Scottish Elises

My Z4 Coupe (3.0 Sport version, not an M) is due an oil service in January.
Basically, they change the oil, oil filter & pollen filter and give it a wee once over - no doubt come upwith other things to hike the bill up.
Vardys in Edinburgh want £340 for this basic service. (Last service was a major one (inspection 2 @ £550) 2 years ago - 5000 miles ago)

The car is an 06 plate & is worth about £10,500 approx

The service book so far is all BMW main dealer stamps.

Should I keep it all main dealer stamps in the book ?
or just go to a specialist? and save a few hundred quid
Would it effect the value? - not being main dealer.

any input much appreciated

Cheers
David

a4drk wrote:My Z4 Coupe (3.0 Sport version, not an M) is due an oil service in January.
Basically, they change the oil, oil filter & pollen filter and give it a wee once over - no doubt come upwith other things to hike the bill up.
Vardys in Edinburgh want £340 for this basic service. (Last service was a major one (inspection 2 @ £550) 2 years ago - 5000 miles ago)
The car is an 06 plate & is worth about £10,500 approx The service book so far is all BMW main dealer stamps.
Should I keep it all main dealer stamps in the book ? or just go to a specialist? and save a few hundred quid. Would it effect the value? - not being main dealer.
any input much appreciated Cheers David

For the last 4 years I had my 2002 Audi A4 serviced at Western VW/Audi in Edinburgh when they were an aurhorised Audi repairer. This year when getting quotes I managed to get Edinburgh Audi to price match a small independent's price. They did the service with no additional work required If I were you I'd get a few quotes then go back to BMW as more often than not they wont want to turn away work.

I would keep it full main dealer, I hate reading adds saying full dealer history till I bought it then I skimped on it....makes you wonder what else they skimped on.

Maybe that's just me!!

I don't think it would effect resale value by much if at all, maybe just make it easier to sell.

Given the option of identical cars one with dealer history, one with independent servicing, I would go with dealer stamps.
Gives a buyer confidence ( although maybe not always justified)

Try to negotiate a better rate with the dealer

I would tend to agree with the others,.. however, Murray's may be worth a shout,... I know they don't only do Lotus / Aston / Volvo....

Mike Scib wrote:I would keep it full main dealer, I hate reading adds saying full dealer history till I bought it then I skimped on it....makes you wonder what else they skimped on.

Personally would not mind if they used a reputable independent.

Would also add it depends on how long you are keeping the car. Other than my Exige (which was always MMC) our other cars have been kept until scraped or sold/traded in for pennies. In this situation the full dealer service history would have made no difference at all. Happy to use a local garage I fully trust in this situation. With a Lotus however my aim would be to keep the miles down and retain FLSH , keep it garaged when wet ..... sad i know

I use an indy for my BMW. When the car is 4+ years old I reckon it will make little difference to the value come resale time, and even if it did, if you are keeping the car a long time that would surely be more than offset by money saved on main dealer servicing (£340 for a basic oil change service is just taking the piss in my book). In addition I was deeply unimpressed with Eastern BMW on the one occasion my car went there. They completely failed to diagnose an electrical glitch which I eventually sorted myself after a bit of googling around for advice.

Mark

I would agree with others; keep it Full BMW Service History. I doubt there is much actual benefit to the car in doing so, but makes the service book look a lot more attractive when you are selling. I recently got a routine service carried out by Eastern BMW in Newbridge Edinburgh for £177. Granted it was a X3, not a Z4, but perhaps worth pointing out nevertheless. If the car is already been outside the dealers, I just go to Murrays.

I have a 55 plate 130i and I stuck it into the garage next to work because BMW wanted £700 to service it, the guy next to work did the lot for £850 and that included 4 winter tyres at £150 a corner.

a4drk wrote:The car is an 06 plate & is worth about £10,500 approx

Was that before you got your hands on it?

I don't think an indy garage stamp would make much difference to the resale price, but as others have said, it may make it easier to sell.
If you're planning on keeping it a few years, then you'll probably save more going independant now and dropping the price by a couple of hundred quid when you do eventually sell.

Following this thread with interest, having bought an E92 330i earlier in the year. Eastern would be convenient for me, but anything I've heard about them so far has been fairly 'neutral' at best...

...nice car park, though

I like the idea of taking the car to Murray's - servicing was very good there with the Elise - but not sure how much lower their labour rate is than Eastern BMW (assuming it's lower!).

Currently considering some winter tyres for the BM. Won't be taking the car out in snow, but the Bridgestone RE050 RFTs are hilariously bad on the cold greasy stuff

Tommy, I got rid of the Re050 runflats (£250 a corner)
I bought Falken 452's £440 for 4 !
Great tyre
David

Ps - planning on selling the car quite soon

a4drk wrote:Tommy, I got rid of the Re050 runflats (£250 a corner)
I bought Falken 452's £440 for 4 !
Great tyre
David

Ps - planning on selling the car quite soon

Seconded. Bridgestone RE050 RFTs are hilariously bad full stop. Terrible ride, poor grip in the wet, and they tramline all over the road. I hated my E91 so much on runflats that I almost sold it a few months after buying. Falken 452's transformed the car - the difference really was that huge.

Mark