BMW Stands Back from their Service, Not Behind it.

Well, our story teller couldn’t have been a happier customer when he got his brand new 1999 BMW M3 from Budd’s BMW in Oakville over 3 years ago. The car was simply phenomenal.

He had sporty cars before, like a Cooper S 1283 Speedwell, a Cobra and a Datsun 280ZX to name just a few.

His last ride, was an SUV, so for him, the M3 was like stepping into a racecar. He was extremely excited. Very, very pleased at his choice, well actually his son’s choice.

What you are about to read is merely one person's story of mayhem with BMW Service, and may not be indicative of the majority of experiences. You can make up your own mind. The story teller justs feels that less people will get burned if they are given certain pieces of informaion. The whole story is not information, but it is all 100% true and it is up to you to make your own conclusions. Our story teller hopes that armed with this information, you may be able to avoid a very bad and costly experience. This is not meant as an attack on BMW, it is simply the accurate account of one customer's outragious misfortune as a BMW Service customer.

Our story teller took his car into Budd’s BMW in Oakville for the first year to get it serviced at the appropriate times. In fact, he was frequently early. All the service indicator lights were never gone or flat. he loved his M3 and wanted to take care of it.

At that time, he could easily get a service date within a week of calling Budd's BMW.  For oil changes, Budd's always put in 10-40 Synthetic (he checked his records). This is an important item to remember. You’ll see why as you read on.

After a year, our story teller moved to Nova Scotia and took his M3 to Halifax BMW. He never paid much attention to what they did at the time or each time that he took his car in. He was paying good money for OEM parts and Dealership service expertise. What could go wrong with that?

In the first year he was in Halifax, he attended his first BMWCC Driving School. You had to peel him off the ceiling.  Not only was the experience exciting, but also the AMP track he went to was so much fun.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt having an M3 to experience this with. He was impressed.

He kept bringing his car to Halifax BMW for regular service, and again, usually ahead of schedule. In fact, he started to have to bring the car in more frequently for oil changes because the lifters would start making serious noise in less than 4,000 kms, while BMW was recommending a 12,000 km interval. He repeatedly complained about the car using oil. It was basically boiling it off. One mechanic suggested that he try 10-40 mineral (He didn’t know they were using 5-30 synthetic, just that it was synthetic). He didn’t know it was insufficient. He is not a mechanic. However, he is bright and quickly learns.

The next track season came and the problem continued. He went back to synthetic. He didn’t know what weight oil they were using at that time. For this season (2001) he was gung ho for track time and took in a few additional schools and track days. He got some Rcompound tires to enjoy the experience even more. After all it is an M3.

According to Halifax BMW records, he spent about $4,700 in maintenance and service with Halifax BMW within those 2 years. However, during the second season, he took his car to Halifax BMW for brake bleeding twice. After the first bleeding, he picked up the car and drove home. On the way up the hill, the brake problem light came on. He called them and returned to the dealership. They forgot to top off the reservoir. They didn’t re-bleed the brakes, just topped it off. Not overly diligent, but they are the experts, not him. 40 days later he was about to head to Toronto and took his car back to Halifax BMW to have the oil changed and the brakes bled again. Afterall, it is always sensible to have your car checked before you embark on a long road trip. When he arrived in Toronto, his brake pad sensor light came on. He had less then 1 mm of pad left, the dealership were just bleeding them and they never warned him that the pads were down so low. Did they not bother to look? Our story teller asks; "How close to the brakes do you have to be to see those pads?" The year before they didn’t have any problem warning him that his front rotors were 40% worn (he had them replaced immediately). Perhaps pads are not nearly as profitable as rotor replacement?

He relies on the dealership to look after his BMW. After spending the fees for parts and service and taxis cabs to and from the dealership, he expects a higher level of interest in his vehicle and his family's safety. They all know he tracks the car, so what’s up with that?

Anyway, our story teller is in Toronto and there is no BMW Service in Canada on the weekends. However, the parts department is open Saturday morning so he went and bought pads and new sensors and did the job with the help from his son. His son knows this stuff because his son won’t let a dealership touch his cars. The father now knows why.

The story continues.

As you can guess, he is not impressed with Halifax BMW’s service and he doesn’t mind comparing the stories with others. Especially with others that also have complaints.

In January this year, he ask Halifax BMW to quote him on Floating rotors and Coil over suspension. He emailed the request. Waited 14 days and no answer. He went to the parts desk and made an in person request. They confirmed they have his email. Waited another 7 days and still no answer. He subsequently bought the parts from TMS. He went back to BMW and ask about installation, along with 2 new control arms (from BMW). He waited 7 days and no answer. He got the work done at Honda where a cousin of his works as a service representative.

As a result of what he deemed to be poor service fromt the dealership, he notify BMW AG about where he was located and his problem with the quality of service and asked what to do. There has still been no reply in over 6 months. periodicaly he gets calls from BMW service surveys. He takes the time and reiterates his problems, but to no avail. Perhaps they only respond to positive feedback? Why bother with the surveys?

