A Tale of Two Dealerships: Rear Diff Leaking...or not?

[SanDiego640]

I've had my gorgeous CPO 2016 640 since last September.

Brought it in for an oil change.

DEALER (A) said my rear diff is sweating fluid, but it is not enough of a leak for my CPO warranty to cover it, so I will need to come back and see when it gets worse, then BMW will cover it. This struck me as odd. Either it's leaking, in which case the seal needs to be replaced, or it's not, in which it doesn't. I was unsatisfied with this answer. So I brought it to...

DEALER (B) where I originally purchased the vehicle, and about 150 miles away. They looked at it, checked the records, and it turns out it was just a film of fluid on the outside of the seal, attracting dust, from when they replaced it during the CPO work before it was sold to me. They also made clear that if it was showing true signs of leakage of any type, they would have covered it under CPO warranty. This dealer also effortlessly replaced the iDrive controller after I noted it would sometimes spin oddly, and replaced the laminated panel in the center console, which was beginning to show very minor signs of delaminating.

Oh, and Dealer (A) charged me $180 for an oil change, even through BMW had extended coverage by one month due to COVID, and I should not have been charged. Dealer (B) informed me of this, so I later went back to Dealer (A), raised the issue, they admitted they were wrong, and sent me a refund check (albeit two months later).

This whole experience really illustrated how different dealership service departments can treat customers very differently. I won't name Dealer (A).

Dealer (B) is BMW of Palm Springs and I have been extremely pleased with both their sales and service departments. This is high praise given I have a (well justified) skepticism of dealers generally and dealer service departments specifically.

Here she is on a recent trip to the old border town of Jacumba in San Diego.

[Derekz4]

On top of that, $180 for an oil change on an in-line 6 is steep. In comparison, Crevier is $99.

[iamvanja]

Why not name the dealer A? If they don't treat their customers well, they should be avoided.

[MRHowell]

Originally Posted by iamvanja

Why not name the dealer A? If they don't treat their customers well, they should be avoided.

Agreed. Dealer A should be named so others can choose to avoid them if they have the luxury to do so.