[Altamate]

Took my new to me 2020 440 F36 to a local Dealer as it still has some time left on the factory service warranty, to see if it qualified for any work. I get told it is due for a brake fluid flush and book it in. Drop the car off on Monday and confirm that it is covered, I ask if they check anything anything else about the car for warranty coverage and I am told they will.

Get a call later Monday that the work is done, but they found that the battery has a code and should be replaced, will I authorize the work for the cost of $775.00 CAD. I respond by asking if the battery is covered under warranty, Service Advisor says “usually not, but she will check and get back to me”. I get a call a few hours later “The battery is likely covered, but they are waiting for BMW to confirm. Can I leave them the car over night or if I need it can they send someone to come and get me so I can have it” I opt to leave them the car.

Tuesday they call and say they don’t have an answer and their Warranty Advisor is going home for the rest of the day. They will bring me the car or I can pick it up, and they will call me once they have an answer from BMW.

This is all good, I am happy and pick up the car.

Today I get a call, “battery is not covered because the car has only been driven 9km in the past week and they think it is the reason for the Low voltage/replace battery code.
They say “I should buy a charger if I’m only going to drive the car that little.”

I say “OK that all makes sense, but if you knew all that, why did you ask me to spend $775 on a new battery in the first place? If it had been my Wife or Mother they were talking to, she might not have known how to avoid the waste of a new battery purchase” I say further “It feels like you were trying to get me to spend the money on something I didn’t need” I get an apology “for the confusion” from the Service advisor and I say good by. But I don’t think it was confusion so much as a dishonest process.

Am I make too big of a deal about this? My current thinking is that Dealer will not get my business, except possibly when I need to buy BMW parts I can’t get anywhere else.

[DanG]

Hmm. Sounds strange. I have come in for service with a low battery and the dealer just charged the battery for me. No charge for the battery charge. But BMW says a battery lasts 3 to 5 years. I replace mine at 7 years and it still wasn't dead.

[tturedraider]

Your assessment is pretty much correct. It could be “confusion”, because we now live in a world overrun with idiots.

[IDBGOD]

I’m not sure I am either reading this incorrectly or missing something……but you authorize a new battery replacement, and they replace the battery?

The code was saying to replace/ fault with the battery. They advised to replace. They thought it would be covered, but you still authorized the repair anyway with the premise it might not be.

So you paid for a new battery and got a new battery.

I suppose they could have tried to charge the battery first, but batteries can be funny.

I guess could have been shady. Probably not, and they just saw the error code and advised to replace a battery on an older car. Your car is a 2020 so that’s 5 years old (or possibly more depending on your in service date).

But if you feel cheated, then I suppose you can always take your future business elsewhere.

[Gemini562]

The whole back and forth about the warranty was a mess. “It might be covered… oh wait, it’s not… because you don’t drive enough.” Seriously? That’s the kind of thing they should have sorted out before even calling you about replacing the battery.

[UPSROD]

Be it a BMW or a Honda, they are a car dealer and most are not known for honesty!

[IDBGOD]

Originally Posted by Gemini562

The whole back and forth about the warranty was a mess. “It might be covered… oh wait, it’s not… because you don’t drive enough.” Seriously? That’s the kind of thing they should have sorted out before even calling you about replacing the battery.

Agreed. And they could have tried to charge the battery first, before immediately going to a battery replacement.

At the end of the day though if it is the original battery it is on a 5+ year old car. Would have likely needed one within 2 years anyway and wasn’t the worst thing to replace.

At least they don’t have to worry about replacing the battery in the near future!

[NSXR]

Definitely try another dealer. You'll be very surprised at how much different they can actually be. I was lucky enough to have a dealer recommended to me (after having some issues), and it's worth the 3 hour round trip when I need to go. The first dealer I went to didn't even know the factory warranty could be transferred. Another dealer I called said it could, but it would cost $100, and the dealer recommended to me did it for free.

I'm not defending BMW dealers for sure, I'm just saying that if you call 6 you'll likely get 6 different responses.

[MaxVO2]

Originally Posted by NSXR

Definitely try another dealer. You'll be very surprised at how much different they can actually be. I was lucky enough to have a dealer recommended to me (after having some issues), and it's worth the 3 hour round trip when I need to go. The first dealer I went to didn't even know the factory warranty could be transferred. Another dealer I called said it could, but it would cost $100, and the dealer recommended to me did it for free.

I'm not defending BMW dealers for sure, I'm just saying that if you call 6 you'll likely get 6 different responses.

