Warranty Service - Who Pays: Dealer or BMW?

[teagueAMX]

I ask because in another part of the forum about the turbo lag issue, a member mentioned the dealer replaced both his turbos (I think it was a 3 Series). The discussion continued that the vehicle was under warranty, but the total repair would have been about $6,800 USD.

That's expensive and I'm sure they don't have to do an expensive repairs like that very often, but it got me to thinking. When I first read about BMW's warranty program I assumed it had to be funded by BMW itself, and not the dealers because the costs could be enormous. But as I'm reading more info, preparing for my purchase, I'm getting rather mixed reviews on dealerships.

Over the years, I've run into good and bad dealers, but it appears with BMW the dynamic could be a little different. It seems that some dealers step up and do the needed repair almost without question, but other dealers hunker down and are much harder to deal with.

So that begs the question: Is there a financial incentive for them not to do the repairs, or to avoid certain repairs? If BMW paid for everything then dealers wouldn't care, right? For the normal 4 yr/50,000 mile coverage and the extended coverage, does the dealer have to eat some of the maintenance/repair costs, or does BMW pay for it?

Clearly, it appears to be critical to find the right dealer to work with. I'm also curious, will any factory authorized BMW dealership willingly work on your bimmer? Say I'm traveling across county and my bimmer needs service - am I SOL? Or what if I buy my bimmer from one dealership, but take it to a different one in the same area for service. Ideally, they would be one in the same, but nowadays, you don't exactly know where you'll end up buying a car, and certainly don't want to pi** off the dealership and have them refuse, or reluctantly work on my car. The maybe one of the dealership doesn't feel its his responsibility since he didn't sell me the car.

I could on, but I think you know where I'm going with this question.

[chuck92103]

X6 35 suffers from lag. Too much I think. It is not just my car either, every X6 I test drove has lag.

In the morning it is aweful having to wait 30 minutes for the engine to warm up and even then there is what I find to be too much lag.

What is other folks opinion?

I would take to the dealer, but they will just say it is normal. Of course I know what is a standard defect across the model line is not the definition of "normal."

[dmlgc]

Originally Posted by teagueAMX

I ask because in another part of the forum about the turbo lag issue, a member mentioned the dealer replaced both his turbos (I think it was a 3 Series). The discussion continued that the vehicle was under warranty, but the total repair would have been about $6,800 USD.

That's expensive and I'm sure they don't have to do an expensive repairs like that very often, but it got me to thinking. When I first read about BMW's warranty program I assumed it had to be funded by BMW itself, and not the dealers because the costs could be enormous. But as I'm reading more info, preparing for my purchase, I'm getting rather mixed reviews on dealerships.

Over the years, I've run into good and bad dealers, but it appears with BMW the dynamic could be a little different. It seems that some dealers step up and do the needed repair almost without question, but other dealers hunker down and are much harder to deal with.

So that begs the question: Is there a financial incentive for them not to do the repairs, or to avoid certain repairs? If BMW paid for everything then dealers wouldn't care, right? For the normal 4 yr/50,000 mile coverage and the extended coverage, does the dealer have to eat some of the maintenance/repair costs, or does BMW pay for it?

Clearly, it appears to be critical to find the right dealer to work with. I'm also curious, will any factory authorized BMW dealership willingly work on your bimmer? Say I'm traveling across county and my bimmer needs service - am I SOL? Or what if I buy my bimmer from one dealership, but take it to a different one in the same area for service. Ideally, they would be one in the same, but nowadays, you don't exactly know where you'll end up buying a car, and certainly don't want to pi** off the dealership and have them refuse, or reluctantly work on my car. The maybe one of the dealership doesn't feel its his responsibility since he didn't sell me the car.

I could on, but I think you know where I'm going with this question.

ok a lot of questions here , I will only answer a couple that I positive about from personal experience and let others post..

1. "Say I'm traveling across county and my bimmer needs service - am I SOL?
No, you can take your car to any BMW dealer to get it repaired/serviced.

2. what if I buy my bimmer from one dealership, but take it to a different one in the same area for service.
You can take it to any dealer for service , I have done this when the dealership I bought X5 from was purchased by autonation and whole dealership went into the crapper. I took it across town to another dealer that I ended up buying my X6 from, mainly based on experience with service dept.

[Kojak]

turbo lag???

I think the 35i only suffers from weighing 4900 lbs &/or not having a V8 but not turbo lag. Turbo lag is usually defined as needing to run up the RPMs before you get boost. The specs on the engine say this isn't the case. Perhaps you are expecting too much from it.

When I find my 35i slow to get going, its usually because I didn't kick it down into a low enough gear to start off. When I kick the pedal quickly all the way to the floor I get a very satisfactory response. Its not exciting like an 50i or an M would be but I think its all one can reasonably expect in a car this heavy with "only" 300 hp.

[chuck92103]

Originally Posted by Kojak

turbo lag???

I think the 35i only suffers from weighing 4900 lbs &/or not having a V8 but not turbo lag. Turbo lag is usually defined as needing to run up the RPMs before you get boost. The specs on the engine say this isn't the case. Perhaps you are expecting too much from it.

When I find my 35i slow to get going, its usually because I didn't kick it down into a low enough gear to start off. When I kick the pedal quickly all the way to the floor I get a very satisfactory response. Its not exciting like an 50i or an M would be but I think its all one can reasonably expect in a car this heavy with "only" 300 hp.

That might be my issue. Not so much lag, but warm ups and gassing it right.

[Devil666]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

That might be my issue. Not so much lag, but warm ups and gassing it right.

Yup is not the lag. Is bcos the car is heavy n the torque kicks in at only 1300RPM. Bi turbo u dnt really feel the lag but a big single turbo u will sure feel it. Normally not so much of a need to warm up so long. Look at the RPM need when ideling n after few minutes it will drop abit so is time u can drive off or by listening to the exhuast sound. When a few minutes later(which RPM needle drop) the exhuast will sound abit softer or smoother.