[amw896]

Lexus is not much cheaper for maintenance, at least not in Canada. I was paying 120 for synthetic oil changes and plugs cost me over $400 on my IS250. If I knew it was going to be that much I would have sourced and installed myself. I forget the actual number on brakes but it was up there as well for the fronts.

[Kolyan2k]

Originally Posted by amw896

Lexus is not much cheaper for maintenance, at least not in Canada. I was paying 120 for synthetic oil changes and plugs cost me over $400 on my IS250. If I knew it was going to be that much I would have sourced and installed myself. I forget the actual number on brakes but it was up there as well for the fronts.

That's ISF V8 prices here

[amw896]

Originally Posted by Kolyan2k

That's ISF V8 prices here

lol we get robbed in Canada. I had similar experiences to the other poster. I had numerous warranty issues with 2 IS models and maintenance was getting crazy as mileage was running up. My wife drives a ct200h and it has already gone through 2 wheel bearings with less than 50k and $300 brake service just for a cleaning and inspection of the hybrid system. It will probably be replaced with a civic soon I think

[Kolyan2k]

Originally Posted by amw896

lol we get robbed in Canada. I had similar experiences to the other poster. I had numerous warranty issues with 2 IS models and maintenance was getting crazy as mileage was running up. My wife drives a ct200h and it has already gone through 2 wheel bearings with less than 50k and $300 brake service just for a cleaning and inspection of the hybrid system. It will probably be replaced with a civic soon I think

My wife replaced Civic with 2gen IS350 RWD....we both like the car. Been trouble free for previous owner too. At 60k miles now. I am only worried about transmission and it's lifetime fluid bs.

I wanted to buy ISF, not M235i for reliability reasons and wanted V8. They are rare so I pulled the trigger when saw 235i exactly as I liked

[moldcad]

Totally agree with the OP; here in Poalnd the oil change interval is even longer so really, one can easily use his car for a typical 3 years leasing period without the BMW stealer doing any "free" maintenance at all! And yet, the basic 3-year Maintenace is calculated into the new car price; yes you can resign from paying it but the amount of cash you will save this way is close to nothing

Piotr

[Ramos]

Originally Posted by Kolyan2k

How much is the job anyway? At the dealer

I sold my N54 with original plugs at just over 45-47k....had no issues. It was running JB+ for 1 year too

I seriously doubt that very much. My N54 335 was misfiring at 20k miles due to plugs that had basically melted.

You are either mistaken or you were driving that car "very very" slowly.

The plugs for the M235 are $400 at the dealer, I'll buy them online and have them replaced at my local independent shop.

[Kolyan2k]

Originally Posted by Ramos

I seriously doubt that very much. My N54 335 was misfiring at 20k miles due to plugs that had basically melted.

You are either mistaken or you were driving that car "very very" slowly.

The plugs for the M235 are $400 at the dealer, I'll buy them online and have them replaced at my local independent shop.

Maybe previous owner replaced them before 30k, but I haven't seen it in paperwork

I don't drive slow

[pz619]

Originally Posted by Ramos

I seriously doubt that very much. My N54 335 was misfiring at 20k miles due to plugs that had basically melted.

You are either mistaken or you were driving that car "very very" slowly.

The plugs for the M235 are $400 at the dealer, I'll buy them online and have them replaced at my local independent shop.

Do your plugs actually need replacement? No sense doing it if they are fine. Also aren't you on a lease? If you start to misfire due to bad plugs it'll be fixed under warranty/maintenance.

[Luftwaffe1O1]

I mean, yes, it is a bit of a gimmick, but there are several things which they will cover. Oil changes, air filter, wipers, brakes, etc. And if you NEED new plugs, they will be replaced, but their service interval is well documented, I don't know how you figured you would walk in there and demand they replace things at 30k miles, and expect them to do it.

Can you imagine if everyone just went in there and asked for such things? It would bankrupt them, everyone would bring the car in with 1000miles to go in their maintenance plan, and ask them to replace almost every maintenance item they can think of...

10k oil changes are nothing crazy, with modern oils, and larger capacity, as mentioned, this is completely fine.

30k for spark plugs is a bit premature, I don't see anything wrong with a 50k interval. If they malfunction, or you get misfires, they will be replaced under warranty. I don't see why this is something you would think is BS... usually dealers will complete maintenance items that are getting close to service if you are about to get out of the service plan, assuming you have had a good relationship with your dealer. I know my gf's car, they did a bunch of stuff before her maintenance plan expired out of goodwill basically.

