Main dealer or independant?

[danp]

Originally Posted by weedavey

Well that sounds like what you want doesnt it. I mean; cheap price, its bmw so maintains the booklet visually, you were happy with them and what they did and it was cheaper than the price that you were happy with to begin with! Looks like a traveling is the order when servicing.

Cheers.

Brystone are not a BMW main dealer - so not technically keeping up a full BMW history, but yep they are good (like many indies, Richard is ex-BMW), I have been there a few times.

Tricky deciding whether to keep the full BMW history going and I'd agree that a good indy probably is likely to know more than your average main dealer, and is likely to be better value.

But:

- some people won't touch a car without full BMW history (not saying I agree with this!)
- if you have the warranty (or indeed want to start up a lapsed warranty) it is better to have it all stamped up by BMW
- BMW are more likely to give you some goodwill on any issues if it's kept going

With the 4+ and 6+ schemes the labour rates are more competitive, so I'm likely to stick with my local dealer for now, they've been fine for the routine stuff, but would tend to go elsewhere for other bits.