BMW warranty repairs - BMW don't have to provide courtesy ca

BMW warranty repairs - BMW don't have to provide courtesy ca

Author
Discussion

CIS121

Original Poster:

1,271 posts

221 months

Thursday 24th May 2007
quotequote all
I've booked in my car for a warranty repair. They've had it approved and arranged a date etc. I then got a call today to tell me that I'll have to pay them £28 to cover the insurance on their courtesy car I'll be using. The dealer is Vines fo Guildford who I've only heard good things about, but this is a joke.

Originally when I turned up, they wanted me to take a Micra. I'm 6ft 7 and the chap could see I'm huge when I arrived and said he could arrange a 1 series. I barely fit in my E46 and have no hope of driving a Micra. He then phoned up a week later and told me they could only do a Micra which is impossible for me to drive.

Have any of you folks had any warranty work done and did you have to fork out to insure your courtesy car?

blackspider

1,038 posts

217 months

Thursday 24th May 2007
quotequote all
I believe ours is £20 ish...To use a courtesy car.
BMW will only give a free loan car if yours was to break down out on the road and had to be recovered by mondial.

CatherineJ

9,586 posts

251 months

Thursday 24th May 2007
quotequote all
Dick Lovett is free to the best of my knowledge.

taffyracer

2,093 posts

251 months

Thursday 24th May 2007
quotequote all
I've heard of this, personally i'd take it elsewhere, certainly wouldn't pay for the priviledge

MitchT

16,296 posts

217 months

Thursday 24th May 2007
quotequote all
My understanding was that you got a BMW courtesy car for booked work and a hire car as a replacment if your car was recovered. I've always had BMWs from my local dealer when mine has been in for booked servicing and once had a Mondeo from Enterprise car hire which was provided after my BMW ground to a halt with a camshaft sensor failure. If they're using non-BMWs as courtesy cars for pre-booked work than that's news to me, usually only cars provided when your BMW brakes down are non-BMWs from a local hire company.

Edited by MitchT on Thursday 24th May 21:43

Donut

4,521 posts

259 months

Friday 25th May 2007
quotequote all
Loan cars are only free if you break down and use BMW emergency service as has been said.

Every dealer I have worked for have charged customers for the use of there courtesy cars. The reason this was introduced was down to customer complaints over the level of excess that they where liable too under dealerships insurance which would be anywhere between £500 and £3,000. So other policies where introduced and customers now pay for that cover, or you can insure the car yourself I believe the car will then be free.


mc_blue

2,548 posts

226 months

Friday 25th May 2007
quotequote all
Bit OT - when I was a kid our car had gone in for a service, they dropped it off and provided a courtesy car. I got it into my head that it was something awesome - an 8-Series, he then drives up in a Montego and says he loves it and wants to keep it. I cried for about an hour until he told me that our car was coming back that afternoon! The other one I remember was a 325 tds E36 - that was great and quite rapid for an old tech diesel.

alfaspiderman2

1,136 posts

227 months

Friday 25th May 2007
quotequote all
having just ordered a new BMW, I'm quite alarmed by this

my old Audi A3 has been in for plenty of warranty work over the last couple of years and I always get a spanking new A4 Sportline as a courtesy car (a couple of times a 2.0 petrol turbo version as well)

similarly, when my previous Spider went in for work, I always for a 156 2.0


andysj

45 posts

253 months

Friday 25th May 2007
quotequote all
I've never had to pay for a loan car whilst mine was booked in for work whether under warranty or not.
I have been asked if I want to pay for the garage's insurance, but as my insurance covers any loan car whilst mine is being worked on, including an SLK for three weeks when my car was off the road after being hit, I just use my own insurance.

I thought this was standard with comprehensive insurance nowadays?

RaksP

760 posts

212 months

Friday 25th May 2007
quotequote all
^so the moral of the story is

DO NOT TAKE YOUR CAR TO THE DEALER, CALL OUT BMW ENGENGY SERVICES!

Edited by RaksP on Friday 25th May 16:44

CIS121

Original Poster:

1,271 posts

221 months

Friday 25th May 2007
quotequote all
An interesting response. I've now phoned another lcoal dealer (Barons, original was Vines). Barons provide a 3 series by standard and insure it although there is a £1000 excess, but hey, I don't care about the excess and I think that's fair to encourage people to take care of their car.

In fairness Vines offer a Micra or Corsa but at 6ft 7, the chap said the Micra would be "more spacious".

I think Barons provide insurance out of courtesy and by th sounds of it, this is unusual.

I'm unimpressed that my car should have needed this warranty repair (bubbling paint due to rust by the door lock catch on both sides of car, so not even external) and the car is 4 years old and immaculate otherwise and been well cared for. To then be told that I have to pay for insurance when this problem is covered by warranty is a joke.

If anyone from BMW UK is reading this, I'd be interested to know why a customer of a car can't expect a fully paid for courtesy car if theirs needs a warranty repair.....????

taffyracer

2,093 posts

251 months

Saturday 26th May 2007
quotequote all
Trainer in Swansea do this and that's why I have never used them! Why should you have to pay for what is a customer service cost, they'll be asking you to pay for the coffee next!

F355GTS

3,747 posts

263 months

Saturday 26th May 2007
quotequote all
Heathrow charge around £20 for insurance

Most Insurers will temporarily add a car to your policy for free where it is a replacement while yours is fixed, it's just the hassle of getting a cover note issued and sent in time

Seesure

1,206 posts

247 months

Saturday 26th May 2007
quotequote all
Must vary from dealer to dealer, when I had my car in for some paintwork they gave me a Mini Cooper, with no charge, but I had to use my insurance and also confirm it would give FULLY COMP cover on the courtesy car.

BikealarmBlair

1,085 posts

216 months

Sunday 27th May 2007
quotequote all
Another point to consider is did you buy the car from the dealer doing the warranty work?

When having warranty/recall work done buy the dealer I bought the car from I was always given a car to use. When having the car serviced I was always given a car but asked to pay a small insurance fee.

When having warranty work done buy another dealer I was always asked to a small insurance fee.

[TW]Fox

13,362 posts

254 months

Saturday 2nd June 2007
quotequote all
This must vary from dealer to dealer.

I've had warranty worked carried out by my local dealer on 3 occasions. On all 3 occasions, I had a decent courtesy car, completely free of charge without quibble. They've all been BMW's, ranging from 120d's to 530d Sport's.

This is despite be being 21 the first time I had a car from them, and despite my car being the wrong side of 100,000 miles and originally supplied by a completely different dealer group.

Edited by [TW]Fox on Saturday 2nd June 18:47

odyssey2200

18,650 posts

217 months

Saturday 2nd June 2007
quotequote all
From the dealers point of view, they are not legally obliged to provide a car and certainly not a BMW.

Most manufacturers will make the dealer run a certain number of load cars which are loadned out at the dealers discresion.

Given the level of depreciation of a new BMW, which has to be paid for by the service dept and therfore passed on to the customer, the cost of insurance is often passed to the punter or the punter is asked to provide proof of Fully comp for the car they are taking.

When I was Aftersales manager in a dealership I was amazed at customer attitudes to the courtest cars.
car returned out of fuel, customers presenting us with the bill for the fuel they used when using our cars to go about their daily work, A customer who scratched a brand new car, sprayed the wing with an aerosol from halfords and thought that that was acceptable, the customer who peeled off all the dealership signwriting from a car as she didn't like it.

Dealers are often portrayed as the bad guys but some customers really take the P155.