G Guarnieri, Malaga

DavidHolmes · Jun 22, 2003

On my Honeymoon.

Thursday night, leave Morocco, re enter Spain, and the relative safety of road side recovery.

Friday, quick trip to Gib, then blat out heading for Nerja. 3.30 pm, bike dies. Quick call to BMW recovery, and to the service manager of my dealership back in England.

"Sounds like the poly v belt has snapped"

Tow truck arrives, he speaks no English, I speak no spanish. BMW rescue provide a telephone translation service.

Bike recovered to the main BMW dealer 2km away.

Five mechanics pull it off tow truck, remove an F650 from a ramp, and start stripping my bike. The v belt hadn't snapped, it had disintergrated, they are removing bits of bike (bash plates, the alternator and who knows what else) in an attempt to find out where all the missing bits of v belt have gone.

Three and a half hours after breaking down, and we are ready to roll again. The cost ? 71 Euros. £52.52.

The head mechanic gave me a BMW service sheet, pointing out that if I had had my bike properly serviced the v belt would have been replaced at the 36,000 mile service. That would be the 36,000 mile service I paid x hundred pounds for four weeks earlier to my main BMW dealership would it.

BMW Spain 1, my BMW dealer 0.

If you are going to break down in Spain, they are just outside Torremolinos, and they have an English guy (Karl) working there so there are no translation issues. Cannot recommend (nor thank) them enough.

(PS. On the ferry back I met a couple who had broken down in their Citroen Zantia, had it recovered to Madrid, where eight main Citroen garages had refused to look at it because they were too busy...)

pint6x · Jun 23, 2003

I trust you will be making your feelings known to the UK dealer.

Which one was it ?

6X

DavidHolmes · Jun 23, 2003

Oh yes, and the service manager knows I am coming....

Thought I might wait for their response before I got into naming and shaming though.

BBB61 · Jul 4, 2003

Any news on the response yet David?

Bob

DavidHolmes · Jul 4, 2003

I am taking the bike in for the next service on Monday so I shall be looking forward to hearing their response then !

thesanguine · Jul 4, 2003

Gosh, that's a suprise!

I had my bike serviced a few weeks back, the ABS wasn't working so I asked them specifically to check the condition of the battery. They told me it was OK but a bit low as I hadn't used the bike much. Gues what...I ride all the way to the South of France and the battery gives up the ghost.....103 Euros, 90 mile round trip and a day of my holiday wasted. Aren't you from the Kent area too Dave?

Geezer · Jul 4, 2003

Any chance that you can name the dealer ? :confused:

DavidHolmes · Jul 10, 2003

Ummmm

Had a chat with the service manager, expressed some feelings, left bike for service.

On my return, he had done me a 'special' price on the service (knocked off about what I had had to pay in Spain) and had a list of grumbles of his own. Apparently they had had to take the touratech centre stand bash plate off to drain the oil (?) and the cylinder head guards off to get at the heads. This apparently takes extra time. I pointed out that they had never mentioned this before (this was the 5th service they had done on this bike), they said that that is because they had never charged me for it before, even though my accessories had been causing them all this extra aggro.

I was going to use the next nearest BMW dealer from now on, only I met a bloke with belt problems on his RT, and he had just switched from that dealer to mine. He seemed to thing that I would just get even worse service if I went elsewhere.

So I decided just to give up and get a Honda ST1300. So I asked one of the instructors at my other club about his.
"Worst retail purchase I ever made."
Not good then?
"This is the second one you know"
Ummm - he had a new replacement bike from Honda UK after a year of grief with his original, and wasn't exactly 100% happy with the new one.

I was going to ask another instructor about his new ST1300, but he was unable to attend the last meet because his bike has spent the last two months in another dealers who are trying to locate an engine fault. Rumour has it that the engine is currently in seven separate boxes on the dealers floor.

So what can I do? Except move to Malaga. Or buy a car.

Seriously though, I was about to buy a car to commute with, only they have decided to dig up a stretch of the M25 for the next 18 weeks, a stretch I have to commute both ways through.

BBB61 · Jul 10, 2003

So, which dealer was it David?

Bob

MikeO · Jul 10, 2003

Re: Ummmm

DavidHolmes said:
Apparently they had had to take the touratech centre stand bash plate off to drain the oil (?) and the cylinder head guards off to get at the heads.
They're talking crap - I've got a Touratech bash plate extension & it doesn't affect the oil change at all. What cylinder head protectors have you got? If they're the std BMW ones they must take all of 1 minute each to take off.....

