645 statutory vehicle check
Discussion
MitchT said:
Roger645 said:
My 645 is 3 years old in May and the service screen is telling me it needs it's statutory vehicle check in April. Anyone know what this entails?
Thanks
Roger
Thanks
Roger
I suspect 'statutory vehicle check' is BMW's posh-speak for MOT!
Doh, didn't think of that, never usually keep a car that long!
Thanks
Roger
I don't know for a fact that it means MOT, but I reckon it's a good guess. As eliot implies, it's basically an invitation from your friendly local BMW dealer to take your credit card in for a thorough ragging! (I don't believe they do the 'MOT Inssurance' as part of the warranty anymore)
Roger645 said:
TBH, it's been a really cheap car to run, it cost 140 quid for an oil change, 55 quid for a brake fluid change, 70 quid for microfilters. That's all the dealer costs in 24k miles.
Yeah, I've read some really great things about the 645's running costs. I'd have one myself but I can't really afford it and by the time used values fall within my grasp it might be time for some of the more expensive work to be needed. I absolutely love the look of the 6 series. I always have to stop and appreciate it when I see one. It's just such a beautiful car with its somehow understated yet achingly desirable lines – It's a car that you feel as much as see when you look at one.
It is indeed the MOT..you can have it done anywhere that do'es MOT's (BMW arent aloud to dictate where a Beamer is to be MOT'd as it is a goverment run operation).
As for resetting the light there is a sequence that can be done via the instrument cluster.Cant give you that info though(too many people watching)
Or you can take to a main dealer to have it reset-I dont think you should be charged for this and I dont think it would be right.It can also be turned off if requested so you dont get this every year if it causes you a problem.
As for resetting the light there is a sequence that can be done via the instrument cluster.Cant give you that info though(too many people watching)
Or you can take to a main dealer to have it reset-I dont think you should be charged for this and I dont think it would be right.It can also be turned off if requested so you dont get this every year if it causes you a problem.
MitchT said:
I don't know for a fact that it means MOT, but I reckon it's a good guess. As eliot implies, it's basically an invitation from your friendly local BMW dealer to take your credit card in for a thorough ragging! (I don't believe they do the 'MOT Inssurance' as part of the warranty anymore)
Think they do.
My girlfriends BMW Mini is guarateed to pass its first MOT as long as she keeps it serviced accoridng to schedule with them (which is no problem as it has their TLC, £50 for 3 yrs servicing, deal on it anyways).
Seem to remember my mums new Z4 having a similar deal (not the £50 servicing though!).
Edited by emicen on Wednesday 13th December 11:27
Block exemption means you can take your car (no matter how young/old) to anywhere for both it's servicing & MOT. Which is a pain for main dealers as when "ted in his shed" has let some 17yr old trainee mess your car up & you have to take it to the main dealer you end up paying more in the end, especially on new cars. Also Mini TLC is £150 for 5yrs/60K whichever comes first.
MK4 Slowride said:
Block exemption means you can take your car (no matter how young/old) to anywhere for both it's servicing & MOT. Which is a pain for main dealers as when "ted in his shed" has let some 17yr old trainee mess your car up & you have to take it to the main dealer you end up paying more in the end, especially on new cars. Also Mini TLC is £150 for 5yrs/60K whichever comes first.
Yes, it's much better to let "ted trading as BMW" to let a 17 year-old monkey loose on your P&J at triple the cost and then tell you (nicely) to fück off when they balls it up
Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 13th December 18:42
mmm-five said:
MK4 Slowride said:
Block exemption means you can take your car (no matter how young/old) to anywhere for both it's servicing & MOT. Which is a pain for main dealers as when "ted in his shed" has let some 17yr old trainee mess your car up & you have to take it to the main dealer you end up paying more in the end, especially on new cars. Also Mini TLC is £150 for 5yrs/60K whichever comes first.
Yes, it's much better to let "ted trading as BMW" to let a 17 year-old monkey loose on your P&J at triple the cost and then tell you (nicely) to fück off when they balls it up
Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 13th December 18:42
I gather you don't have a great deal of confidence in some BMW dealers then, bit of a sweeping generalization there. Had problems with your M5?
Bit of a generalisation, yes! But when you've got a sample of 2 local ones and they're both 'poor' you tend to get a biased view.
When I first got the M5 (almost 7 years ago) they were fine, didn't matter which one I took it to, they all seemed to charge about the same for the same job and were polite, would go through the estimate/quote/invoice with you, and call you if before they did anything not originally specified. Depending on where I was working at the time I would take it to the local dealer.
