I was inspired by the recent post about the autokeuring, and I managed to get some good tips out of it.

I turned my car in for maintenance recently and got a bill for €832 (including VAT). I can’t help but feel ripped off every time I bring my car in for maintenance (which is required every year).

My car is a BMW and I go to an official BMW garage (Jorssen in Antwerp), yet I still always feel ripped off. They needed to replace the battery from my SOS service (which died after 3.5 years) and it cost €250 to replace the battery.

So, any tips on how to not get screwed over by garages? Should I go to a non-BMW garage? Will that be much cheaper?

Part of the reason I go to an official BMW garage is they offer free roadside emergency help as long as you do your maintenance with them, which is a plus for me.

See attached the bill of my “groot onderhoud” yesterday. A year ago I also paid around 600 for klein onderhoud. Are these amounts normal or should I find a new garage?

Picture of the bill:

View post on imgur.com


35 comments

  1. I go to a BMW garage in Geel, me and my family have been going there for years now, no complaints yet and they’ve been pretty cheap so far compared to a official garage.

    ACG Geel if you’re curious.

  2. You should go to non-dealerships. I paid less than 300 for major (correct?) maintenance at a respected garage.

  3. Gezien dat je aan 400€ (BTWe) zit voor onderdelen alleen, lijkt me dat geen abnormaal hoge prijs.

    Prijs is vergelijkbaar bij Mercedes.

    Voor de Fiat Tipo van m’n madam hebben we +/- 450€ betaald voor groot onderhoud, alle filters & vloeistoffen inclusief.

  7. I mean you decide to drive a premium car brand. You can expect premium prices for parts and labour. I had around the same bills when I drove Mercedes. Went to a non brand garage once but they charged close to what I paid at the dealership.

  8. My bro recently got 700€ for his X1 maintenance also in an official BMW garage, all those amounts are already outrageous (they bill the work in 5 or 10 min increments) but then you realize it’s vat excluded and you get an extra 21% on the last page :p

  9. I had that same issue with the SOS Service, after 4 years.

    Sadly these prices are normal for BMW. I honestly don’t know if you could just turn off the SOS function, for instance. But mine was a lease car so I don’t really care to be honest, I dont pay myself.

    I remember my groot onderhoud to be around 1300, including 600 for new brakepads.

    And indeed, the free road assistance is what lures you in. I don’t have a spare tire, and they claim to bring me just a new wheel if I should ever get a flat.

  10. I’ve paid over 1k at audi for maintenance. Last one was 700.

    Currently waiting for a replacement of the ad blue controller which they estimate at 1.5k. WTF, this controller costs a few 100 euro online and you can easily reach it as is on the body of the car. Replacing should take like an hour from the looks of a YouTube video.

  11. If you feel ripped off when giving your car regular maintenance maybe you shouldn’t drive a premium car. Or maybe you should learn how to do small and big maintenance yourself.

    It’s really not that dificult and you might get some satisfaction from it. Hell, even changing your spark plugs isn’t that hard.

    You’ll save all of the labour costs and can get your oil and parts cheaper (I do recommend buying from decent brands and not just go for the cheapest option).
    Driving older cars (2000 – 2010) makes it often even easier to do your own maintenance. For bmws there are numerous DIY pages.

  12. I felt physically violated after each visit to Jorssen. Then I switched to Pedro Cars. Great guy, very knowledgable, reasonably priced but unfortunately, he liked cars [a little too much](https://www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf20190816_04560440). After some shopping around I finally settled on [Special](https://www.garagespecial.be/nlbe/voertuigen/uitgebreide-zoekopdracht). Independent mechanic specializing in Mercedes and BMW. He has all the official tools, programs, etc. He’s a little farther from Antwerp but definitely worth the drive.

  13. What is your question?

    Yes, car maintenance costs money. Yes, branded garages are usually asking a premium over others.

    So, you can either do your own maintenance, or pay someone else to do it for you.

    As far as your roadside assistance is concerned? How much is it worth to you? Do you want to spend time looking around and pricing this out? BMW does not offer this out of the goodness of their heart.

