First Service Experience

[ukwildcat]

I haven't been trolling around here in awhile - been sooooo busy. Many things. Some good, some bad.

At any rate, the 2011 X5 started complaining about being past service, so this morning it went in for it's very first service - at ~16,800 miles. It was only about 200 miles over where it wanted to be.

They did not have any loaners - I suppose I should have asked more questions; I guess I'm just used to the Lexus way for so many years. They offer them, but you need to schedule about two weeks in advance. OK, good to know for next time. (but I had to ASK..)

I had a list of "new car things" but without a loaner, I didn't have time, so I just had the basic service done "whatever it needs at this mileage." They finished in about an hour - this was MUCH, MUCH faster than Lexus would have done.

They even noted that the wiper blades were smearing and replaced them - I hadn't even mentioned it. This really is a plus. Perhaps I'm overly optimistic, but it says "we want to make sure the vehicle is performing PROPERLY."

The dealership here is PHYSICALLY very, very small. It probably serves a very large volume - in an MSA of ~1.5 million people, there are two dealerships. Every aspect of it is tiny, but all the basics are offered. The chairs are comfortable, there is network access, but it is not "nice." Lexus can't be beat there, but to be brutally honest, since I was only there an hour (instead of three or four) it didn't matter - it was perfectly adequate.

They CLEARLY do not cater to the same group of customers. They are much more "familiar" than Lexus reps. At the same time, my service advisor was very busy but remembered my name and all the particulars (everything I needed to have done but didn't have time today), etc. and made a point to be sure it was taken care of. I EXPECT this, yes, but from memory? (honestly - she didn't even have a piece of paper to look at, but recalled my list perfectly) There was.. more to her than I saw on the surface, shall we say?

I went over to the Parts Department to look for a snap-in cradle for my iPod Touch 4th gen. Apparently there were problems with the systems today (they even showed me), so they couldn't really help. Still, they took down all the information - contact, VIN # to check, etc. and I expect I'll hear from them soon.

Mind you, I never had ANY complaints about Lexus service - NONE.

But so far, I have NO complaints about BMW service.
At this dealer, it is certainly not "from the manor born" but it gets the job done - and gets it done efficiently - and that's GREAT.

(And my sales experience was very positive as well)
(I think next time I'll just buy a 5-series, though)

So far, so good.

The simple fact that this car goes ALMOST 17K MILES without service in and of itself is OUTSTANDING.

By an odd coincidence, an old girlfriend that bought a Lexus after I bought my last one had all of her interior lights go out last night. Probably a fuse, but she's blonde so, eh.. Out of warranty, so they charged her an amount she is apparently ashamed to admit to in order to fix it.

By a doubly odd coincidence, a gentlemen seated next to me for all of 15 minutes had a taillight out, and the dealer replaced it for free. "But it's not under warranty!" he said. "It's a $3 part and it takes like two minutes - don't worry about it" his advisor said.

We *DO* have A LOT of BMWs in these parts..

[DeanLinAZ]

Sounds like Lexus remorse here. The two BMW Service Centers I have used over the last ten years need not make any excuses for comfortable customer waiting areas to any Lexus shop.

[3Series]

Dealers are independent businesses so I don't know how you can compare BMW as a brand to Lexus as a brand based on a dealership experience. Every dealer, no matter the make, does things differently.

There are what seems like a dozen BMW dealerars within a 50 mile radius of me and they are all very different experiences.

Anyway, thanks for the dealer review.

[ukwildcat]

Originally Posted by 3Series

Dealers are independent businesses so I don't know how you can compare BMW as a brand to Lexus as a brand based on a dealership experience. Every dealer, no matter the make, does things differently.

There are what seems like a dozen BMW dealerars within a 50 mile radius of me and they are all very different experiences.

Anyway, thanks for the dealer review.

Well, I think you can compare what you know.

There are two Lexus locations around here, but they are the same dealership, so yes - harder to compare with the two BMW dealerships here that are NOT related.

I shopped at both, and likewise - the shopping experience was very different between the two. Now that I think about it, they are both about the same distance from the house.. Maybe I'll try the other one next time.