BMW Service – Understanding Your Bill
No one likes to spend money on their car, I hate it as much as you. However, it’s a fact of life that all cars will at least need gas and oil changes in order that they continue to serve you on a daily basis. BMWs require more than the average car, but less than others. Needless to say, luxury cars usually produce luxury maintenance bills, as they are of a higher performance and have more electronic gagets that can break or fail for no apparant reason. When customers bring their BMW to my shop in San Diego, I feel as though my number one job is to make them understand what they are buying and why. To me, that’s just as important as fixing their BMW properly.
So, lets just say you brought your BMW to get it serviced and it was recommended that you have an Inspection II performed and your control arm bushings needed repair. The service advisor tells you that the total cost will amount to about $1000. Do you know what you are getting? Did you understand what he or she told you? Did you just say ok? Stop. I see a lot of past bills provided by customers, and in many cases I’m a bit shocked as to what they were charged for, and even more shocked about what things were not done to the car that should have been. In addition, these bills are extremely difficult to read and are chock-full of words and sentances that just seem to fill the page and nickle and dime the poor bastard up to a $1000 with not much being done. Call it illegal, call it un-ethical, but that poor bastard was the one that approved it all. No wonder mechanics have a bad name, they’ve earned it. (more…)