Garage Charges

Garage Charges

I wish to register a strong protest against the outrageous prices that BMW distributors are charging for certain small service items. I own a 1983 5281 and recently had cause for an oil service and filter change. This was carried out by my local Volkswagen garage,

be the BMW agents in Maidstone could not carry out this work for a work. However, the oil service lights, one orange and two red on the dash, remained alight — which apparently could only be extinguished by a BMW agent using a special tool. I arranged for this to be carried out at a BMW agent in Canterbury. The car was with them for only five minutes and the charge was £10.60 plus VAT, the actual work had taken less than one minute. I was under the impression that most garages charge £14 to £22 per hour for labour, yet the charge I was rendered works out to £636 per hour, which I feel is entirely

unreasonable. Perhaps one of BMW’s main agents would care to enlighten me on the extortionate charge, as I would prefer the old system of warning lights which did not require to be manually reset. Hemel Hempstead R. L. NICHOLLS