Shafted at the Car Dealership
Yesterday Hawk took our BMW convertible to one of the area dealerships for service. It needed its 40,000 mile service interval (intervals are 10k miles), plus there were a few things we asked them to check/fix: AC not cooling, brakes squealing very slightly, and a loose sun visor. The latter 3, especially the last one, we hoped would be covered under the certified pre-owned (CPO) warranty.
Our first mistake was Hawk agreeing to a ridiculous high estimate for the basic service. They put a figure of $1,200 in front of her and she agreed. A basic service should be 1/3 to 1/4 of that. We're basically talking a glorified oil change here. She might have thought it included some other repairs.
I found out about it late in the day when Hawk was busy and I needed to take point on things. Bad news: the bill for the basic service came to over $1,300. That work was done so there was no way I could tell them they were nuts and take the car elsewhere. Worse news: they wouldn't fix anything else under warranty. Not even the sun visor that's coming loose. Come on, that's the type of stuff warranties are supposed to cover. Oh, and even worse news: They wanted over $500 to fix the loose sun visor. Like, all it's missing is a plastic peg that broke. FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS??
"Dealership, stealership," a lot of people say. I never considered them quite that bad. I knew we'd pay a bit more for basic service there- like 25% to 50% more. I did not expect it to be 200% to 300% more.
Update: Even more worse news: The problem with the AC wasn't just the coolant needing a refresh- which could have been up to $500, depending on which chemical it uses. No, the dealership's techs found a busted radiator and busted coolant pump. Preliminary estimate to fix: $4,500. 😨🤬🤯
Our first mistake was Hawk agreeing to a ridiculous high estimate for the basic service. They put a figure of $1,200 in front of her and she agreed. A basic service should be 1/3 to 1/4 of that. We're basically talking a glorified oil change here. She might have thought it included some other repairs.
I found out about it late in the day when Hawk was busy and I needed to take point on things. Bad news: the bill for the basic service came to over $1,300. That work was done so there was no way I could tell them they were nuts and take the car elsewhere. Worse news: they wouldn't fix anything else under warranty. Not even the sun visor that's coming loose. Come on, that's the type of stuff warranties are supposed to cover. Oh, and even worse news: They wanted over $500 to fix the loose sun visor. Like, all it's missing is a plastic peg that broke. FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS??
"Dealership, stealership," a lot of people say. I never considered them quite that bad. I knew we'd pay a bit more for basic service there- like 25% to 50% more. I did not expect it to be 200% to 300% more.
Update: Even more worse news: The problem with the AC wasn't just the coolant needing a refresh- which could have been up to $500, depending on which chemical it uses. No, the dealership's techs found a busted radiator and busted coolant pump. Preliminary estimate to fix: $4,500. 😨🤬🤯