Fun times ahead with dealer's service department

[CP 1///M]

Normally I wouldn't post this BEFORE it happens but I figure it would be a good "documentary"... this is in Vancouver, Canada

I finally decided to call up the dealer on these 2 intermittent issues:
1) Navi losing the previously tuned radio station on startup (revert to the lowest FM frequency - 87.7), 1 incident of Red Screen of Death, 1 incident of losing most of my settings (which rendered the remote useless before that - I had to use the key to unlock the car as it refuses to respond to my remote, and it's not the remote battery). Granted - the car sits in a garage for almost a full work week before being driven a few hours on the weekend.
2) Gears getting hard to engage, sometimes needing to clutch-out/clutch-in for a 2nd time in order to get into first, and while it's mostly intermittent, it's getting harder to shift into 2 and 3, sometimes even 4th.

First of all, they wanted me to agree to a $153/hr rate for diagnosing the problem as you have to pay that if it turns out not to be covered under warranty. Then they state the "life time fill" crap for my transmission fluid (it's a freaking 1M - even the service booklet says to replace every 3 oil changes which is about 75K KM). Of course they won't tell me any estimate how long it would take to diagnose the problem so if it takes like half a day to find out it's my issue, I just get myself an invoice for $600+tax for not resolving it...

Well what didn't help is that it's very close to warranty expiration, and while I can live with the Navi losing its brains a little every so often, I'm not very comfortable with a potential transmission problem out-of-warranty - I will probably still pay for whatever repairs needed to keep this car, but still, maybe the dealers here are so used to "foreigners" with more money than brains that they don't really care to do anything to please a customer

I didn't want to just jump into the independent shop route as I still have about 1 month of warranty left, I'm mostly happy with the car except for these 2 intermittent issues (and really, there is no way to reproduce it on-demand). I know the gear change problem has definitely deteriorated since I got the car 1 year and 16K KM ago, not sure about the Navi problem which looks to be power related (either battery or com-box power connection). I also feel that it's pointless to direct a shop/technician what to look for on a German car as it's mostly counter-productive ("German" engineering)

I have an appointment for Monday morning, so any wise words on how to get the service manager to handle this properly would help - in my mind, I figure flushing the transmission fluid, looking at the com-box power connection (which seems to be a common cause) or even battery replacement might make me happy not to bother them too much

[IEDEI]

find a different dealer. this one seems broken! lol

how many miles do you have?

[CP 1///M]

Actually based on what I have heard 3 out of the 4 have bad customer experience anyways, and the 4th one is the furthest. I have yet to hear one say "Go this BMW dealer as it's generally good". I'm at 30K KM which is less than 20K miles for an almost 4 year old car

[IEDEI]

Originally Posted by CP 1///M

Actually based on what I have heard 3 out of the 4 have bad customer experience anyways, and the 4th one is the furthest. I have yet to hear one say "Go this BMW dealer as it's generally good". I'm at 30K KM which is less than 20K miles for an almost 4 year old car

there is no "lifetime transmission fluid" in an M car. You should remind them it's an M car as their incompetence has clearly clouded their thoughts!!! haha

take a look at the thread a few below with the PDF i posted about the maintenance schedule (31.2k maintenance)

[inline sex]

...you should at least switch to a full synthetic trans fluid. RedLine is great!
And while draining you can take a sample to send out to blackstone labs to analyze.
That would be my first step for the shifting issue.

[CP 1///M]

Basically, I'm taking the "it's under warranty" stance and asked BMW to kindly help me diagnose and resolve the problem, even though it's intermittent and it's nearing the end of the warranty.

But in hindsight, would anyone keep going to the dealers for an intermittent problem that you can't exactly reproduce on demand? I know it would be kind of a waste of their time if they can't reproduce it, and with the market of the 1M being so small, should I "help" them along by giving them suggestions on what the forum has found so far? I doubt any of the Technical Bulletins would make their way up to Canada from the US or other parts of the world

[champignon]

Originally Posted by CP 1///M

I doubt any of the Technical Bulletins would make their way up to Canada from the US or other parts of the world

Are you implying that Vancouver is this little out of the way backwater, in spite of its millions of residents (in the metropolitan area), and one of the largest international airports (by service) in North America?

[Win]

Vancouver is a small town, everything about Vancouverites' mindsets is "small town". I was born and raised in VanCity... it's _the_ most FOB chinese city in North America, even the non-chinese are so f'n chinese little do they realize... for better or worse.

Living in Van, you have to deal with bullshit including dealers... when they have 16 yr old kids coming every week buying a Ferrari or a Porsche as their 1st car... dealers don't give a shit. Service sucks in Vancouver, it's just the adopted Honger attitude game.

