[OUGrad05]

Our local BMW dealership is downright awful. I'm literally the only person I know that's had a reasonably positive experience there. They've agreed to fix a door lock out of warranty since I've been complaining about it for a 18+ mo and took a video showing the issue.

The experience with the SA has generally been good since my previous SA left (he was not good). Yet my SA has jerked some friends around a couple times and fed me a line of BS about my mirror being bent backwards once...

However, everyone I know... and I don't think this is an exaggeration that has vehicles worked on outside of warranty has horror story after horror story. I'm the "car" guy amongst many of my friends so I get a lot of calls and texts when people are shopping for cars or have a problem.

Here's a small sample of things that have happened:
Mother in law quit going to local dealer 8 years ago after they held her car hostage because she said they would not be getting 10s on the survey when they asked her to give them 10s. Why are they not getting 10s? Because she took the car in 3 times for the same problem and kept charging her for it. She had to get the police on the phone to get her keys back...even after this third trip, her husband fixed the problem when it crept back up literally the NEXT day.

The dealership was sold and under new management and I started hearing good things about them in 2012-2013 time frame. A close friend of mine bought a new BMW from them in the fall of 2012 and generally had good service.

I went in car shopping in the spring of 2015 and was basically told I was not allowed to test drive a BMW because I was not a serious shopper, I had been in once before, perhaps 2 years prior and did not buy a car.

So I bought my car in Atlanta and drove it home. I figured well the service thing seems to be good again so no big deal, I just won't interact with the sales folks.

Fast forward to 2016 and several friends with cars begin going out of warranty and sure enough one by one the absurd failures and dealer treatment begin again.

For example, a friend of mine has a rough idle on his 2011 328i, he takes it in and the engine has a coil pack failure, they tell him to replace all 6 coils, he does. Approx 3 mos later, he has a day with rough idle, which seems to cure itself but he's concerned and takes it back in, they tell him he needs to replace his coils.

He calls them back and asks which coil, they say all of them, he tells them he just did that, to which they basically reply "Oh, we'll rescan the car and call you back", they wind up finding no problem.

Fast forward to this week, engine light on, rough idle, takes it in, they tell him the VANOS has failed and it's a $750 replacement and that probably won't take care of the the whole problem, so he calls me. I tell him that BMW has a TSB out or maybe a full recall on VANOS cars and that his should fall under that and the repair should be FREE. He talks to indy shop, they verify that and he calls BMW NA and BMW NA says yes the fix is free, dealer should have mentioned this to you.

He calls dealership, asks to speak with service manager, they refuse to call him back. He's still working through this issue.

Situation two: Headlight failure on an E90 car, taken to dealer for repair. Picks up car, next morning puddle of fluid under the car, clear (ish) liquid on the garage floor, I get a call, ask what was done etc. The washer fluid line is in a position of compromise under the front bumper and bumper was pulled to put in new headlight, they probably cracked the line remounting the bumper.

I told him don't tell them that right out of the gate you don't want to sound accusatory but take it in and tell them you believe something may have been damaged when they replaced the headlight.

He gets to the dealer they immediately say nope, damage couldn't have occurred they would look at the car and call him back. At that point he tells them the issue with remounting the bumper and they deny deny deny and tell him to wait for their call. They call and try to charge him $550 to replace/repair what they broke. I told him not to accept, call the manager explain situation, he calls and leaves 5 or 6 voicemails over a period of 5 or 6 weeks, no call back.

Finally, they agree to pay for 90% of it while denying fault.

I probably have 8 or 10 stories like this from my local dealer screwing people around outside of warranty. It's really REALLY turned me off to my local dealer and BMW.

I love the new X3 M40i but bloody hell dealing with this for friends stresses me out and it's not even my own car.

There's always a possibility of a move and access to better dealers, but was wondering if anyone had any thoughts? Would you buy another BMW dealing with this sort of dealer? Or would you pass?

I'm tempted to write something up and send to BMW NA.