SMG quote on alignment + balancing WTF

[Fuzz]

Got a quote of R2200 at BMW SMG Cape Town (Century City) to do wheel alignment and balancing on my girlfriends 2016 F20 118i. They don't call them "stealerships" for nothing. WTF !!!.

Obviously I declined to do it there.

I get the fact that dealers charge a premium but this is insane.

Even Audi that's generally insane with their prices charged me R650 for alignment and balancing when I had my TT RS.

Guess SMG Cape Town are just like any other stealership.

 

[Lizzard]

They most probably charged their rate per hour included in that price. Its like R1000+ for an hours visit at BMW :hammerhead:

 

[Ebo]

Apparently Audi CPT doesnt do wheel swaps, alignment etc any longer, i was informed of this as my a4 is due for its 90k service months end . I suppose the ridiculous price is SMG's way of saying we no longer want to do it.

 

[Kal23]

Got a quote of R2200 at BMW SMG Cape Town (Century City) to do wheel alignment and balancing on my girlfriends 2016 F20 118i. They don't call them "stealerships" for nothing. WTF !!!.

Obviously I declined to do it there.

I get the fact that dealers charge a premium but this is insane.

Even Audi that's generally insane with their prices charged me R650 for alignment and balancing when I had my TT RS.

Guess SMG Cape Town are just like any other stealership.

Maybe that includes a free cup of coffee...or free use of the waiting room and complimentary air to breathe in whilst you wait...or maybe its R2200 upfront payment for alignment and balancing for life...or maybe they're just nuts!

 

[cOlDFuSiOn]

That is rough, last time I checked when you put on tyres via BMW and the car is on plan they don't charge for alignment.. Maybe buying tyres is then a way of getting free alignment :tiptoe:

 

[Ratslaaf]

Well, truth be told, the alignment machines at BMW are orders of magnitude better than the stuff at the local Speedy.

After the control arm replacement on my car, these independents just screwed up alignment, getting worse from place to place.

Went to my buddy at BMW, spent over an hour on their machine and the car is now perfect. They also charge R2400 (Lucky it didn't cost me this much in the end), but I would've gladly paid it after seeing how perfect they got the car. All various settings were in the green; the other shops don't bother getting it perfect in that same way. It really isn't a 5 minute job to get it perfect.

BTW, in my case, only BMW can do the rear wheel steering on my car, hence me going to them eventually.

 

[supertramp]

Got a quote of R2200 at BMW SMG Cape Town (Century City) to do wheel alignment and balancing on my girlfriends 2016 F20 118i. They don't call them "stealerships" for nothing. WTF !!!.

Obviously I declined to do it there.

I get the fact that dealers charge a premium but this is insane.

Even Audi that's generally insane with their prices charged me R650 for alignment and balancing when I had my TT RS.

Guess SMG Cape Town are just like any other stealership.

Have you had it done yet? If not go to Wheel Tech they have a small shop but really awesome service and a digital wheel alignment machine I paid like R500 for the wheel alignment on my Beamer

http://wheeltechsa.co.za/

:=):

 

[tman]

Got a quote of R2200 at BMW SMG Cape Town (Century City) to do wheel alignment and balancing on my girlfriends 2016 F20 118i. They don't call them "stealerships" for nothing. WTF !!!.

Obviously I declined to do it there.

I get the fact that dealers charge a premium but this is insane.

Even Audi that's generally insane with their prices charged me R650 for alignment and balancing when I had my TT RS.

Guess SMG Cape Town are just like any other stealership.

BRO tip: Grab a Hyperli (formerly Groupon) voucher for +-R200 and take it from there. Its not going to be "BMW quality" but, I promise you its not going to be 10x the price.

 

[QikNish]

That covers the 6 times you'll take the car back to them to redo it because the appy just messed it up.

 

[Peter@AEW]

Not defending BMW's pricing policies but how many know that wheel alignment should be performed with the car weighed down.

Front should have 130Kgs and rear 65Kgs.
Tyre pressures should also be set to the recommended level.

 

[MikeR]

Not defending BMW's pricing policies but how many know that wheel alignment should be performed with the car weighed down.

Front should have 130Kgs and rear 65Kgs.
Tyre pressures should also be set to the recommended level.

:rollsmile: what you are confirming Peter is that very reason why BMW charges so much - they have 4 Burly mechanics sitting in the car while one guy does the alignment. :roflol::roflol::roflol:

 

[telegamer]

Is that car not in plan....I was told at SMG that they are taking one booking a day or something because of the time involved. And it's covered under motorplan...maybe check on that

 

[TurboLlew]

Is that car not in plan....I was told at SMG that they are taking one booking a day or something because of the time involved. And it's covered under motorplan...maybe check on that

Motorplan now only covers it if it is required as part of other work that would require alignment. That's what I heard recently anyway.

 

[NitroNori]

That's the going rate since the dealers got into the wheel business. I was quoted R1700 at Northcliff for alignment and balancing when I change do tyres. It was steep so shopped around and eventually got it done at my local reputable tyre place.

 

[Nish_H]

Is that car not in plan....I was told at SMG that they are taking one booking a day or something because of the time involved. And it's covered under motorplan...maybe check on that

Motorplan now only covers it if it is required as part of other work that would require alignment. That's what I heard recently anyway.

Yeah Llew, my car was at JSN last week and they told be they no longer cover alignment unless a part is replaced.

They did however charge me only 650 for the alignment.