I've had the red screen of death twice now... I researched it a little.. it definitely seems to be a self-imposed "reboot". I don't get any loss of settings or odd behavior so not so worried, but I'm gonna bring it up to the dealer next time I'm in. The radio still works despite the screen going blank.. not sure if that gives better insight to the issue.

I notice the exact same thing as you are with my clutch. I haven't done the CDV delete but will prob soon as this sounds like to me a cause for this issue. It's f'n annoying.

Curious, what are the dealers in Van you had bad experience with so far? Just for my own future reference...

[champignon]

Originally Posted by Win

Vancouver is a small town, everything about Vancouverites' mindsets is "small town". I was born and raised in VanCity... it's _the_ most FOB chinese city in North America, even the non-chinese are so f'n chinese little do they realize... for better or worse.

Living in Van, you have to deal with bullshit including dealers... when they have 16 yr old kids coming every week buying a Ferrari or a Porsche as their 1st car... dealers don't give a shit. Service sucks in Vancouver, it's just the adopted Honger attitude game.

My last couple of yearly trips to Vancouver I've ended up staying by the airport, because I got a great deal on a room from Priceline. Of course the airport is in Richmond, ground zero for the Chinese population of the BC Lower Mainland. I have seen lots of very young people driving very expensive cars. In fact, I've seen LOTS of very expensive cars all over Vancouver, way more than I'm using to seeing where I live, which is an affluent area. This past trip I saw a very bored looking Chinese man with his $300K Ferrari at a stoplight near the airport revving the engine in an area where he would have been extremely lucky to have been able to go 30km per hour as a top speed.

I dropped into the Richmond BMW dealer as well as the one on 5th and Burrard in Vancouver. Both are huge, high volume dealers, and I didn't get the impression that they were very accommodating to their customers, from the little bit of interaction I had with them. The dealer in Boise, idaho, seems way more responsive to me.

[Win]

Yup, when I went to college at UBC in Van... in the 90's. Every *week*, I would witness another NSX, Veilside RX-7 or Viper driven by a "kid" totaled on the side of the road... then they'd brag to their "friends" that they'll just buy a new one the following week.

If you had to deal with cocky uneducated buyers from China with too much $ you'd prob start to give attitude too.

Richmond is littered with flowers at every other intersection because some kid died from not knowing how to drive and/or racing... always been that way.

Most of the world and many Canadians don't realize Vancouver is the capital for asian money laundering. Their entire local economy is based on it. The local gov't policies are shaped around it.

I may sound opinionated but it's my hometown and I'm asian.... but I digress.

But Van is def a car culture city so yeah you get to see some f'n crazy ass cars there 24/7 driven by some chump or kid. I even see Chinese construction workers driving to the site in an Aventador. Another big reason for this is because cars are so cheap compared to Asia where cars are heavily taxed. With the $ you pay for a Honda Civic in some cities, you can buy a Cayman GT4 in North America, so it's "cheap".

I lived in San Francisco for 13 years and that place is NOT a car culture place... it's land of the Prius. Southern Cali at least is big into cars...

[champignon]

One of my most amusing memories from recent trips to Vancouver was last year when I was also staying at the Westin by the Airport. I was walking down a side street and saw this guy on a bicycle almost run over by an inattentive young Chinese female driver in an SUV. The bicyclist (who barely missed ending up face down on the road) yelled out to the driver (who didn't even appear to notice that she had just about done in this poor bicyclist), "LEARN TO DRIVE!! LEARN TO DRIVE!!!!"

It would have been even more amusing if I hadn't seen the incident, which would have deserved a citation for vehicular homicide if she had "succeeded," and a police officer had been around.

[Dee Pee]

My car goes out of warranty on 9/1 so I feel you pain. It's at 23.5k miles. I've already posted my experience regarding the warranty extension.

I'd make sure that they will cover the issues as they were reported before the expiration of your warranty and make sure you find that provision in writing. If not then maybe cough up a few bucks for a year of maintenance. It's not cheap but any problem that needs lots of labor time will add up fast and it's a good hedge.

As for the unique car culture of VanBC I feel you man. I'm Asian too and they Canuck government really mismanaged the 1997 Hong Kong exodus and the nouveau rice mainlanders only compounded the problem. Upside is that the food is pretty good!

[theKaras]

I've had better luck with service from Parkshore BMW. I used to go to the BMW Store for service but when I was left in the lurch with the dreaded AHL error I decided to go elsewhere.

[CP 1///M]

Trying to catch up what was posted here over the weekend, but the quick update is that at least the service advisor is much more willing to listen, and clarified on the "life-time fill" as M cars always get their transmission fluid flushed at some point (just a very very long interval much like the engine oil). Looks like some programming required, I'm told the car might stay overnight but I live close enough to not bother with a rental. We will see how it goes - a bit "less grumpy" than right after my first call about the issues.

