My location probably makes it reasonably obvious but I'll hold off confirming it until I've sent the letter and given them an opportunity to respond.

Dergside wrote: At this stage I've drafted a 3 page letter to the MD!  Will need to edit that down fairly significantly before sending!

3 page draft on getting ABS light sorted?? Me thinks you have other complaints too. Tell all....

My experience with main dealers is that they are not interested in working on older BMW's as alot of the time it is not a simple fix and they dont want to waste time trying to diagnose a problem as they wont be able to charge all of that time out and if they get it wrong you will be back in to them taking up garage space for free when they could have a 06 5 series in the same spot charging 120 euro per hour to change brake pads.

Dergside is right, when they pawn you off with "Do you really want to spend 120 euro per hour diagnosing this problem" what they actually mean is "PFO we dont want the hassle of working on your car as there is a good chance the car will darken the forecourt every couple of days when we cant fix it and there is easier money to be made with newer cars".

Regards,

Bayerische

Seems to be a recurring theme with this dealer, on older cars they are just not interested as the computer can't tell them what's wrong !

Great at selling cars though, even bought one ourselves off of them.

Be interesting to hear the MD's response to your letter Diarmuid, considering the amount of business you've thrown them over the years.

irelandoffline wrote: 3 page draft on getting ABS light sorted?? Me thinks you have other complaints too. Tell all....

Can't disagree that there are a couple of other recent issues I have had with the same dealer.  The shame of it is that profile of my cars hasn't changed radically but their service has.  I've been going to them consistently for 9 years and for the most part their service was excellent - never cheap but reasonable value for money.  The change of attitude coincided with them moving to new premises about 18 months ago.

I had the big hump a few months ago about a farce of a job they did on Mrs D's recently departed 318Ci and as a result I asked them to only do a pre-nct check above and beyond the oil service due last time on the 325i. 

They listed and quoted a price of over €700 for the faults noted.  I took the list to John Roche and additionally asked him to do anything on the list that was needed and to change the front pads because they had been a bit spongey after the previous Mondello day.  His bill - €150 + €100 for a headlamp cover I supplied.  Most of the items didn't actually need to be done.

Dergside wrote: They listed and quoted a price of over €700 for the faults noted.  I took the list to John Roche and additionally asked him to do anything on the list that was needed and to change the front pads because they had been a bit spongey after the previous Mondello day.  His bill - €150 + €100 for a headlamp cover I supplied.  Most of the items didn't actually need to be done.

There is no appropriate comment for the above statement on a family forum !!!!!!!