[Rupes]

Took my car in today for the "can crunching" sound and to fix some rattles. Good news is they (mostly) fixed both issues. Bad news, they put 25 miles on the car and scratched the underside of the front winglet.

My SA agreed to replace the winglet, which is great, but I'm still pissed because I feel like there was a violation of trust. If your driving the car hard enough to scratch the underside of the winglet, then what other abuse took place? I'll never know for sure, but quite a bit of fuel was used during the test drive.

So what do you think, escalate to someone at the dealership, or let it go?

[Spa2k]

Relax and let them fix it. That’s not an atypical mileage for a test drive to find rattles and another one to make sure they’re fixed. Whoever was driving it made a mistake by doing something like pulling into a driveway wrong at 2 mph. They were not trying to beat on or trash your M2; they have many more interesting vehicles to drive every day.

[jayg80]

Agree, good move that they are owning up and fixing the winglet.

[AndrewC1989]

This has happened to a few people and has been discussed before.

The in mileage taken from the key read is not updated every time the car is driven. Discrepancies happen occasionally. The technicians want to get your car done as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next car and make more money. Besides that they see everything from 1M’s to Alpina B7’s to i8’s regularly, nobody cares much about an M2. Half the staff has employee lease M3’s. It’s also company procedure to test drive the cars and you’re giving permission when you sign the repair order.

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=23

[pissclams]

maybe dinged something in the roadway, regardless it’s not a big deal

[DanG]

The good think is that they agreed to fix the damage. 25 miles fixing rattles is no big deal.

[3geekfamily]

Definitely irritating, but they're already fixing the winglet, so you're doing better than I would have expected.

Getting a dealership to admit that they've mistreated a car is a battle you will never win, and that's assuming that they ever did. Just because they used a substantial amount of fuel for the ~25 miles in test drives doesn't mean that the car was beaten on, necessarily - they could have left it idling for a while, as they often do.

And, as others have said, the winglet was probably damaged by poorly negotiating a driveway, curb, etc. It's easy to feel violated when your car is at the dealership, but, as others have stated, they rarely have any ill intentions.

[M3 Adjuster]

Originally Posted by 3geekfamily

Definitely irritating, but they're already fixing the winglet, so you're doing better than I would have expected.

Getting a dealership to admit that they've mistreated a car is a battle you will never win, and that's assuming that they ever did. Just because they used a substantial amount of fuel for the ~25 miles in test drives doesn't mean that the car was beaten on, necessarily - they could have left it idling for a while, as they often do.

And, as others have said, the winglet was probably damaged by poorly negotiating a driveway, curb, etc. It's easy to feel violated when your car is at the dealership, but, as others have stated, they rarely have any ill intentions.

I agree with the above. Except the fuel part. 25 miles is about one gallon of fuel.


@rupes


I have a friend trying to SUE a dealer right now over a vehicle that he purchased that appears to have had prior damage. He opted to go lawsuit rather than try and make the best deal he can to trade the car away. Now they are counter suing him ( trump style ) for their expenses.

The moral of the story here is .. if you think your dealer that has *Accepted responsibility* for causing minor damage is a horrible company.. then apparently you are looking for the perfect dealer. One that never makes mistakes. Like yourself of course ....

[Spa2k]

Originally Posted by M3 Adjuster

I agree with the above. Except the fuel part. 25 miles is about two gallons of fuel.

Fixed that for you.

[Rupes]

Thanks everyone for providing some perspective. Sometimes just putting these things down in writing is cathartic enough.

[No1Cares]

wish I had an m2 for the dealer to add 25 miles to....haha.

a dealer once kept one of my brothers mercedes' for a weekend test driving some each day to make sure the issue was actually solved, I thought was strange at first but others reassured me it is standard procedure sometimes so the car is not returned again...they put around 35-40 miles if I remember correctly.

[seis-speed]

Only 25 miles is not too bad for that fix. ~ 12.5 miles to identify problem ~ 12.5 miles to make sure it was fixed.

[amrazM]

Originally Posted by andrewc89

This has happened to a few people and has been discussed before.