    Obviously they are upselling stuff. The counterpart is that your car will be in great condition. Do you need to replace your brakes? Probably not. But when you have new brakes, it will be good. Do you need to flush your coolant, probably not at the interval they would do it, but when they do, there is no harm etc…

    Either educate yourself or pay the fee.

  14. Just go to non branded garages, some will do part of the work “int zwart” if you ask sometimes. I recently had my car towed because the addblue stopped working and the tow truck driver told me about a garage in the north of Antwerp who does these type of deals. He also told me he took his bmw there and had the addblue installation disabled so it doesn’t cause problems anymore. No problem at the keuring apparently.
    I wrote the name of the garage down somewhere, I’ll add it when I find it.

  15. lijkt me wel een normale prijs tbh. toch zeker als ze alle correcte merkproducten gebruiken en alles juist doen. + die roadside is ten slotte ook niet gratis.

  16. It really depends on how much you drive. The time intervals on bmw are much longer than on other cars I’ve had. The interval in kilometers are the same but if you don’t drive a lot you may come out ahead.

  17. an official dealership will always be more expensive.
    also, if BMW has an interval to change the brake discs at xxx km, they WILL replace them, no matter if they’re worn out or not, while a independent garage only replaces what is needed. if your car does not have factory warranty I see no reason at all to go to a stealership. I do my own maintenance and a small maintenance will cost me around €125 while a big one will be around €250, also when you break something you get to reflect on your life choices, which is priceless AND sometimes you even learn new curse words. win win!

  18. Buy roadside assistance from Touring or V~~D~~AB and go to an independent garage.

    Part of the problem solved right there.

  19. I go to Midas/Auto5 or my local garage. Cheaper and better service compared to my local BMW garage.

  20. Fuel your car at Total gas stations, if you fuel up once every three weeks you get free pechverhelping all over Europe. So no need to go to the fancy garage just for that.

  21. Independent garages are usually cheaper. But, hey, you drive a BMW. Parts will we expensive as freshly mined gold anywhere

  22. I think alot depends on the type of BMW you own. I drive a 1-serie and my bills are surpringly cheap when going to the official dealer. It’s actually so cheap I ask them to give it a carwash when it’s there (for a 15€ extra). Yearly service would cost me a 170€ and biggest bill was like 600€ when doing the brakes and stuff. Car is now 7 years old and still satisfied with the car and service.

    I’ve heard from a friend who drives a 5-series that his bill is mostly around 2000€ (also a diesel is more expensive for service) but I guess the bill goes up with the level of car.

  23. Go to a cheaper garage, and buy the parts and take them with you for them to fit. It’s soo much cheaper. Oil, filters, parts, etc

  25. My dad always went to the bmw garage and also felt ripped off. Now he goes to a classic mechanic/small dealership of second hand cars and his bill wel from +800€ to +-300€. Never had any problems there and hes been going there for 5 years now.

  28. The reason you have to do your onderhoud at the garage is probably because of the car itself: it has to be plugged in with an official computer of the brand to be updated properly.

    Now, the workforce is where they get you: i had a client tell me they switched from BMW to Toyota because BMW took 120€ per hour of work. For example, Toyota is about 70.
    Your choice in a car should never only be based on the initial price of the car, and you should always consider maintenance costs when you buy.
    You chose a “luxury” brand, so don’t be so surprised about the costs…

  29. You can always contact BMW Belux and have them check the bill to see if all the PE’s are correctly applied.

  32. I don’t have a BMW but a much popular brand. At beginning I was using an official dealer, and got bills not so far from this one. One time they wanted to change me the same piece after 3 months, luckily I went to read the estimation before allowing any work.

    Needless to say I’ve found an independent garage, much cheaper and super responsive any time I got some kind of “emergency”. And the human interaction with them is simply another level with respect to the official dealer.

    Surely not going back in the future.

  33. That would cost you about €500 in my garage. Independent zelfstandige garage. And we are at least as Good as a bmw garage, If we aren’t Better.

  35. Hijacked into this thread. Any suggestion of a garage for a Polo, 1st registration in 2018 in Antwerp region? Is Auto5 a good option?

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