We here at dbmini would like to take a moment to wish you and your family, friends, pets, acquaintences, crew, entourage, mail man, co-workers, teachers, assistants all y’all a happy holiday, no matter which one is yours!
Things will be fairly quiet around the family of db sites for the next week or two.
Don’t worry tho, we will be back in ’07 ready to take on bad traffic, high mileage and quite possibly a mod or two.
Thanks for reading gang! And, since most of you are faithful WRR listeners as well, thanks for listening! I will have something special up tonight just for the holidays while we take a little break.
“Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.â€
–Dave Barry
Merry Christmas everyone!
Ok, Inspection 2 is complete.
Oddly enough, I don’t know what that entails either. So, I asked.
I see on my invoice the parts (totalling less than $150) which includes oil and filters, belts and hoses.
Then I see the labor column. $648. That’s 5 hours of their shop time (yes, $138 per hour).
It went something like this:
me: “Why was I charged 5 hours of labor for something I’m pretty sure I can do in my own driveway in less than 2 hours?”
SA: “It was for Inspection 2 Service”
me: “Ok. What work was done? I know the oil and filter change can’t take those guys more than an hour”
SA: “You see, the MINI is like a transformer…”
me: ” … “
So, from what I gather, Inspection 2 is where they completely disassemble your car and put it back together…in less than 4 hours! That’s f’ing amazing! Man, BMW sure does know how to train a service tech!
But for that kind of money, I really should have been invited back into the garage, served tea or coffee, given a nice chair to sit in so I could watch the miracle that is Inspection 2.
Or they could have at least given me a sandwich.
Oh yea, among the long list of ‘recommended’ services (totalling over $600) was spark plugs. First of all, I couldn’t believe they weren’t included in the list of services performed during Inspection 2. So, I asked him how much?
UPS will be delivering a set of NGK plugs to me in a day or 2 that I ordered from Moss. Look it up, but the price was a full 2/3 less than what they wanted at the parts counter.
Ok, I’m done. Thanks for listening.
My own Garage Night that is.
Way overdue for service. Not oil change service either. Belts, hoses and filters, a thorough going over. That service. Probably could stand for a tune-up as well.
Now, I’m all about getting my car serviced at the dealer. For the piece of mind and all that, ya know? I like to know that the work is done, by someone trained to do the work.
But at what cost?
Today I’m getting, essentially, the 100K inspection. Full break down of what that includes later, but essentially it’s an oil change, belts, hoses and all filters. If I had to guess, it’s about $300 in parts from the counter.
This doesn’t include spark plugs or anything else.
Guesses on how much? Since there aren’t that many of you out there on the far side of 100K miles, I’ll go ahead and tell you how much I was quoted.
$900.
Can you believe homeboy had the nerve, less than a week until Christmas, to try to upsell me on Tire Balance and Rotation, Brake Fluid Service, Power Steering Fluid Service and O2 sensors? I told him to stop, but he still had to run through the ‘recommendations’ which I understand.
Glad I can help pay for that cool new building.
So, here’s what I’m thinking. With the right pdf’s from Motoringfile, the right parts from the parts counter, and a few peeps in the garage I’ll have in less than a month, I could start my own Garage night. I think it’s time.
More after Roxy gets back.
I have to make a stop at my local Micro Center tonight before starting my lame ass commute. Micro Center is very close to the dealer where I bought Roxy, so I thought I’d swing by and see what they had.
There was a GP in the show room. Yea, don’t ask.
There were about 20 MINIs otherwise on the lot. A nice mix of Cabrios, MCSs and MCs.
Here is where the friends don’t let friends part comes in.
Each and everyone one of the cars on the lot was marked up $4K – $5K. But, instead of calling it market adjustment or whatever, they actually had it listed (like a selling point):
- 4 year/50K mile service
- Something like seemed like car washes
- Mats
Ok, here’s the thing you need to warn your friends about.
50K service includes 1, maybe 2, service stops above and beyond the factory 36K. I can say, without question, that those 2 visits (even if you have to do brakes) do not add up to 3900. I’ve already argued that I think the service increase is a HUGE waste of money, but if you are one that is slow to rack up the miles, maybe not so much. Definitely not for $4K, but maybe $500.
Just make sure you let your peeps know to keep an eye out. Besides, there are a ton of dealers selling at MSRP. Heck, some are even offering free shipping now!
The lad and I went to the LA Auto Show last weekend. Hung out with Fireball Tim and some of the crew. Pictures and audio will be coming a little later in the week.
Until then…
[ rhetorical rant on ]
I know I have ranted about my commute here in the past, but it has gotten worse. Today, for example, it took me 3 hours to travel the 55 miles from my house to the office. Yes. 3. Hours.
And now, my afternoon commute is 2 hours. I could take an alternative route, but then I would have a 3+ hour commute again.
There has to be someone I can talk to about this. Someone that I can send an email to.