The in mileage taken from the key read is not updated every time the car is driven. Discrepancies happen occasionally. The technicians want to get your car done as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next car and make more money. Besides that they see everything from 1M’s to Alpina B7’s to i8’s regularly, nobody cares much about an M2. Half the staff has employee lease M3’s. It’s also company procedure to test drive the cars and you’re giving permission when you sign the repair order.

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=23

The accuracy there is incredible..

Also, 25 miles to find a noise isnt abnormal. The car needs to be driven after the repair is completely to make sure it doesnt return, plus if the car wasn't road tested and you got it back with the noise you would've probably made a thread complaining regardless

[Bt12]

Uh. Guys.... it may be just me but 25 miles is a lot to diagnose the car. At 30 miles per hour thats nearly an hour worth of driving. I wrench on my own cars once in a while... it dont take that long to figure out rattles.


Dude was joy riding... and to have scraped the winglets.

[AndrewC1989]

Originally Posted by Bt12

Uh. Guys.... it may be just me but 25 miles is a lot to diagnose the car. At 30 miles per hour thats nearly an hour worth of driving. I wrench on my own cars once in a while... it dont take that long to figure out rattles.


Dude was joy riding... and to have scraped the winglets.

It was 25 miles total for diagnosis and test driving after the fix, so 12.5 miles of each which is really not that abnormal when looking to find the source of a noise and then checking to see if it's gone. I'd rather the dealer put on 25 miles than 1. It means they did their job.

Also you can scrape a winglet going 1 mph if you have a driveway with a steep incline or a speed bump and the car is too low, so there's no proof or reason to suspect mistreatment of the car. They're replacing the winglet which is the right thing to do. I don't see any need to further analyze or speculate.

[KevM2]

Ya it's not like that Mercedes mechanic video from Toronto where they were caught taking the car on a drive to get ice cream... maybe I should consider getting a dash cam

[dmboone25]

Originally Posted by Bt12

Uh. Guys.... it may be just me but 25 miles is a lot to diagnose the car. At 30 miles per hour thats nearly an hour worth of driving. I wrench on my own cars once in a while... it dont take that long to figure out rattles.


Dude was joy riding... and to have scraped the winglets.

I’m more on this end of the spectrum here - 25 miles seems high to me.

The other major factor in play here is based in perspective. Aka, I realize what folks are trying to convey by saying it’s the entry level M car, BMW employees lease M3s, etc. That sort of comment is missing the OP’s main point...it’s not just an M2 to him (or that’s my guess at least).

As such, when the dealer has something of yours which is very special, it should be treated accordingly. And since it’s hard to know which end of the spectrum an owner is on, each and every car should be treated with the ultimate care and respect. Excessive mileage and damage (even if they replace or repair) doesn’t do the trick for me. I wouldn’t ever go back, and I would tell them why as well.

Just my $.02...

[M2guru]

Originally Posted by KevM2

Ya it's not like that Mercedes mechanic video from Toronto where they were caught taking the car on a drive to get ice cream... maybe I should consider getting a dash cam

They'll just unplug it. Ask me how I know.

http://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1463006

[ORIGIN M.]

Originally Posted by andrewc89

This has happened to a few people and has been discussed before.

The in mileage taken from the key read is not updated every time the car is driven. Discrepancies happen occasionally. The technicians want to get your car done as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next car and make more money. Besides that they see everything from 1M's to Alpina B7's to i8's regularly, nobody cares much about an M2. Half the staff has employee lease M3's. It's also company procedure to test drive the cars and you're giving permission when you sign the repair order.

https://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...7&postcount=23

That's why I never let them drive my cars without me present.

[fullstack]

What kind of streets are in the area? Long city blocks? Highway? 25 miles is a lot for where i live. Thats like taking my car in for repair in one city, the mechanic taking my car across the city and all the way across the next city through 100s of traffic lights and then coming back.

[AlpsRider]

Originally Posted by M2guru

They'll just unplug it. Ask me how I know.

http://f87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1463006

I started my IFTT BMW Labs widget which logs car activity. When I picked up the car I noticed that someone had disabled it when it was parked at a residential address, this doesn't happen accidentally.

[KevM2]

That's a good idea. I'll ask to be present if they need to test drive it. I hope they don't have to test drive it for its first break in service.