So I decided just to give up and get a Honda ST1300. So I asked one of the instructors at my other club about his.
"Worst retail purchase I ever made."
Not good then?
"This is the second one you know"
Ummm - he had a new replacement bike from Honda UK after a year of grief with his original, and wasn't exactly 100% happy with the new one.

I was going to ask another instructor about his new ST1300, but he was unable to attend the last meet because his bike has spent the last two months in another dealers who are trying to locate an engine fault. Rumour has it that the engine is currently in seven separate boxes on the dealers floor.

I met a bloke at Lind the other day, having his R1150RT serviced. He'd traded in his ST1300 after 12 weeks (losing a bundle in the process) - he'd previously had a ST1100 for 2+ yrs without snags - he just couldn't ride it above 90 without it developing a frightening weave.

Go on - who was it?

Mike

DavidHolmes · Jul 14, 2003

Not naming anyone

Not naming anyone. Looks like I am going to have to continue to use them, as the dealer I was going to try is L&C.......(see posts elsewhere).

BBB61 · Jul 14, 2003

So why bother starting the thread if you are not going to name the dealer?

Bob

DavidHolmes · Jul 15, 2003

Dunno

Not sure this is about my dealer for me Bob, (who are SLM). I had started using them after my experiences at Sawbridgeworth, and L&C and Prestige. ( I should state that my experience of L&C is largely limited to standing around trying to get some attention and getting the brake recal mod done, and Prestige is limited to one 5 minute slag off of my much loved and imaculate K75S when I was looking for a trade in to buy the GS)

I think this is about BMW servicing in general, or perhaps even Motorcycle servicing in general or maybe about motorvehicle servicing in general.

As I have named them, and in fairness, SLM did the 12, 18, and 24k services very well, and I had no complaints until the 30 and 36k services.

The 'front of house' staff have always been exceptionally pleasant to me (as were the 'front of house' staff at Sawbridgeworth), and maybe that is the best I can hope for. So I decided that naming them as a 'bad' dealer was probably to do them a diservice. They are probably as good as any.

Maybe it was just my expectations that are fucked up.

Anyway, I have decided to give CW's a try, but this means a 300 mile round trip so if anyone has anything negative to say about them, could they please speak up !!

BBB61 · Jul 16, 2003

Another option David is to do your own servicing. The GS's are straightforward to work on with no real pitfalls ( IMHO).

Bob

DavidHolmes · Jul 17, 2003

Home Servicing

Yep Bob - it is an option. I did my own servicing (and endless re-builds) on my Yanaha RS100. And my Kawasaki Z200. And my (despatched) CX 500 and R80 RT. And my K75S.

Only I didn't buy this GS thingy. I chose it. But I didn't pay for it. And it is going to be serviced for 5 years at a relevant main dealer.

What a bugger eh? Given a bike. Of your choice. And 5 years worth of servicing at a main dealer.

Think about it. Who on earth would get a Car and be told that if they want it to be reliable they should service it themselves?

Still, suppose I could. Do you have the read out data for the ABS thingy? My dealer suggests that it is a failing front ABS sensor. Any idea how I check that myself?

andy2003 · Nov 25, 2003

Dealers

There are loads of rants on this forum reflecting the standard of service we recieve from our dealers, and mostly people feel they have been let down and can show were dealers have bullshitted and cut corners.
This is not just unique to our make, I have had hassle from Honda and Suzuki main agents. In the car world things are no better, we have a Ford that has been serviced by Ford, badly, since new, at the last service they informed us that the drain plug had been cross threaded. As if I had done it! on a company car!!!
The British public puts up with this crap too often, just watch the watchdog reports on plumbers , builders etc, I bet for every tale we read here about someone going back to the dealer, banging on the counter and getting their vehicle sorted correctly there must be 99 people who just put up and pay.

jenks · Nov 25, 2003

David,

Sorry to hear your woes, you should try CW, I have found them incredibly good, the Mechanic’s always take there time to go through what they have done, and have not done, and seem very diligent, (they even noticed a paint blemish on the tank at the 600 mile service, apologised and ordered me a new one.).

Wally knows his stuff and runs a tight ship, They aren’t the cheapest, but you pays your money, etc.

If you explain when you book it in that you are travelling (120 miles for me) they always put you to the front of the queue if you get there at a reasonable time.

Good luck, let us know how you get on

Andrew

DavidHolmes · Nov 25, 2003

Funny you should suggest CW's as I had the 48,000 mile service there a couple of months ago (at 51,000) and am booked in for the next one next Saturday......a 300 mile round trip (and another night in a B&B if it snows) for a minor service shows just how strongly feel about the service I have received elsewhere

BBB61 · Nov 26, 2003

51000 miles on a standard GS speedo works out at a true 48000

Bob

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