Now it is the beginning of this season (2002). He planned a BMWCC school at Mosport and arrived on a Thursday in Toronto. The car was making a horrible noise. You know, the sound of that little man in the engine with a metal hammer banging metal. Crank noise.

He went to Mississauga BMW to get it investigated. To him, a non-expert, it sounded like crank noise, and he tells Mississauga BMW exactly that. They tell him a minimum of 3 weeks to book an appointment. What is he supposed to do stay in TO for 3 weeks, an unscheduled vacation? They send their TOP M technician out to diagnose his car, in the parking lot. Our story teller revs it to 2,000 so the technician can hear that awful sound. It makes the sound when it is driven, but the dealership didn't have the time (5 minutes) to do that. The car had approximately 110,000 kms on it, at the time, and the M expert tells him the noise is from it is VANOS, CAM Gear and Timing Chain, can’t be crank with 110,000 kms. It just needs adjustment.

Our story teller advises the M expert exactly what he is doing. Hitting the track tomorrow and driving 2,000 kms back to Nova Scotia on Monday.

The Expert tells him that it is not a problem. The expert indicates that it will have to get looked at, eventually, just “Don’t Go Nuts"”, this weekend.

Our story teller heads to the track on Friday. The BMWCC instructor gets in the car does 3 laps and bang, the Wrist Pin in cylinder 5 goes through the block. You want to hear it?

The subsequent tear down shows that the rod let go. Our story teller assumes this was caused through premature rod bearing failure, but why? The car has been regularly serviced.

After our story teller investigates the service records, he finds that Halifax BMW puts in 5-30 synthetic oil in the engine. This is the cause of oil starvation, lifter noise and the early loss of boiled oil. Hence bearing wear, that is either way too early, or BMW designs their cars for only 100,000 kms before a major failure. The car manual shows an oil chart where for summer use the minimum is 10-40. In addition, there is a comment about special oils supporting a wider range of operation, but there are no indications of what weight for what range. This is what BMW is hiding behind.

Even the M expert from BMW Mississauga says the minimum weight oil is 10-40 synthetic and the expert recommends using 20-50 instead. In fact, everyone who knows what they are doing with BMWs recommends 20-50.

This engine job costs our story teller $12,000, 4 weeks loss of car and air fare and most importantly lost time with his dying brother.  Our story teller took very good care of his car, or so he thought, since he took it to BMW dealerships as recommended by BMW.

Our story teller wants BMW to stand behind their service and their product. They have declined. Their arrogance is unbelievable. He says he will never buy another product from BMW again.

Now that sounds a lot like a poor set of unusual circumstances and perhaps BMW made a few mistakes. However, that picture is only part of the entire story. It actually gets worse. You'll see, if you read on that this is not an isolated case of incompetence and arrogance, but virtually a corporate attitude towards the consumer. If some of you folks think some BMW owners are a pain, look at the corporation. Our story teller believes the products are great, it's the company that has a serious problem. His M3 would be working well today with its original engine, if it had been properly serviced. It wasn't, simple fact, according to our story teller.

Wait, this story isn’t over yet.

He gets the used engine in and finally makes it back to Halifax. He takes it to the dealership, because the air conditioner is not working. They plug it in and he goes home. On the way home, the battery light (charge indicator) comes on. He takes it back to BMW and they tell him the alternator is shot. They order one, and install the alternator the next day.  The following day, he has a problem with engine running in the morning. He grabs a set of plugs and throws them in that night. Still the same problem the next morning and he advises the service manager of what he did with the plugs and ask them not to look at the plugs as the problem. He picks the car up later that day and they tell him it was a plug. They charge him $170.00 for a new set of plugs. Not 1 but all 6. They don’t want to take any chances. Very diligent about their billing opportunities, good corporate attitude. He drives up the hill to home and the problem returns before he gets home (<3 kms). 

He calls their service manager. The service manager suggests that he return the car. Our story teller angrily states, “Well are you going to listen to me”. The service manager responds with, “Well off the record Terry, we’ve heard that you don’t like the service here”. Dah. Our story teller explains last seasons brake bleeding experiences and this years lack of response. The service manager agrees that he wouldn’t be happy either. Our story teller asks him “If you knew I wasn’t happy, why didn’t you call me?”  The service manager responds, "dah, I was busy". Later, our story teller asks if the owner of the dealership, Ed Bachman, knew he wasn’t happy, the service manager confirmed that the dealership owner knew. When our story teller later asked the owner himself the same question, Ed (dealership owner) didn’t even have an answer.

Apparently, our story teller has a friend that imports a few older BMWs and Ed considers this guy a competitor and seems to treat our story teller as if he is competition as well. Our story teller indicates that he can't prove this, just one explaination. In any event, it appears that the delaership coped an attitude because our story teller openly complained about the quality of their service. Our story teller would love to find another source for service, especially based on what the end results have been.

Continuing…Within 3 days our story teller is headed back to Toronto and this time he almost make its, when the car conks out east of Whitby Ontario. He gets it towed and boosted to get it to his sisters palce (his familiy is meeting there to attend his brother’s wake the next day).