Unfortunately over the last two years there's been a downward performance trend with my two local (within 20 miles) dealers - with them refusing to hand over the car until you've paid the bill - a bill which includes items you didn't ask to be done, nor authorised to be done at a later stage via a courtesy phonecall.
Add to this the failings to do some of the simplest jobs, even when presented with a 36-point text, bulleted list with 8 items to do on - i.e. 1) replace washer bottle sensor; 2) do valve clearances (that you forgot to do on my last Inspection II that cost £800); 3) DO NOT replace baldy tyres as 7mm is not 'baldy'! 4) replace brake pad sensor that was not replaced when you fitted the last set of pads; 5) etc.
Valve clearances were still not done after all this, and it took them 6 weeks (and 3 booking slots) to get the right parts in for my alternator cooling duct - with me taking a day off each time to bring it in.
Finally add to this them leaving off fluid caps (oil filler, expansion tank) for me to notice as steam/smoke comes from the engine bay on the way home.
Letters to BMW Bracknell have received curt replies basically stating it's a problem between me and the dealer - so "nah nah"! In the end I just sat at the service desk reiterating that I wasn't going to pay for anything and was going to sit there until they either negotiated, let me speak to the dealer principal, or refunded me for the car hire, loss of earnings, etc. which were more than the cost of the invoice. After almost 5 hours I got 60% off and a promise of a further discount on any future work (yeah, right).
Luckily it doesn't go to a dealer any more - unfortunately it looks like it's had enough and want to be sent to the Nordschleife in the sky as the suspension now needs doing, and it's developed a misfire!
I still love BMWs, but can't face the dealer network or Bracknell's arrogant stance - so it's specialists and DIY from now on and I'll never buy anything from BMW if i can help it!
When I first got the M5 (almost 7 years ago) they were fine, didn't matter which one I took it to, they all seemed to charge about the same for the same job and were polite, would go through the estimate/quote/invoice with you, and call you if before they did anything not originally specified. Depending on where I was working at the time I would take it to the local dealer.
Unfortunately over the last two years there's been a downward performance trend with my two local (within 20 miles) dealers - with them refusing to hand over the car until you've paid the bill - a bill which includes items you didn't ask to be done, nor authorised to be done at a later stage via a courtesy phonecall.
Add to this the failings to do some of the simplest jobs, even when presented with a 36-point text, bulleted list with 8 items to do on - i.e. 1) replace washer bottle sensor; 2) do valve clearances (that you forgot to do on my last Inspection II that cost £800); 3) DO NOT replace baldy tyres as 7mm is not 'baldy'! 4) replace brake pad sensor that was not replaced when you fitted the last set of pads; 5) etc.
Valve clearances were still not done after all this, and it took them 6 weeks (and 3 booking slots) to get the right parts in for my alternator cooling duct - with me taking a day off each time to bring it in.
Finally add to this them leaving off fluid caps (oil filler, expansion tank) for me to notice as steam/smoke comes from the engine bay on the way home.
Letters to BMW Bracknell have received curt replies basically stating it's a problem between me and the dealer - so "nah nah"! In the end I just sat at the service desk reiterating that I wasn't going to pay for anything and was going to sit there until they either negotiated, let me speak to the dealer principal, or refunded me for the car hire, loss of earnings, etc. which were more than the cost of the invoice. After almost 5 hours I got 60% off and a promise of a further discount on any future work (yeah, right).
Luckily it doesn't go to a dealer any more - unfortunately it looks like it's had enough and want to be sent to the Nordschleife in the sky as the suspension now needs doing, and it's developed a misfire!
I still love BMWs, but can't face the dealer network or Bracknell's arrogant stance - so it's specialists and DIY from now on and I'll never buy anything from BMW if i can help it!
Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 14th December 16:30
mmm-five said:
Bit of a generalisation, yes! But when you've got a sample of 2 local ones and they're both 'poor' you tend to get a biased view.
When I first got the M5 (almost 7 years ago) they were fine, didn't matter which one I took it to, they all seemed to charge about the same for the same job and were polite, would go through the estimate/quote/invoice with you, and call you if before they did anything not originally specified. Depending on where I was working at the time I would take it to the local dealer.
Unfortunately over the last two years there's been a downward performance trend with my two local (within 20 miles) dealers - with them refusing to hand over the car until you've paid the bill - a bill which includes items you didn't ask to be done, nor authorised to be done at a later stage via a courtesy phonecall.
