Once upon a time, I thought these guys were awesome. They seemed knowledgeable, were friendly, and certainly charged less for their service than the BMW Store. There were a couple of small misses that made me start to lose faith in them however (forgetting to re-connect a hose to the engine, saying they had replaced a spark plug when they hadn't) - and one BIG miss that made me never, ever go back.
The big miss: My car suddenly started leaking antifreeze - slowly at first, but by the second day after I noticed the tiny leak, anything I put in the coolant reservoir just disappeared - 100% - poof, gone. When I had them check it out, they said, "Sometimes these engines just leak coolant once they get older - it's not big deal. We filled it up and you're ready to go." Um, the car is a well cared-for 2008, not a 1984 rusted out rebuild. I trusted them and got on the road to drive to Louisville for the weekend. 60 miles south of Cincy, the low coolant warning light comes on. I pulled into a gas station and checked the reservoir: no coolant. Empty. I filled the reservoir with distilled water, drove like a snail the rest of the way to Louisville, panicking about burning up my engine and/or getting stranded in BFE at 10pm during polar vortex 2.0. The mechanic who checked the car in Louisville said, "Ma'am - whoever told you that was blowing you off - your water pump is shot and the housing around the radiator is split wide open."
Do you know how expensive it is to tow a car from Louisville to Cincinnati?
Do you know how much a new water pump costs, including installation?
I'm not blaming Just BMW for the pump failing or the radiator housing cracking - things happen. I am, however, peeved at getting blown off (basically lied to) and therefore being put in a potentially dangerous situation or one that completely destroyed my engine.
Finally, to add insult to injury, I got an email from them asking how my service experience was for my last visit - I replied, detailing what I've described above. Their response? Nothing - no "We're sorry" or "We totally didn't do that" or "Let us make it right." Complete silence.
So: sorry, Just BMW. You lost me. Tiny mistakes lead to huge mistakes (and a big, fat lie)...I try to support small, local businesses, but this one doesn't deserve my support anymore. read more