[erichui]

hi, i am just wondering, does the mini come with a free oil service for the first time you are doing it at around 16000kms????

[swamos]

No You better budget around $300.

[AussieMini]

$322 for mine.

There is a BMW servicing place in Brisbane that'll do the first service for around $160(ish) and won't affect your warrantee. I am sure Sydney would have similar places.

[erichui]

just wondering, if u don't do service in a mini dealer , it does affect the warranty?
since my mum's car ( a bmw E46 3series) was never serviced at a BMW dealer after the 2nd time, but then again the car's warranty is long gone already.
i don't find anything special that they do in BMW.....
and once the service was just oil change and change of coolant i think, they charged us 600dollars!!!

[swamos]

I can think of 4 good reasons to have your car serviced at MINI dealers.

1. Factory servicing helps your resale value.
2. If the car has something go wrong with it outside the warranty period (say 2 years after expiration) most manufacturers will consider a claim. For example, if you had the engine lunch itself when the car was 3.5 years old due to a probable manufacturing fault, i'm sure that MINI would look at the service history of the car, and if they thought you had been a good customer may try and look after you by paying for the parts, just leaving you with the labour, or something like that. If it's never been to them for a service, your chances will be pretty poor.
3. While the warranty is not voided by outside servicing, if you have any issues that are difficult, or issues where there is some debate about the fault being caused by lack of maintenance, then you may be left holding the ball and the bill. Once again, I see a lot of MINI claims going through that are VERY generous. I can't imagine this would be as likely to occurr if you have snubbed your local dealer.
4. Each time you want something fixed under warranty, you have to take it to the dealer. If you had it serviced there, then that's only one trip

Can anyone think of any others ??

[robbo mcs]

Hi,

Resale value is a big factor. I guess it is still too early to judge on the mini.

However, for BMW's it is definitely the case that you get a much better trade in if you have a full BMW service history.

Also, it is worth remembering that BMW gets service bulletins on all "issues" with the MINI, eg they get bulletins on how to fix certain rattles, brake problems, electric window problems etc. These get fixed for free when you take your car in, even if it is out of warranty. Sometimes these are major issues, eg safety recalls. Non-BMW people may not get these bulletins, and certainly would not fix them for free.

I also agree with SWAMOS, if you have a major problem, BMW is more likely to stand by you if you are a customer who has done servicing by the book, even if you are out of warranty.

If people want to save a few hundred dollars on servicing why dont they just buy a second hand mini that has done $5000k? You would save much more money than a couple of years services.

I have no problems with people who get their cars serviced elsewhere. As long as they are aware of the advantages and disadvantages. I would also say, once the car gets more than 4 years old, the value of in house servicing diminishes.

Robbo

[Darryl]

hmmm.... well agree on some points but....

I'd suggest at least getting the car serviced by "someone" who knows BMW's whilst its under warranty, Peak Performance is such a place. As I've said previously Nick has taken cars he's servicing around to BMW if theres a warranty issue for them to look at.

With the resale Q, yes, you need to get the car serviced and the service book stamped but as far as getting more $$ for the car because its been serviced at a BMW dealer, I'm not so sure. I've never been asked to show a service book at trade-in time. I don't normally keep them in the car so the valuer's not sighting them either. As long as its got log books at hand over. I do agree that BMW will have the latest service bulletins though and thats a good thing.

Couple of things I've noticed with BMW servicing, ring around a couple of dealers for a quote when your booking the car in. I've had a variance of $300 on a large BMW service (service 2) between a western Sydney dealer and a CBD dealer, no pastries at drop of though but thems exxy breakfast food.

We opted for the triple 3 offering at purchase - I'm not paying anything for the next 65000k's - not a bad deal for $620 seeing as the extra 12months warranty is around $680.

[erichui]

ok, thanks for ur replies guys.
i think i know what i will do, maybe take it whenever the service indicators tells us, and then still change the oil every 5000kms (i don't like the idea of changing every 15000km or so, and my car have 12000km now, i have chnaged oil twice already, and they are always black!!)
i probably only will be able to service the car for twice during the warranty in a MINI Dealer, and after that i will probably not service there since the warranty is gone already).

[swamos]

Good work everyone, some great points here.