BMW of Ocala - Service Center

My goal for placing the comments under the service My goal for placing the comments under the service section of the dealership section is hopefully for improved service from the dealership. I have My goal for placing the comments under the service section of the dealership section is hopefully for improved service from the dealership. I have been deeply disappointed in servicing of our BMW at our local BMW Dealership – BWM of Ocala. Had this only happened once, I would have let it slide as a one-time experience. The 2008 BMW 318i replaced our 1998 Mercedes Benz E320 4-Matic, 10 years old and just past 44,000 miles and still ran beautifully. Since we had owned BMWs vehicles in the past when living in the Washington DC/Alexandria VA area, the two choices considered for replacement car were either Mercedes Benz or BMW. We loved the new BMW 328i hard-top convertible because it handles and runs beautifully. The inclusion of the 4 year/40,000 mile service was not a selling point since based on past experience the service department at the dealership would see us once a year for the annual servicing based on the fact he hardly puts on 3,000-3,500 miles per year. Unless anything was to happen unexpectedly to require non-scheduled service, which has not on this vehicle. The car was brought to BMW of Ocala yearly based on the limited amount of mileage we put on the vehicle. Here is the history of the 4 service calls for annual/routine servicing which was included with the purchase of the new 318i Convertible. First Servicing – April, 2009 Annual servicing was done and we brought the car home and parked it in our garage. Next day backed out and saw oil all over the floor of the garage. Phoned dealership and drove (40 mins. and 27 miles each way by the way) the car back to them to examine. Was informed by the service advisor that there was no problem, but that the vehicle has an underbody pan/panel that was not removed and when the oil was drained it ran on this pan and thus when we drove/parked the oil sloshed out. I stated how disappointment I was since to me it showed a lack of either following BMW protocols or BMW was lacking in how the vehicle was designed with this panel to allow proper servicing of the oil. Went home and cleaned up the oil. Second Servicing – March, 2010 We brought the car and I reminded the service representative of our experience last year and hoped that the problem would not be repeated and thus require a return trip. Everything went well and no oil was seen on either or garage floor or anywhere else we parked the vehicle. Third Servicing – March, 2011 I was out of town and my partner brought the car for the annual servicing. He didn’t state anything, nor should he have obviously, about our first year experience since the second year went without a complaint. The car was brought home and parked in the garage and I arrived back home from business a few days later. Day after I arrived home (March 22, 2011) he takes the car out and I go to drive my car which is parked in the garage next to his and notice a large oil slick where his car was parked in the front middle area on the garage floor. At this point, I didn’t rush to any judgments since anything might happen. After repeated phone calls to the service department to talk to an advisor, I call the main number again and asked for the service manager. Mr. Brent Gusfason came on the phone and I explained what I had found and past experience to him, but again stated calmly that it could be anything. Mr. Gusfason offered to send an employee to pick up the car from our home, but I stated I would rather bring him the car first thing in the morning myself. So on the following day we went back and short answer – the problem was the same as our first year service problem. Mr. Gusfason came out and apologized and explained he was just brought into the dealership to work on service and other issues with the new owners of the dealership. Drove home and cleaned up the oil again from the garage floor. Fourth Servicing – February, 2012 We brought the car and reminded the service representative of past problems. Everything went well and no oil was seen on either or garage floor or anywhere else we parked the vehicle. This beautiful and expensive vehicle has been serviced with a lower quality and personal satisfaction compared to all of our past and current vehicles (Chevrolet, Honda, Cadillac, Mercedes and GMC). I subscribe to a lot of the car magazines; Automotive News, Automotive Weekly, Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Automobile and Hemmings, which all rave about the style and handling of the BMW 3-Series. I cannot disagree with their reviews, but I don’t have a positive thing to say about the servicing of my BMW with two out of the four being negative – 50% - being poor quality rating. More