What's the dumbest thing your BMW dealer has told you lately?

[TiAgX5]

I bought my X over 4 yrs ago with 100k miles. With over 175k miles now, one dealer visit for alignment. EVERYTHING is DIYed.

[upallnight]

They don't carry transmission fluid for the X because the transmission fluid is lifetime.

[Peregrin-O]

These are good!
I'm glad to hear there's a little hope for some dealerships.
I don't take my cars in for service to them either, I've done all the service/repairs myself (thanks to this site) but once in a while I'll stop by or call them when I have a question or want a quote and most of the time I get a ridiculous answer.
I hope more people keep sharing their stories!

[racingbmwm3]

Wow, there's some scary sounding dealerships out there.

I've never used the dealership for service (except for a couple of recalls). Unless you count me working on my own cars when I worked for the dealership? Then anything I've said could count as the dumbest thing...

[TiAgX5]

You hear the DUMBEST stuff for those who don't even know enough to know they have no idea how a vehicle operates.

As eveyone who understands a learning curve knows, when you begin learning how a complex system operates, you reach a point where you understand there's a lot more to the system you are yet to comprehend.

Some dealer employees think "I work for BMW, so I know it all"! These people sound retarded when they open their mouthes!

Sometimes, the most intelligent response is "I don't know"

[srmmmm]

I usually preface my first visit for a service request with a brief recap of my automotive engineering experience including a degree from General Motors Institute, 10 years with GM and another ten years with Japanese and German tier one suppliers. Once they recognize I generally know what I'm talking about (always enhanced by the information available in the xoutpost community), I always get straight answers from my chosen BMW dealership. Now Mazda dealers on the other hand, and the stories I could tell... I think it's just as important to approach them with intelligent questions and appropriate details about a service issue as it is to expect favorable actions on their part.

2002 X5 3.0 248,605 miles
2004 325i 110,000 miles

[davintosh]

Originally Posted by JCL

I've never had any issues like that with my BMW dealer. It may be partly because I choose my dealerships based on their service, not on their new vehicle selling price.

I wish we had that luxury; one BMW dealership in town (next closest is in Omaha, 3 hours away) that appears to dislike selling parts over the counter. They treat you like second-class citizens, insist that you have the VIN for the vehicle even if you've got the exact part number in hand, then make you wait a couple of days because nothing is in stock, or so they say. Much easier to deal with Steve @ BluntTech, and he's sometimes even quicker than the stealer.

Originally Posted by JCL

We did have a dealer sales rep tell us we should consider the automatic transmission in our X3, when we had decided to special order one to get exactly what we wanted. My wife looked at him, and said deadpan "what would be the point of that, you don't drive it then, you just steer it"

That sounds like something my wife would say!

Originally Posted by JCL

Now if you want to talk about the Apple store, I've got a list of service issues, usually starting with "We've never seen that before...."

I've heard that line far too many times from medical professionals in the last year.

[TiAgX5]

Originally Posted by davintosh

I wish we had that luxury; one BMW dealership in town (next closest is in Omaha, 3 hours away) that appears to dislike selling parts over the counter. They treat you like second-class citizens, insist that you have the VIN for the vehicle even if you've got the exact part number in hand, then make you wait a couple of days because nothing is in stock, or so they say.....

I'm lucky here in Coppell, TX. 15 min drive to Classic BMW, largest selection of in stock parts of any BMW dealer on the continent. Nice parts counter staff and 30% off list without asking for a discount.

[TerminatorX5]

My dealer in Fairfax stopped asking for my VIN awhile ago, and just wonders what i am doing with all those little grommets, connectors, pins, little shrouds... lol...

Once i brought the 4.6 to a dealer in San Jose, Costa Rica for a CV boot and oil change... it was late when i was coming to pick up the car, they held the dealership open for an extra 40-50 minutes so I could pick up the car... As i got in, i saw at least a dozen of mechanics around my car on the lift... my heart dropped, I thought they had f*cked things up (would have been typical "pura vida" moment!!)...

Turned out that they had NEVER seen an "is" model upclose before, and after a conversation with them, it came to light that there were only 5 specimen of "is" in the country total...

Before that, a dealer in the US (Sun Motors in Central PA), had told me that 2002 can not have a BT retrofitted not can it have a TV installed... I had TV module installed and I got a BT unit from bimmernav working fine...

before that, sometime in 1999 or maybe 2001, a dealer told me that the E39 can not be wired for a cell phone... even after i pointed to him a little black round plastic label, saying "prewired for phone" - his claim was it was ONLY factory ordered startec... I ended up wiring up my nokia to the car, and learned in the process that the sound system in the E39 was made by Nokia to begin with...

same dealer charged me in the vicinity of $150-200 for an inner door handle on E39, which broke couple month later... this time i bought handle and replaced it myself (and have a little article on BMWTIPS website for the 5-series to replace the handle)

[msammy]

OK, here's one. The wife takes our X5 into the $tealership right after our warrantee expires years ago, the car needs an oil change and front brakes. On the way, the passenger side front turn signal bulb burns out and she gets the fast flash-flash-flash and it isn't lighting up. She asks them to call her with a price to fix that as well. In the afternoon, she gets a call with a price quote of $120 to replace the turn signal bulb. She laughs and say "never mind, my husband can replace it and it will only cost us about $2". They caution her about the high-voltages of the Xenon headlights, blah, blah, blah and they urged her to have the bulb replaced at that price, which she firmly declines. Upon picking up the car, they informed her they replaced the bulb free of charge as they were concerned with my safety and wanted to ensure my well being so they can sell me new a new 5er in the future (to replace my 528i). I bet they really replaced the bulb because she's a blond!

PS. Two years later, I bought a 550i sport from this $tealership. Go figure, a little good will goes a long way (and I survived the "high voltages" to make the purchase! LOL!)