BMW/MINI Sandton – IS IT A SCAM?

TurboLlew

Honorary ///Member
Meanwhile G80 M3 has a bearing recall :(

There is a reason BMW and other manufacturers just replace entire power units.... I said it in the other thread, but this bearing recall is going to cost them more in the long run (including in product confidence) than just swapping in motors and taking these cores back to have the bearings changed centrally/consistently.
 

Nastaliq

Well-known member
Trust the experts here when you are told nothing you can do will affect anyone at BMW Sandton.
you can complain, you can moan, you can go picket outside, you will get brushed off.

They have their version of the story and you have yours. The second your indie took the car from you, their story is going to be, we dont know what he did and we also dont know if your car has been touched by anyone else inbetween when we serviced it.

As for the metal in your oil, which by the sounds of it would be extremely evident over a period if time, I think you now have started to realise that there are no technicians in BMW anymore. everyone is a replacement specialist.

The guy opens up the oil plug, drains the oil, puts in new oil, seals the plug, washes the car, drives it around the parking and you pay.
Nobody is checking to see if the oil has retained its viscosity or if there is metal in it.

Youre assuming anyone at BMW cares about you, the customer. 100000s of complaints on Hellopeter say they dont.

I say, the car is sorted, dont bother with them anymore. Stick with the Indie since he is honest.
Learn the valuable lesson that BMW is here to make money, not for you to save money.
Move on.

I had my car in for a total of 4 days with BMW Midrand to solve a squeaking under the wing mirror that they couldnt fix even after keeping it overnight for the latest stint.

Fed up, i diagnosed the problem, went back and waited in the workshop to explain to the tech whats wrong and told him what needs to happen.
Meanwhile I am the customer, doing their job.

Motorplan isnt what it used to be anymore and there is no such thing as BMW service or experience anymore.

I usually get ignored walking around on the sales floor or even in AUC.
BMW salesmen now fall over backwards for the tenderpreneur buying a 2mil car cash.

If they dont want my money, im not falling over myself trying to give it to them and I am under no illusion that they are there to look after me as a loyal brand follower.

Honestly they DGAF about me, and its mutual.
 

Nastaliq

Well-known member
There is a reason BMW and other manufacturers just replace entire power units.... I said it in the other thread, but this bearing recall is going to cost them more in the long run (including in product confidence) than just swapping in motors and taking these cores back to have the bearings changed centrally/consistently.
They're not making the cars for guys like me and you who want reliable cars. Its now made for a tiktoker who wants to show off and doesnt care how many times they have to come back to replace bearings, because daddy bought it and daddy will sort it out.

These are not machines anymore I am afraid theyre Legos with engines. Something breaks, you take it to the lego shop, the guys sees which lego is broken, and if youre covered replaces it and you go on your way.
 

MR_Y

Well-known member
They're not making the cars for guys like me and you who want reliable cars. Its now made for a tiktoker who wants to show off and doesnt care how many times they have to come back to replace bearings, because daddy bought it and daddy will sort it out.

These are not machines anymore I am afraid theyre Legos with engines. Something breaks, you take it to the lego shop, the guys sees which lego is broken, and if youre covered replaces it and you go on your way.

Well said!
 

osiris

///Member
BMW is there to buy parts from and that's where it ends and on occasion a car or bike....Every time I have let those morons touch my car they have wrecked it and cost me tens of thousands of rands! This is why I have taught myself to work on my own car. If you can find an honest mechanic then that's awesome and there are some on this forum. But if you think BMW are going to look out for you or any other car dealership you are mistaken.

Just to add fuel to the fire, I took my car to BMW Bryanston back in 2018 as I had a coolant leak after they fitted turbos to the car, They phoned me up telling me all the coolant lines to the turbos and the main coolant line to the engine block in-between the two turbos is broken too and leaking badly. Apparently its leaking so badly that as soon as they pressurize the system all the coolant sprays out and within seconds all my coolant is gone 🤣 It's funny cause I drove the car there without towing a water tanker behind me. The leak was slight and only happened when the car was switched off and stood for around 15 - 20mins due to expansion.

They told me that they stripped the subframe and removed the turbos and downpipes etc to check this leak and wanted 2K for diagnostics + 10k for labor alone and another 10 - 15k for all these coolant pipes and labor to fit everything back and new gaskets for turbos, oil and coolant. I lost my shit told them to come fetch me and show me this bullshit. So they sent their driver within 5mins (Remember how they told me the subframe and turbos etc were stripped off the car - Just remember that for this next part!) I get to the dealership and bam the wank stain has a big smile and comes to shake my hand, obviously I refused to touch his slimy weasel hands and he then tells me no my car is outside getting dried as they just had it washed. I mean F$%C% sakes how the hell did they fit turbos and downpipes + subframe in 10mins? :LOL::rolleyes: :ROFLMAO: I made a big scene and asked where the mechanic is and what his name is. The wank stain wanted to take me to the mech I told him to take a walk, I'll go downstairs on my own and find the mechanic myself thanks. Found the mechanic and asked him to show me the leak and tell me which pipe exactly so I can buy it and have it fitted. He couldn't tell me which pipe!!! (Hmmmm strange since they stripped the shit out of my car apparently, These morons had my car for 4 days by the way). So I asked him if he removed my turbos and subframe, he said no, all they did was put the pressure tester on the expansion tank, pumped it a few times to see where the system was leaking and that's it, didn't even remove the under tray!

