Should Schomp be servicing M?

[dnvrdrvr]

Before I got my E90 M3 in May, I had an E90 330xi that I leased from Schomp. Never had any issues with service. Since May, M has been into Schomp... 5 or 6 times? Once had to have it service in UT for a hood clamp that needed lubed (another story). Anyway, that's the background.

M was in on 10/1 to replace the amp (loud popping noise, found a bulletin had been posted for it, no biggie). I start the car up after work in the garage on 10/6 and DING! Emissions Increased! SERVICE ENGINE SOON error pops up. Annoyed because I feel like every time I turn around this car is at Schomp, I call them and sched the earliest appt for 10/12. Take it in @ 7:30 and after 4:30 I finally call because I haven't heard anything from them. "Oh! Ehh... we're waiting to hear back from BMW HQ. The code indicates an air intake sensor is bad. So we need approval from them before we can fix it. But the part isn't here, it's in Germany so we need to have it shipped here (takes another 7-10 days) and by then we should have approval to replace it. You can come get it & we'll call you when it's here to schedule another appt." They cleared the fault code and let me take it home.

That night my husband decides to take a look at the filter... pops of the airbox cover and calls me out to the garage. There are two cigarette butts and a dead moth sitting on top of the air filter. Obviously they hooked it up to a computer... but they didn't bother to look at the flippin' air filter? They had my car all day and couldn't be bothered to look at the air filter... which is part of the air intake system?? So he puts the hood down after taking out the air filter, cleaning it with the air compressor, reassembing everything. We keep talking and he looks down and there are scrape marks along the edge of the driver's side fender that matches up with the hood. Like someone was bending over the side of the car with the hood up & didn't bother to put anything down to protect the car from getting scraped by whatever they're wearing! Seriously?!? Husband says it should buff out. Still, now I'm REALLY annoyed.

I am NOT a suburban housewife who doesn't know or appreciate the ride I have. I very much appreciate and love reading about the heritiage, engineering and design that went into creating this ... car. And it pisses me off that Schomp service doesn't seem to have the same set of core values. Am I getting riled up over nothing? Has anyone else had similar or different experiences servicing their M at Schomp? Do I need to go to Murray - a place I've had AWFUL Sales experience with? Is it worth getting the service manager involved? I know I'm fired up and maybe there are simple explanations for the experiences I've had, but so far... not impressed and that makes wonder if there is anything else going on that I just haven't noticed.

[signes]

Schomp service not good at all in my opinion. I have been a die hard Gebhardt guy for the last 5 years or so my with old M3 as well as my current E90 and have only great things to say. Since I bought my car at Schomp (they had the one I was looking for), I thought I would try them out for my 1200 mile service, which included a request to fix a rattle coming from the front passenger seat/door area. Mistake...

They were a pain in the ass to deal with to just get it scheduled and they never followed up during the service visit with what they found and when I could pick my car up. When I finally went to get it, they had done the 1200 okay but they assumed that the rattle was from the rear parcel shelf and "fixed" it. It clearly was not and it showed they never even drove it to try and source the issue, rather they just assumed because non-M E90s have a rear shelf issue that it was the cause of my problem. Literally as I was pulling out of the dealer, I heard the same annoying rattle... So pissed! And I now have noise coming from the area they "fixed" that would have been fine if they had never touched it.

I wound up going back to Gebhardt a week later, and they got it fixed. Their service manager rode had me drive him around until he sourced it (which took 5 minutes, although he was almost under the seat to track it down...) That has always been my service experience with them and why I really won't go anywhere else. I will say that recently Murray helped me out a lot, going out of their way to get something done over the weekend on short notice so I may try them as well. I didn't use them for my E46 because their prices on things like Inspection I were much higher (30-40%).

My view is that Schomp is a factory - a lot of volume, not great customer/sales service, crappy service department, but good prices on the cars themselves and eve moer so on trade-ins. Murray is better customer service once you've bought something from them, but that's generally because if you have bought something from them you got screwed on the price. Gebhardt is the best - good sales (though still not the best prices) and stellar service.

[jamesq]

I concur with the service at Gebhardt. Lee is a great service manager and goes above and beyond to make sure his customers are happy. Pearl Street is a great place to hang out while your car's being worked on....

[M3Denver]

Ill post my experiences when i get my car back on Tuesday. Service was pretty good when we arrived. Seemed like good guys but ill find out more shortly.

[SlamMan]

My car had 20 more miles when I picked it up from Schomp after taking it in for a TSB. It was for the rear diff and they said they had to drive it in a bunch of circles and that's where the 20 miles came from. I looked up the TSB online and it didn't call for anywhere near 20 miles. My assumption is someone took my car out to lunch to take in the full Eisenmann exhaust experience.

[Draper]

Originally Posted by SlamMan

My car had 20 more miles when I picked it up from Schomp after taking it in for a TSB. It was for the rear diff and they said they had to drive it in a bunch of circles and that's where the 20 miles came from. I looked up the TSB online and it didn't call for anywhere near 20 miles. My assumption is someone took my car out to lunch to take in the full Eisenmann exhaust experience.

That is actually part of the tsb. It states to get the car to operating temp then do a dozen circles (both right/left) to ensure the clutches in the diff get fully coated with the new fluid.

I've found Schomp service to be fine. They can get pretty busy, so plan to leave your car for the full day even for minor service, but since they give free loaners it's never really bothered me.