As for other dealers, I have never been to others but I had friends gone to Auto West, had friends gone to Park Shore, as well as BMW Store - one of my friend did try both Brian Jessel and Auto West and says no difference in service (and obviously he wasn't too happy with one to switch in the first place). My believe is that bashing dealers on the Internet isn't exactly productive but I would somewhat agree about the BMW owner population here drives the kind of service we get (a lot of them don't care for the car's condition and have a tendency to cheap out)

[CP 1///M]

Funny tidbits of conversation:
Advisor: you want an oil change this time?
Me: I had fresh oil in there about 500Km ago, so no thanks
Advisor: but this will be the last free oil change before warranty expires...
Me: yes, you guys called me and we had a schedule appt for later in Sep, do it then...
Advisor: ok, most people wanted to save the extra trip that's all...

I don't like the 25K KM oil change, and in the summer I run 5W40 Motul so I almost always do at least 1 if not 2 in between (I have seen how black the oil became just running on 8K KM but long duration like over 6 months). Insurance money for the engine I guess...

And I ran into a fellow 1M owner's car in the service waiting area with a custom plate and duck tail (BSM 1M). I think in my whole year of ownership I actually saw 1 VO and 1 AW around town so that makes it 3 for all the colors there are. Met another fellow AW 1M owner in Ambleside park at North Van awhile back as well. As they say it when I go to a track day for the first time, the 1M is like a unicorn around town

[Nagata-San]

Find a nicer dealer.

Mine always try to find ways to help, even with my low car that is hard to move in the garage !

[CP 1///M]

Originally Posted by Nagata-San

Find a nicer dealer.

Mine always try to find ways to help, even with my low car that is hard to move in the garage !

It's a market-specific problem - Vancouver attracts a lot of foreign money, esp China money, and with that comes with a specific client base that influences dealership service level across the board. See the above descriptions and I mostly agree with their assessment. Unfortunately I have no plans to move away either

[theKaras]

Originally Posted by CP 1///M

It's a market-specific problem - Vancouver attracts a lot of foreign money, esp China money, and with that comes with a specific client base that influences dealership service level across the board. See the above descriptions and I mostly agree with their assessment. Unfortunately I have no plans to move away either

I agree CP 1///M. Vancouver's landscape has changed a lot and dealerships are capitalizing on it (i.e. exclusive Chinese sales pages or prices with lots of 8's). Did you manage to find a dealership that's willing to help?

[Win]

Alberta road trip! They're always the first in the country to get hurt before long term recessions...

j/k, sorta. Call up dealers way outta the lower mainland... Maybe worth the drive.

College friend of mine bought his 911 in Edmonton for a *huge* discount last time commodities took a huge crash like we're seeing now.

[CP 1///M]

Well, radio is getting replaced today, and if the programming doesn't crash in the middle I should get my car back by end of business day. No word on the transmission being stiff - I guess I will hear about it when I pick up my car.

For me, the experience was the worst when I first called in - the guy answering the phone is giving generic answers and gives me the "make sure you're willing to pay for it" attitude when the car is still within warranty. I guess there might be some unexpected cost and other people might have been stung by that and complained loudly. I will see how much this ends up costing me but I really don't expect it to be out of my pocket

[Luca335]

Originally Posted by CP 1///M

Funny tidbits of conversation:
Advisor: you want an oil change this time?
Me: I had fresh oil in there about 500Km ago, so no thanks
Advisor: but this will be the last free oil change before warranty expires...
Me: yes, you guys called me and we had a schedule appt for later in Sep, do it then...
Advisor: ok, most people wanted to save the extra trip that's all...

I don't like the 25K KM oil change, and in the summer I run 5W40 Motul so I almost always do at least 1 if not 2 in between (I have seen how black the oil became just running on 8K KM but long duration like over 6 months). Insurance money for the engine I guess...

And I ran into a fellow 1M owner's car in the service waiting area with a custom plate and duck tail (BSM 1M). I think in my whole year of ownership I actually saw 1 VO and 1 AW around town so that makes it 3 for all the colors there are. Met another fellow AW 1M owner in Ambleside park at North Van awhile back as well. As they say it when I go to a track day for the first time, the 1M is like a unicorn around town

I took my car in two weeks ago (before warranty expires in two weeks) and all they did was "scope" it, no oil change what so ever. My car is at 21000km, is there any service they are supposed to do? They just kept telling me I did not drive enough so not ready for any type of maintenance service, is this true? They told me my rear tires are down to 4mm and they suggested me doing an alignment check (after installing new tires) for $250. Do I really need it? I mean I don't feel the car pulling what so ever.

[champignon]

Originally Posted by Luca335

They told me my rear tires are down to 4mm and they suggested me doing an alignment check (after installing new tires) for $250. Do I really need it? I mean I don't feel the car pulling what so ever.

Pricy Alignment. At least ask them to throw in a coupon for free Dim Sum for 4