Add to this the failings to do some of the simplest jobs, even when presented with a 36-point text, bulleted list with 8 items to do on - i.e. 1) replace washer bottle sensor; 2) do valve clearances (that you forgot to do on my last Inspection II that cost £800); 3) DO NOT replace baldy tyres as 7mm is not 'baldy'! 4) replace brake pad sensor that was not replaced when you fitted the last set of pads; 5) etc.
Valve clearances were still not done after all this, and it took them 6 weeks (and 3 booking slots) to get the right parts in for my alternator cooling duct - with me taking a day off each time to bring it in.
Finally add to this them leaving off fluid caps (oil filler, expansion tank) for me to notice as steam/smoke comes from the engine bay on the way home.
Letters to BMW Bracknell have received curt replies basically stating it's a problem between me and the dealer - so "nah nah"! In the end I just sat at the service desk reiterating that I wasn't going to pay for anything and was going to sit there until they either negotiated, let me speak to the dealer principal, or refunded me for the car hire, loss of earnings, etc. which were more than the cost of the invoice. After almost 5 hours I got 60% off and a promise of a further discount on any future work (yeah, right).
Luckily it doesn't go to a dealer any more - unfortunately it looks like it's had enough and want to be sent to the Nordschleife in the sky as the suspension now needs doing, and it's developed a misfire!
I still love BMWs, but can't face the dealer network or Bracknell's arrogant stance - so it's specialists and DIY from now on and I'll never buy anything from BMW if i can help it!
When I first got the M5 (almost 7 years ago) they were fine, didn't matter which one I took it to, they all seemed to charge about the same for the same job and were polite, would go through the estimate/quote/invoice with you, and call you if before they did anything not originally specified. Depending on where I was working at the time I would take it to the local dealer.
Unfortunately over the last two years there's been a downward performance trend with my two local (within 20 miles) dealers - with them refusing to hand over the car until you've paid the bill - a bill which includes items you didn't ask to be done, nor authorised to be done at a later stage via a courtesy phonecall.
Add to this the failings to do some of the simplest jobs, even when presented with a 36-point text, bulleted list with 8 items to do on - i.e. 1) replace washer bottle sensor; 2) do valve clearances (that you forgot to do on my last Inspection II that cost £800); 3) DO NOT replace baldy tyres as 7mm is not 'baldy'! 4) replace brake pad sensor that was not replaced when you fitted the last set of pads; 5) etc.
Valve clearances were still not done after all this, and it took them 6 weeks (and 3 booking slots) to get the right parts in for my alternator cooling duct - with me taking a day off each time to bring it in.
Finally add to this them leaving off fluid caps (oil filler, expansion tank) for me to notice as steam/smoke comes from the engine bay on the way home.
Letters to BMW Bracknell have received curt replies basically stating it's a problem between me and the dealer - so "nah nah"! In the end I just sat at the service desk reiterating that I wasn't going to pay for anything and was going to sit there until they either negotiated, let me speak to the dealer principal, or refunded me for the car hire, loss of earnings, etc. which were more than the cost of the invoice. After almost 5 hours I got 60% off and a promise of a further discount on any future work (yeah, right).
Luckily it doesn't go to a dealer any more - unfortunately it looks like it's had enough and want to be sent to the Nordschleife in the sky as the suspension now needs doing, and it's developed a misfire!
I still love BMWs, but can't face the dealer network or Bracknell's arrogant stance - so it's specialists and DIY from now on and I'll never buy anything from BMW if i can help it!
Edited by mmm-five on Thursday 14th December 16:30
Good job you get free coffee at BMW dealers eh, 5 hours at a service reception desk nasty stuff especially in the light of the service issues. I'd be quick to say the quality of the staff at those dealers needs urgent review. This also seems to be a trait of many posh car dealers now, in the past you had to endure intense examintation before you were let loose with customers but now many will employ anyone as they're all moving towards big unit sales etc so need the support staff & can't get them hence the sh1t service.
It was my local indie that pointed out that my main dealer had done the wrong service - they even tried to deny it when shown the service book - once i found the invoice and showed them that - they finally admitted they had done the wrong one. There may well be some good dealers about, but few and far between and probably very busy.
I have to say that my local dealer has been pretty good - no real issues. The only problem that I have had is the total cost! They do like to charge the earth.....
But then again, when I had a Lex company car I was rather perturbed when my Citroen kept getting taken away by the local Ford dealer for servicing and repairs! Mind you, they did a good job and all to the book - funny that....
But then again, when I had a Lex company car I was rather perturbed when my Citroen kept getting taken away by the local Ford dealer for servicing and repairs! Mind you, they did a good job and all to the book - funny that....
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