But as a company they have to set rules, otherwise there would be a lot of unreasonable people abusing the system.

[Kolyan2k]

Originally Posted by Luftwaffe1O1

I mean, yes, it is a bit of a gimmick, but there are several things which they will cover. Oil changes, air filter, wipers, brakes, etc. And if you NEED new plugs, they will be replaced, but their service interval is well documented, I don't know how you figured you would walk in there and demand they replace things at 30k miles, and expect them to do it.

Can you imagine if everyone just went in there and asked for such things? It would bankrupt them, everyone would bring the car in with 1000miles to go in their maintenance plan, and ask them to replace almost every maintenance item they can think of...

10k oil changes are nothing crazy, with modern oils, and larger capacity, as mentioned, this is completely fine.

30k for spark plugs is a bit premature, I don't see anything wrong with a 50k interval. If they malfunction, or you get misfires, they will be replaced under warranty. I don't see why this is something you would think is BS... usually dealers will complete maintenance items that are getting close to service if you are about to get out of the service plan, assuming you have had a good relationship with your dealer. I know my gf's car, they did a bunch of stuff before her maintenance plan expired out of goodwill basically.

But as a company they have to set rules, otherwise there would be a lot of unreasonable people abusing the system.

With new maintenance plan you ain't getting any brakes done for free either. And what about all the lifetime fluids?

[Ramos]

Originally Posted by Luftwaffe1O1

I mean, yes, it is a bit of a gimmick, but there are several things which they will cover. Oil changes, air filter, wipers, brakes, etc. And if you NEED new plugs, they will be replaced, but their service interval is well documented, I don't know how you figured you would walk in there and demand they replace things at 30k miles, and expect them to do it.

Can you imagine if everyone just went in there and asked for such things? It would bankrupt them, everyone would bring the car in with 1000miles to go in their maintenance plan, and ask them to replace almost every maintenance item they can think of...

10k oil changes are nothing crazy, with modern oils, and larger capacity, as mentioned, this is completely fine.

30k for spark plugs is a bit premature, I don't see anything wrong with a 50k interval. If they malfunction, or you get misfires, they will be replaced under warranty. I don't see why this is something you would think is BS... usually dealers will complete maintenance items that are getting close to service if you are about to get out of the service plan, assuming you have had a good relationship with your dealer. I know my gf's car, they did a bunch of stuff before her maintenance plan expired out of goodwill basically.

But as a company they have to set rules, otherwise there would be a lot of unreasonable people abusing the system.

You make good points, I am not blaming the dealer and certainly wasn't expecting to get work done just because I'm asking for it.

I'm frustrated with BMW intervals which to me seem way too long .. Maybe I'm wrong about the plugs lasting 50k, but I drive hard and track my car occasionally. My expectation of a 30k interval was based on a bad experience with the N54 plugs

Now not replacing an intake air filter for 50k is something I will never be ok with and I have already paid for that out of pocket.

[Deutsche-Broke]

I agree.. If you own it, consider it a "supplement" to a frequent oil change and service.. If leasing, head with their requirements as it's thoroughly documented on their part and the liability rests with them. I also see the stock maintenance schedule as mentioned previously, using better components, but I also envision a Mean, Median, Average of the total faults from this program. Such as performance vehicles requiring heavy maintenance or engine replacement as a result of their overall maintenance program. This is my best guess based upon all of their gathered performance model data, which I don't have. The fact that they are offering a 10K interval on a 7 series is astounding and makes me think that this is correct (Or close) as their investment return is, and has been paying off..

From all signals that this new model is giving me, I plan to hold onto it for a while.. That being said, the engine and rear diff oil is going at around 1500 miles and every 5 to 7K after that. It's easy to do and only takes an hour or so.. That and I know it's being done correctly. (Oil going back in..)

In my previous E82, I had the drained oil tested at 1300 miles as I wanted a baseline. The oil in itself, viscosity and lubrication wise was fine, but the filter and oil was loaded with various engine assembly adhesives and contaminants. So, good riddance.. The next test at 7000 showed the oil as almost perfect. So BMW might have something there with the newest synthetics.

[Pinghacker]

Originally Posted by Kolyan2k

Lexus requires spark plugs to be changed at 60k miles on NA engines, turbo engines usually need them replaced more often, but 50-60k should be good in my opinion

But trusting manufacture is kinda funny, considering all they really want is to save money and dont really care if your car falls apart past the warranty

The last paragraph is absolute garbage. You have no idea how hard engineers, designers and commercial work to make cars as good as they are, which continuously improves. No one in the modern automotive industry thinks "I don't care what happens after warranty".

