Sounds like a bargain compared to some Mercedes services. You do have a fancy small BMW, they come with sometimes surprising maintenance charges. £300 doesn’t sound bad considering the likely courtesy car, labour, premium oil, disposal, and coffee and biscuits. Oh, and the list of extras that will be recommended with a ‘free’ car health check.

With respect to the BMW service video, my boss showed me his, it was a bit of a novelty as the first one he’d had. CV joint boots, check. From the front, visible side. Didn’t put his hand round the back to check the back seam wasn’t spit. 😆 🙄

Changing oil, cambelts and brake pads is very profitable and not needed on electric vehicles.

I’m certain there will inspection plans for electric vehicles that will replace some but not all of that income (and jobs).

So its going to be a hole in several business plans.

Electric cars still have brake pads. Anyway it’ll be batteries and electrodes in charging points that are profitable in the future.

As for dealer servicing.

Parents evoque piece of shit has been religiously dealer services since new. Imagine their surprise when an oil filter was produced dated with pretty much the sale date 5 years ago and an air filter that was the colour of coal when we did it at home

Apparently it’s like a different car to drive now.

Not like the dealer was cheap either.

Some of those prices are not too outrageous for a main dealer but it’s still £139 for an oil and filter change. Scheduled work according to the website is
Engine oil is removed
Oil filter is removed
Genuine BMW oil filter is fitted
Engine is filled with BMW approved oil
Oil and removed parts are environmentally disposed of
Exterior is washed
Interior is vacuumed
BMW Service history is updated
I did an oil and filter change on mine yesterday, granted I missed out the washing and vacuuming but I can do without those for a £100 saving.

Add microfilter, air and fuel filter (OK, not BMW prices but £80 the lot at ECP) to the job and the price leaps to a staggering £343! That’s a lot for swapping out easily accessible parts with no special tools involved.

I wouldn’t tar all with same brush however equally the number of people I trust to work on my car and do a good job equals the same as get to go near my bike.

Any time I’ve trusted others to do the work I’ve been disappointed – and it’s not because of high standards it’s due to poor quality of work /rush job/corners cut.

Christ on a bike – this thread is making me think that the £1600 I was quoted by Audi to replace a faulty coolant level sensor on my A6 was reasonable.

Customer service
Jobs get done
Willingness to talk tech even though it doesn’t necessarily result in a sale
Showing me VW tech bulletins (that they aren’t supposed to do) to help me out
Taking pity on me and waiving diagnostic charges even though I didn’t have work done
Being quite well priced
Not leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth

All valid points. I’ve got more time than money and an 8 year old car.

OP can I just say, a 3.5l petrol in a 1-series! 😀 My Skoda Superb has a 3.6l V6 and goes like stink but that’s a barge compared to the 1-series.

How do you keep it on the road? (or maybe you don’t now you’ve seen the service bill!)

iirc it comes with a full suite of tyres, pedals and a steering wheel 😉

It’ll cost £40 – 50 + time and muck to do it yourself so I think £100 – 130 is about right for someone else to change the oil and filter in a car.

£300 is profiteering unless its a seriously more difficult.

Electric cars still have brake pads

Hardly used due to regen. You could add other stuff to the list too, exhausts, air filters.

Electric cars will be to the motor industry what streaming was to music unless they come up some new wheeze ” lube your electrodes sir”?
The purchase price will just go up inordinately once they become the standard.

In another universe, i bought a car off ebay unseen for £800 two years ago, i have spent nothing on it apart from fuel and a pair of wiper blades.
I did check the oil about six months ago and it was still sparkly golden, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

I also have a 135i and I’ve got an M6 currently being rebuilt in part due to having had the wrong oil put in it by an indie.

Whilst my 1’er is out of warranty now, I still take it to BMW more for the piece of mind than anything else. I called BMW when the M6 went pop and had it been serviced at a main dealer they’d have been more amenable to meeting me half way on the rebuild costs. As it was they didn’t want to know and I’m stumping up the £14k for the rebuild costs.

What I have found is that BMW cars in general are very particular about the oil you run them on. More so the M models. I’d rather pay a premium and have an ‘expert’ stick the right oil in than saving a few £ with an indie and be waiting for the ‘ticking’ noise to start. The 135i is slightly different to other models with the 3 litre engine and as such are a bit more highly strung, hence the higher cost of oil. Making 320bhp and being expected to last 100k+ miles it needs the good stuff and not whatever is on sale at Unipart..

Cooper Tunbridge Wells are pretty good (they even gave me a lift to the station and picked me up). Cooper BMW Ipswich are dreadful…

Main stealers well known for using low grade oil, ok spec for fixed 12month intervals on vehicles configured for long life service intervals but charging customer for the expensive long life spec. Well know rip off in VAG networks. Given increasing uptake of pcp deals and customers getting rid of car sooner the dealer knows the engine will last the warranty period and they get to cream some extra profit from a duped customer. Next owner pays out a few years later by then outside dealer network.
Brakes of full electric smaller in size than combustion engine equiv so wear still a problem, equally given Joe public drive like morons and won’t ever drive smoothly in case someone pulls in front of the the braking events will be as large as today’s cars.
Dealerships pay a premium for their franchise, yet pay the service guys a pittance regardless of brand, anyone happy enough to justify cost of new car is fair game for extortion it could be argued I guess.

electric cars have regenerative braking. This means that much of their braking force is turned into electrical energy rather than heat. Brake pads apparently last a lot longer on EVs than on ICEVs.

Lucky enough to have just sat in my local BMW dealers for the last hour and a bit waiting on a car to be scanned on their diagnostics machine (strangely cheaper that the indi @ £33!)

I can see where all the extra money goes on the dealers quotes now – stupid amounts of staff walking around and chatting, free coffee, plush carpets and toilets etc. Lovely if you’re into that type of thing – myself I just want to drop the car off, get it fixed /serviced as cheaply as possible using quality parts.

For example I have recently just had a set of rear brakes done for £150.00 using Brembo discs and pads – BMW wanted £379.99 using inferior OEM parts – a £220.00 saving which could of paid for the dealers toilet perfume!!

I doubt that they’re inferior, particularly as the BMW name rests on the parts used
Brembo supply BMW with OEM parts

Lotta fake spark plugs on eBay/Amazon . Big business.

As for warranties being valid. That may be so but the good will if something big shits it’s self just outside warranty is gone.