There is no battery light coming on so he doesn’t know what the problem is, seems to be charging. Sunday, Canadian Tire is open and he tests the battery there and recharges it. Monday comes and he takes it to BMW Mississauga. They tell him the alternator is shot. Our story teller advises them, "Wait a minute, 2 alternators in 7 days?" They basically confirm to him that, "yes the new one is defective" and they dismiss his comments. So the dealership orders another alternator (funny they indicate they don't stock them because they never fail, yet they don't really look for any other problem, our story teller has to believe that these people are "children of god cleverly disguised as idiots" ). The second new alternator is installed the next day. He picks up the car at 5pm and it breaks down on Mississauga streets at 5:30 pm. He gets it boosted and returns it to Mississauga BMW.  Now, this is 3 alternators in 10 days.

He drops by the next morning, and ask how it is going. They tell him, they fixed it. "It is your battery", they claim. He questions this conclusion and tells them he used a battery from one of his son’s cars and the same problems were exhibited. The techicians and service manager basically tell him, they know better. Our story teller offers a wager; no one wants to take it. Later he finds out they didn’t even screw the secure hold down bolt back on the battery. Great service.

You guessed it; our story teller is back to BMW Mississauga within 30 minutes, the car died again.

The dealership decides to actually look for the problem this time. They start a series of computer tests for 3 hours before they actually put the car on the hoist and start tracing wiring.  In the meantime, our story teller is spending his life in a BMW service waiting room. While there, another customer opens up and says she will never buy another BMW. Service sucks. Doesn’t surprise him.

Once on the hoist, within 30 seconds, the M expert grabs the wires and discover that the positive nut on the starter motor from the alternator and to the battery was loose. That was the problem all along., all the problems (too lazy or too busy to look?).

BMW doesn’t test the alternator at the alternator, they test it someplace else, like at the battery, because it’s easier and faster. So all of his troubles were due to ineffective testing procedures.  He had 2 new alternators, and series of breakdowns due to this problem. In the end, the whole process destroyed his battery anyway, so he also got stuck with a battery bill for over $200. Could have been worse, apparently they gave him a deal on the battery, as they felt sorry for him. Our story teller feels sorry for all BMW customers.

He doesn’t mind paying $95.00 an hour shop rate for expertise, but $95.00 an hour for incompetence or no problem solving skills is not a deal, nor is it right. Technicians rely too heavily on what the computer testing says. The test procedures are frequently in adequate to diagnose trouble. This is painfully obvious. Perhaps a good old fashion mechanic might help, not a computer operator. Of course, our story teller is a computer person and it would seem he has better instincts about diagnosing car trouble, they the so called trained experts.

BMW did repay him for the alternator, but not the battery, no compensation for the lost time and no compensation for missing the last few days of his brother’s life due to the car troubles. What our story teller really wants is $15,000 for the engine they screwed up or they can install a new engine and he’ll sell the used one that's in the car to help recoop hos loses due to what he calls gross incompetence in the care of his vehicle.

Since then, he has contacted BMW customer service. Although they recognize their inability to service the cars on time that they have in customer hands, they don’t indicate what, if anything they are going to do about it in the future. Their CSR himself says, “We are a victim of our own success”.

Our story teller responds, "Excuse me Andre (CSR); it is me who is the victim of your success, not BMW".  He gathers Andre made this statement due to a high volume of complaints he must be receiving in CS. Andre is just a victim of working for BMW. Our story teller is a victim by being a customer of BMW.

He assures you, "That won’t happen again".

He now has a 1999 BMW M3 for sale with a 1997 engine. The car now has 128,000 kms on it, but the engine only has 70,000 kms. If you are in the Halifax area, he has  no idea where you can get it serviced properly and if you are in Toronto area, you will have to learn to wait 4 weeks for an appointment. You will have to forecast your mileage so that you can get your oil changed at the appropriate time. Our story teller suggests that you discuss your BMW oil requirements with someone other then a BMW representative. A second opinion is always a good choice, especially when the first opinion doesn't come with any backup support.

BTW, our story teller advises that BMW has recognized that they have oil problems. In fact the new M3 requires 60 W Oil. He is not sure why they continue to claim 5-30 is sufficient for an E36 M3, he guesses it’s that $15,000 mistake that BMW doesn't want to eat. Make the customer eat it. Could be a new mission statement?

Please feel free to pass this link or grab the source and post it where ever you think it might help people make informed decisions about either the maintenance on their prize BMW or their contemplation of purchasing a used one.

Our story teller doesn't limit this tail to just the incompetence he experienced with BMW. He is quite sure that there are several affected car owners from a wide variety of manufacturers, delaerships and mechanic shops. He just wants everyone to be aware that the so called experts are not always right, and when they are not it could cost you dearly, not them. Good will doesn't seem to be in the BMW dictionary, however he is sure incompetence is. He thinks Goodwill it should follow the word incompetence.

Terry Barratt
M3 Owner