My newly acquired Z4 went in for its brake fluid change this morning and I was quite nervous to say the least. The car came from a VW dealership so when BMW get their hands on a non approved car they tend to go to town on it under the guise of "It's a health check sir".
With all the stories kicking around about cracked alloys being found on "health checks" I sat there waiting for the man to say "could we have a word with you about your car". This was made considerably worse by another customer appearing in the waiting area who looked positively suicidal and desperately in need of a short rope and a tall tree!. "problems"? I asked. At this point I thought he was going to start crying and in a whimpering kind of squeaky voice he told me that they reckon he had two alloys that needed replacing due to being cracked and the other two had been cracked at some point but had been repaired. Trying to tighten the muscles in my bottom so as to not have an accident I asked him how much they quoted. They wanted to replace all four for him at a cost of £2500 + £1200 for four new tyres?
As I resisted the urge to run out of the building screaming hysterically I saw the nice service man approaching..... and it was me he wanted. I sat down in his little booth clenching the cheeks of my bottom together to the point it almost hurt with massive numbers running through my head! £3000, £5000 what was he going to say? He then announced that they had completed the work (wait for it) but as they had never seen the car before they had given it a full health check from front to back and............. and........... the car is perfect. It has no problems and they will be pleased to service the car in the future. As I drove out of the dealers I can honestly say that it was the very first time in my life that I had been overjoyed to part with £138 to get out of anywhere.
I am now designing a new concept for protecting my alloys from cracking in the future. It will comprise of cling film, lots of sponge rubber, duct tape, more sponge rubber and a final coating of kitchen foil. Still a bit of work to do on the design but it means the pot holes won't eat my alloys. Pictures will be posted when the prototypes are finished.
Oh! I left the other man sat crying in his coffee in the waiting room muttering £3700.........the wife will kill me!
With all the stories kicking around about cracked alloys being found on "health checks" I sat there waiting for the man to say "could we have a word with you about your car". This was made considerably worse by another customer appearing in the waiting area who looked positively suicidal and desperately in need of a short rope and a tall tree!. "problems"? I asked. At this point I thought he was going to start crying and in a whimpering kind of squeaky voice he told me that they reckon he had two alloys that needed replacing due to being cracked and the other two had been cracked at some point but had been repaired. Trying to tighten the muscles in my bottom so as to not have an accident I asked him how much they quoted. They wanted to replace all four for him at a cost of £2500 + £1200 for four new tyres?
As I resisted the urge to run out of the building screaming hysterically I saw the nice service man approaching..... and it was me he wanted. I sat down in his little booth clenching the cheeks of my bottom together to the point it almost hurt with massive numbers running through my head! £3000, £5000 what was he going to say? He then announced that they had completed the work (wait for it) but as they had never seen the car before they had given it a full health check from front to back and............. and........... the car is perfect. It has no problems and they will be pleased to service the car in the future. As I drove out of the dealers I can honestly say that it was the very first time in my life that I had been overjoyed to part with £138 to get out of anywhere.
I am now designing a new concept for protecting my alloys from cracking in the future. It will comprise of cling film, lots of sponge rubber, duct tape, more sponge rubber and a final coating of kitchen foil. Still a bit of work to do on the design but it means the pot holes won't eat my alloys. Pictures will be posted when the prototypes are finished.
Oh! I left the other man sat crying in his coffee in the waiting room muttering £3700.........the wife will kill me!
