BMW Servicing - do they drive your car?

[Liub]

Hi all, quick question. Is it BMW policy for technicians to test drive your car after every service, even if it was just the first service where no work is done?

Thanks .

[sparoz]

Originally Posted by Liub

Hi all, quick question. Is it BMW policy for technicians to test drive your car after every service, even if it was just the first service where no work is done?

Thanks .

I think they do.

[lavaletta]

Oh yeh, they flog it...real...hard...

[alik01]

They do drive it, almost always, especially if it's nice. But as long as you inspect the car and make the SA inspect anything that happens is there issue. Can't worry about these things too much, otherwise you'll have one too many early gray hairs (I found a few the other week!)

[BMW86]

I'm pretty sure it's standard procedure and they want to make sure everything is given the okay before they give the car back. I don't mind, my dealership is pretty good, I just hope they let the car warm up before they bounce off the red-line lol.

[gazz]

Note the klms at drop off time. Then check at pickup.

[MikeVictor]

I'm happy they check my car before handing it back to me, I don't feel like taking the car in any more than I have to.

[ozzie135i]

I put my car in.. They did 4kms..

I reset my journey stats before I gave it to them. When I got it back it was at 39.5L.

This means they must have been driving it very f**king hard for the 4km they did. As I took the mechanic for a small drive about 500m down the road and back and that was included.

I won't be taking my car to that BMW place any more.

[Taymaishu]

I gave mine to Trivett with just under 1/4 tank. They said they needed to put fuel in it when they tested it. Lol

[ozzie135i]

Originally Posted by Taymaishu

I gave mine to Trivett with just under 1/4 tank. They said they needed to put fuel in it when they tested it. Lol

I did the same.. Brought it in with not much fuel.. There was 1/4 left in it when I gave it to them. When I got it back it was at that point I HAD to refuel or I wasn't going home lol

[amk2912]

Well....what do you do with their loaners??

[Harlequin]

Originally Posted by ozzie135i

I put my car in.. They did 4kms..

I reset my journey stats before I gave it to them. When I got it back it was at 39.5L.

This means they must have been driving it very f**king hard for the 4km they did. As I took the mechanic for a small drive about 500m down the road and back and that was included.

I won't be taking my car to that BMW place any more.

If that happen to me I'd have the guy's job. If they want to drive a $100,000 car like that they can go buy their own...

- Harlequin

[JHOOPS2]

I'm in the USA, but when I had a reflash, new HPFP and injectors installed the tech put right at 80kms on mine (50 miles).

[sparoz]

Any insights? Andrew?

[DriveHard]

It is in fact common practice to drive each car.. even for an oil servce. at least they try to .. some may just get looked at for hand prints / tools / dirty mat etc etc etc.

for larger dealers, its not the techs that drive the cars after the work is done. that would be a waste of valuable techs. bigger dealers have a Quality Control guy do it.. They see what was done, check service lights, drive around pre-determined route and return veh to car wash line ..

on Larger repairs, like the one stated above with the 50miles.. That repair specifically states to re-adapt certain things and calls for 3 drive cycles at approx 20m each. so it is all relative.

on the post about the average fuel economy,, you have no idea how long that car was ideling while waiting for car wash, at the techs bay etc etc etc ... could have scewewd your numbers.


Keep in mind the following:

a) Techs dont get paid to drive your car... the last thing they want to do is be in it for 20 minutes screwing around.

b) as much as we all think OUR car is SPECIAL.... at the dealer it is just another car.. you HOT 135 w/ fancy wheels is just one of 100 that tech may have seen that week... it really is no big deal . There are the ocasional exceptions, but it has to be special to attract attention.. for instance on one day there were 3 ALPINA B7's in the service drive... you get my point..

c) Employees dont want to be responsible for damaging a car.. like i said there are exceptions like the M5 at that dealer in texas that was an internet sensation.. ( BTW what happend with that ????)

and as far as the post about loaners... Think about it for a moment.. dont we have fun in loaners when we are in them????

just my .02

[JHOOPS2]

I forgot about the M5..What did come of that..Sorry to go OT.

[Taymaishu]

One of the loaners I got didn't have the typical no smoking signs...

So...

[Stuart@BMRAutowerkes]

Originally Posted by ozzie135i

I put my car in.. They did 4kms..

I reset my journey stats before I gave it to them. When I got it back it was at 39.5L.

This means they must have been driving it very f**king hard for the 4km they did. As I took the mechanic for a small drive about 500m down the road and back and that was included.

I won't be taking my car to that BMW place any more.

Even on a track day my fuel consumption was like 27L/100km... perhaps they reset it just before giving it back to you, because crawling around in a carpark in first gear will certainly give the max reading, being 39.5L/100km. Can't avoid that.

[MikeVictor]

Originally Posted by DriveHard

It is in fact common practice to drive each car.. even for an oil servce. at least they try to .. some may just get looked at for hand prints / tools / dirty mat etc etc etc.

for larger dealers, its not the techs that drive the cars after the work is done. that would be a waste of valuable techs. bigger dealers have a Quality Control guy do it.. They see what was done, check service lights, drive around pre-determined route and return veh to car wash line ..

on Larger repairs, like the one stated above with the 50miles.. That repair specifically states to re-adapt certain things and calls for 3 drive cycles at approx 20m each. so it is all relative.

on the post about the average fuel economy,, you have no idea how long that car was ideling while waiting for car wash, at the techs bay etc etc etc ... could have scewewd your numbers.


Keep in mind the following:

a) Techs dont get paid to drive your car... the last thing they want to do is be in it for 20 minutes screwing around.

b) as much as we all think OUR car is SPECIAL.... at the dealer it is just another car.. you HOT 135 w/ fancy wheels is just one of 100 that tech may have seen that week... it really is no big deal . There are the ocasional exceptions, but it has to be special to attract attention.. for instance on one day there were 3 ALPINA B7's in the service drive... you get my point..

c) Employees dont want to be responsible for damaging a car.. like i said there are exceptions like the M5 at that dealer in texas that was an internet sensation.. ( BTW what happend with that ????)

and as far as the post about loaners... Think about it for a moment.. dont we have fun in loaners when we are in them????

just my .02

well said

[gazz]

Is a 1M "special"?

[Liub]

Thanks for the insights, just wanted to make sure. My mate saw my car on the road and thought it was stolen... and it was being driven quite fast *apparently*.

[cozza]

Probably being driven no different to the way we drive them.

I've got a 320D loaner at the moment - not bad actually. It's auto so the lag is awful, but it's a lot quicker than I thought it would be. Nicely kitted out too. Anyway, I'm getting off topic...