So I went back upstairs asked for my keys and they wanted to charge me so I simply said give my keys before I call the cops or I start kicking cars doors in on the floor. They quickly shut up and gave me my keys, I then asked them to top up my coolant, they went to get tap water, I just looked at them and said very calmly to go get distilled water and BMW coolant, make me a 50% mix and put it in my car, which they did.
I then took the car to a mechanic from the forum the following morning, he fixed the car before 12pm, it turned out that it was the o-ring for one of the coolant lines to the turbo which BMW had pinched while fitting the coolant lines, couple of rand for the O-ring and an hours labor. That was pretty much the last time I left my car at a mechanic ever again. Recently I had an issue with the roof, a broken wire so I tried ABM BMW! I am not even going to get into that story as it upsets me too much. End of the day and 14k (BMW Bill for nothing and sunroof doctors bill combined) later sunroof doctor fixed it in an afternoon, unfortunately I wasn't able to open the roof manually to fix this myself even though I knew exactly which wire had broken FFS.

Morel of the story fix your own car or find someone you seriously trust because once someone has your car they have you by the balls especially if its you're daily!
 

TurboLlew

Honorary ///Member
It isn't enough to trust a dealer as a whole... or an independent for that matter. You need a specific service advisor and a few techs to work on your car at that dealer. It is the only way you will be able to get work in progress pics, and effectively 'proof' of what is being done. I have even had these techs do jobs for me at home in my garage for out of plan slightly complex work... they aren't all parts fitters or unable to solve problems logically... even though processes and procedures might force them into doing it at work.
 

TurboLlew

Honorary ///Member
I usually get ignored walking around on the sales floor or even in AUC.
BMW salesmen now fall over backwards for the tenderpreneur buying a 2mil car cash.

If they dont want my money, im not falling over myself trying to give it to them and I am under no illusion that they are there to look after me as a loyal brand follower.

Honestly they DGAF about me, and its mutual.

It has become too easy for every single one of these luxury brands to make money and almost nobody is really 'working hard' to close a deal. Why would they when you have so many tenderpreneur buyers buying new? The initial sale is followed by (admittedly guys like me) who wait for these to be disposed of (out of financial desperation or boredom from the first buyer) and then they sales person again doesn't have to do much selling since we are waiting to snap these up at the prices they "should" have been selling at new.

For the salaried members of society, the "non special eg M or M performance" cars (and equivalents from other brands) are bought in such numbers 'by default' on whatever payment plans are available that the concept of value has gone out the window. You can sell a Peugeot or Renault as a BMW or Mercedes and as long as it has the badge someone will buy it.

It is just too hard to sell a car to someone who thinks twice about how hard he has had to work for his money relative to someone who doesn't even know the difference between turnover and profit but is a 'businessman'

The loyalty aspect is totally fake at this point... BMW (and to an even lesser extent Audi and Merc) doesn't care about enthusiasts or repeat clients. There are too many people spending too much money for individuals to matter. You have to go to Porsche, Ferrari or Daytona to get that kind of care these days. Maybe not even Porsche anymore.

I at least have had good experiences at BMW, Ferrari, Daytona and Porsche personally - again at specific dealers and with specific people though.

If I think about my poor wife trying to get Mercedes to even bother calling her back on the new C class... she called and chased and filled in online forms and got nowhere. This is a family that has bought every single E class from 1983 to present literally without thinking... so they are beyond brand loyal. We took time out to go to look at the W206 C, the GLC , X3 and the Stelvio for her. When we got to Merc the experience was more like buying a Hyundai: take what we have from this list of strangely specced garbage and you will be lucky to get what you want at R1M - oh and we just have these on the floor so you can't drive one - just sign here and you will get one. The sour taste the Supra left me with during the launch period was repeated by Merc here...

Basically the feeling it left me with was that we were paupers for "only" wanting to spend R1M on a bloody C class that was seemingly a downgrade on spec from her C200. Alfa was most willing to deal and went out of their way to really sell her a car the way guys used to do it 10 years ago...

Anyway the point is that I definitely can agree that ordinary folks are not valuable to sales people and this is something they will pay the price for down the line... Your brand is not built and maintained based on sales but rather ongoing customer experience. These guys want to focus on big bang fireworks instead of a bonfire. The Mrs is (I think) in her last Merc and I think apart from the let-down that the W206 is as a product, she has also been put off by the experience. I feel the same has happened to a lot of people with BMW as well
 

evnmopwr

Well-known member
I cracked/Broke a Piston ring in my golf back in the day.
When you removed the oil filler cap, Smoke would Push out of it in droves due to Oil bypassing the piston
And, there was a Slight tapping noise from the engine

Here is an Image of what it caused And the Damage to the Cyl

So no, There is no temp fix and you would have signs you can see, without opening the sump, that something is wrong

Based on Experience, i will never trust anyone to touch my cars.
The only man i did trust, Waanie Phillips from MRP Auto, has passed away from Cancer so i was forced to learn everything else myself.

dealers are parts replacers. i only trust them to supply me the parts. and thats it.
 

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