Certified Pre-Owned,Oil Changes,Maintenance,AGH!

[Crawlings]

Has anyone had experience with buying a certified pre-owned from BMW. Im interested to know the downfalls and bonuses to it, and just to hear stories about it in general.

Also, with new vehicles, you get the 4 year maintenance coverage plan covering all NORMAL WEAR AND TEAR and oil changes. My question is this. How are they on replacing stuff if something happens? Is this just BS promotion stuff to get people to buy or what? Also, when you take it in to the service dept. during those four years do you pay anything at all such as labor or wasting their time checking something? Or is it completely free service for 4 years?

On the same note, about the oil changes. It said that recommended oil changes are every 12000 miles. Are they using some kind of superman oil? Cause everything I have ever heard has said to change your oil every 3000 miles, even with synthetic oil its like 5-6000 miles. What is the deal with this? Or is this just to save them money on free oil changes?

I realize that maintenance on BMW's is expensive, but with a new vehicle or certified pre-owned, this maintenance plan sounds pretty damn good.

Last question, I have heard alot of bad things about BMW dealership service departments. If I'm not going to use them, how do I find a decent mechanic in my area to work on my BMW? It's hard enough finding someone decent to work on my $3,000 Ford, much less my possible new $30,000 BMW.



Thanks for listening to an aspiring new Bimmer owner
Chad

[Crawlings]

No one have any experience with certified pre-owned from BMW?

[97alpineM3]

Most of the time you can and should buy a warranty with the car.. I would...

If you dont.. hopefully you can find a good mech around town... A bmw engine works just like a regular engine... plus a few odd things... keep researching.. and working to find out how it works.. and a long the way.. start doing the small jobs.. like replacing the oil.. and what not.. it will save you in the end.. and you will be able to start working on your car your self.. which first off is very gratifying and will push you forward... CPO cars from BMW are very good cars.. and should come with a warranty.. hope this helps.. I'd research the type and length of the warranty to a T... and then consider your future.

Les

[Gulelin]

I haven't had experience with pre-owned programs, but my car is still under it's original warranty. The dealer has been fine, they don't charge to look at the car if you say something is wrong.

As far as oil goes i'm changing mine about every 7k, from the reaearch i've done that sounds right. 5k is too often for synthetic in these cars.....my 330xi takes 8 FREAKIN QUARTS of oil ghead ; this helps extend oil change times because your spreading the contaminants that oil picks up over more oil...if you follow. So anyway 7-7500 is fine, at least for e46's. There is a great discussion about it on e46fanatics.com, you'll learn more than you ever wanted to know about oil. Follow this link: http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.ph...5&highlight=oil

Hope that helps.