Spark plugs at 30k. Is this 1980?

[dukeapenguin]

To be honest, do maintenance by yourself is much more better, the cost is low but the maintenance is real

[Beartato]

Originally Posted by Pinghacker

Spark plugs at 30k. Is this 1980?

This is the same lot who still thinks break-in oil changes are a thing, what do you expect?

[Kolyan2k]

Originally Posted by Pinghacker

The last paragraph is absolute garbage. You have no idea how hard engineers, designers and commercial work to make cars as good as they are, which continuously improves. No one in the modern automotive industry thinks "I don't care what happens after warranty".

Spark plugs at 30k. Is this 1980?

Care to comment why BMW introduced 15k oil intervals and then switched back to 10k? Maybe you believe in lifetime fluids too?

What about carbon buildup in almost all DI engines? Do you even know that N54 has to be taken apart and intake valves have to be cleaned like every 40k or so because of the bad engine design?

Where does all this nonsense come from? 2000 Honda plugs last 100k miles, 2013 or whatever BMW with N54 engine calls for plugs every 45k per BMW

This isn't a Honda Civic forum with old school port injection engines that make 140hp, BMW and others develop new technologies in order to make more power, use less fuel, and spend less money doing it. That why you have turbo DI motors that are relatively new and require much more maintenance then Civic and obviously break more often

[doccyber]

All I can say that years ago my wife had a MB SLK and and I took it for its 1st scheduled service based on the car displaying "maintenance due". I dropped the car off, took the subway from downtown LA to my work in Hollywood and when I got out of the station I had a voicemail from my SA that the car is ready. From the time I dropped it off and when I received the call, it was exactly 35 minutes. The bill was 450 Dollars !! No free maintenance by MB as they had just stopped it with my model year car. All they did was an oil change and oil filter replacement and topped off the window washer fluid. They supposedly "inspected" all other stuff per MB recs and nothing else was "needed"!! Why the price tag? Because that's how much that service as a whole cost. I was furious. 450 dollars for not even having the car in the shop for one hour. Even though I complained to the service manager and MB North America regarding this, they said that since I had agreed to the price when I dropped the car off and initialed the estimate, I had no reason to complain. Had I asked for just an oil and filter change it would have been 120 Dollars. Crazy right? I really don't think that they inspected anything else but had no way to prove it.

So I'm glad that the "maintenance" is included in my BMW for free!!!

[Rayscott]

Originally Posted by pz619

Honestly, I kind of trust the manufacturer on this one. Plus manufacturing tolerances are much tighter now then they were a decade ago. While I agree they are stretching the limits on what they need to pay for, none of this to me seems like it's at the expense of motor reliability down the road.

It's not uncommon to see 100K intervals for spark plugs these days. My S2K was 100K interval and that was 16 years ago. As for air filter, how did it look? Often these are items that you don't change unless they need to be changed. If it's black you might have a case, otherwise if it's fairly clean probably no need to make the change.

I owned 2 S2K's and agree.

[G-Mann]

The value of the free maintenance has certainly diminished over the years. Some minor value add still left in it, particularly for those that are leasing, free oil changes for the duration you own it is something.

I no longer see the maintenance plan as being much of a factor in the decision process, if any.

[Kolyan2k]

On 335i that I had it was useful to me....few oil changes, brake fluid, and front brakes and rotors were done. I think I remember now that I was due for another pricy service when I sold the car at 47k or something...maybe plugs maybe rear brakes and rotors or both.....don't remember

On 2017+ it's useless

[supernova72]

I was thinking about me "free" maintenance the other day actually. I bought a used 2014 with 8800 miles on it. It's approaching it's 2nd service now at 18K. It will be my first and I'm anticipating an exchange with the SA about if the maintenance transfers to me (It was supposed to for a 2014 car). I hope it's not a huge hassle getting through that first service (It was serviced once before I bought the car along with a PPI).

[3.0L]

As of last May, I have experienced two free services at the one year and two year mark. The first service seemed ok - oil change, filter, wash job, etc.

The second free service last month was not impressive. Yeah, they changed the oil, but the overall experience left me with the strong impression that my car was a rush job. Industry-wide, it is not uncommon for service providers of just about anything to rush a bit. After all, few manufacturers pay their servicing dealers their going labor rates.

Even the manner in which I was treated at the counter was below what would expect from BMW. They seemed to barely have time for me.

Meanwhile, my Mercedes Benz dealer/servicer down the street treats me and my GLK350 like kings. Truly 5-star from beginning to end.