****The closest BMW dealer to me is very expensive, but has remarkably good techs. I generally do my own work, but my car is still under warranty so have used the dealer for covered warranty work, the expansion tank recall, etc..

I had the door sill decal peeling and looking kind of ratty and it was thankfully covered under warranty and they did a great job stripping the old one off, cleaning everything up well and putting a new one on. I had to leave the car with them, they got and paid for an UBER to get me home, and I had someone drive me back when the car was ready.

I say expensive because my neighbor also has a BMW and I felt they hit him pretty hard for out of warranty brake pad (fronts only), brake fluid flush, oil change, and I think wiper blades and it was close to $2000. He's not mechanically inclined so he paid it but I could have done all of that work myself for less than $350 or so, including parts, etc.. Labor cost seemed super high.

At least that dealer is very careful with the cars, and they do a great job customer service wise. A beautiful and modern facility with a gorgeous waiting room, free snacks, drinks, WiFi, and tons of cars to look at indoors with jumbo tron TV's, etc... Probably not cheap to maintain all of that.

[tturedraider]

Originally Posted by IDBGOD

I’m not sure I am either reading this incorrectly or missing something……but you authorize a new battery replacement, and they replace the battery?

The code was saying to replace/ fault with the battery. They advised to replace. They thought it would be covered, but you still authorized the repair anyway with the premise it might not be.

So you paid for a new battery and got a new battery.

I suppose they could have tried to charge the battery first, but batteries can be funny.

I guess could have been shady. Probably not, and they just saw the error code and advised to replace a battery on an older car. Your car is a 2020 so that’s 5 years old (or possibly more depending on your in service date).

But if you feel cheated, then I suppose you can always take your future business elsewhere.

The problem is you didn’t read it correctly. He asked if the battery would be covered. He didn’t authorize it, because they said no due to a reason they should have foreseen before they ever asked him to authorize the new battery. It’s all there. You just have to process everything he wrote.

[Altamate]

Originally Posted by IDBGOD

I’m not sure I am either reading this incorrectly or missing something……but you authorize a new battery replacement, and they replace the battery?

The code was saying to replace/ fault with the battery. They advised to replace. They thought it would be covered, but you still authorized the repair anyway with the premise it might not be.

So you paid for a new battery and got a new battery.

I suppose they could have tried to charge the battery first, but batteries can be funny.

I guess could have been shady. Probably not, and they just saw the error code and advised to replace a battery on an older car. Your car is a 2020 so that’s 5 years old (or possibly more depending on your in service date).

But if you feel cheated, then I suppose you can always take your future business elsewhere.

Redraider explained it, but to be clear(sorry if I wasn’t the first time) I did not authorize a new battery. I asked if it was covered under warranty, the car is almost 4 yrs old and I know batteries in BMWs don’t last, but this car only has 26,000KM (15,000miles) on it and is still under the full factory warranty for a little longer.

I was disappointed they wanted to sell me a battery without doing any checking or testing or charging and that it wasn’t until I asked about warranty that I got the whole story( or did I?)

[Ugly Kar]

Originally Posted by Altamate

the car is almost 4 yrs old

I've never had a battery in a car or motorcycle that didn't last at least 7 years. I could tell the battery was going in my E92 at 7.5 years, bought a new one from an auto parts store for $150, never registered and never had another issue.

Buying a battery from the dealer is like buying wiper blades at the dealer. You pay about 4x as much for something any shade tree mechanic can do.

I'd be upset if I was charged $775 for something I didn't authorize too. And only driving 9km in the last week is a stupid excuse. All they had to do was charge it. Did they even try?

[M5Rick]

Just get a trickle charger and charge it from the engine bay points, mine is the original 12 YO one and going like a train.

[NSXR]

Originally Posted by M5Rick

Just get a trickle charger and charge it from the engine bay points, mine is the original 12 YO one and going like a train.

This is fantastic advice.

I use the CTek MXS 5.0 and expect the battery to last 10 years for sure. But the car is always plugged up if I'm not using it, which is easier with a 3rd car.

[MaxVO2]

Originally Posted by NSXR

This is fantastic advice.

I use the CTek MXS 5.0 and expect the battery to last 10 years for sure. But the car is always plugged up if I'm not using it, which is easier with a 3rd car.

****This. I use the CTEK charger on my M8, which has a *crazy* expensive LiFEPO4 battery in it. I want it to last as long as I own that car. The cost of the charger is a LOT more reasonable than that battery going bad...

[ShocknAwe]

Yeesh. 700 and change is nearly what I paid for my antigravity lifepo. Yikes.