value of FSH at BMW

[whattingh]

Ok so My E39 i have got recently have a full service history at BMW.
Now my question is in terms in resale value would it be worth it to try and keep that service history at BMW....? Service will be done at Donford Stellenbosch if I'm going to do this

I plan to drive the car for at least a few years.

 

[P1000]

On an old car like that, its not worth it IMO. It will cost you more to keep it than the potential gains when the time comes to sell...

 

[Jandre]

I agree. On those cars a full service history at a BMW dealership is not the end all and be all. I couldn't be bothered with a BMW service stamp on my e36 or the e34.

I do however feel that a service history from a reputable mechanic is worth its weight in gold.

 

[Adi]

Service at BMW? Hmm look on HelloPeter, and the forum here what can go wrong! If I had the option would ask them to remove any motor-plan, will take the car without rather. The do not have mechanics, rather fault finders and parts re-placers.....would not want them to touch my car!

 

[Fordkoppie]

They dont even have fault finders. If the diagnostic machine says it is ok, they say it is ok even if it is not.
They are just idiotic "lets replace this and hope the problem goes away" part fitters.

 

[whattingh]

I do believe you guys are right. BUT to find that reputable trustworthy mechanic is hard. I have to start looking around in the stellenbosch and Summerset West area as I will be moving to there next year and is already working in stellenbosch. I have only I heard good things of Donford. The car went in for inspection 1 this morning at Donford and will se how things go.

At the moment there is no workshop that I trust.

I plan to do oil changes every 10k kms or so but wil do that myself. Maybe I will just service the car myself from a-z.

 

[Bayn46]

I doubt that the extra cost of having it serviced at BMW will help with the resale of the vehicle i.e. you might get a bit more for the car on resale but you would have spent a pretty penny on servicing/repairs at BMW.

Pity you are in the northern suburbs, there is a great service center out southern suburbs side.

 

[BMW M]

My Brother In Law got a quote for a Inspection II & gearbox service from BMW: R11 300 for his '97 540i. He then took the car to Goosey @ BW TECH in Springs, had the services done and a few minor niggles sorted and it cost him R9 800. I cant justify that cost for a service on an older car like that. And you will definately not recover the cost when you sell the car.

 

[speeddemon]

I doubt that the extra cost of having it serviced at BMW will help with the resale of the vehicle i.e. you might get a bit more for the car on resale but you would have spent a pretty penny on servicing/repairs at BMW.

Pity you are in the northern suburbs, there is a great service center out southern suburbs side.

Care to share?? Where about?

 

[Bayn46]

I doubt that the extra cost of having it serviced at BMW will help with the resale of the vehicle i.e. you might get a bit more for the car on resale but you would have spent a pretty penny on servicing/repairs at BMW.

Pity you are in the northern suburbs, there is a great service center out southern suburbs side.

Care to share?? Where about?

Bruce's spares near Kenilworth center (can send you the details if you want). Had my steering pump replaced their and had my exhaust secured (one of the brackets broke) but all in all the turn-around time is great. They specialize in BMW without the crazy stealership prices and are accredited with BMW for parts, etc.

 

[speeddemon]

oh...yep i know where they are but haven't used them yet only for buying spares:thumbsup:

 

[Mamba]

I agree fully that it is a misconception that a BMW service plan will mean anything. The only advantage of a motor plan is that it does not cost the customer anything for a few years, but BMW can rather give me the spares I will fit it myself.

 

[BeeEm]

Does FSH mean anything other than the various stamps by the dealer on the BMW service book? Should this not state major items replaced, e.g. water pump. This type of info would be useful for a prospective buyer, I think.

 

[zaleonardz]

Screw it, the car is worth R2.50 anyway no matter how you looked after it, if you have full dealer service on a car with 250,000+ on the clock, instead of being worth R2.50 it may be worth R2.80. Either which way, you will not see that value return, combined with the fact that BMW can service 10 cars within an hour ... does not inspire convidence...

 

[Mamba]

Does FSH mean anything other than the various stamps by the dealer on the BMW service book? Should this not state major items replaced, e.g. water pump. This type of info would be useful for a prospective buyer, I think.

absolutely not, if you do not complain about water pump noise or the pump sound like a boeing when you take your car for service nothing will be done to the pump..! dealerships are a sausage machine, the quicker it comes in the quicker they want to get it out and money in the bank, that it, which is very sad

the only advantage I can see buying a car with FSH is that you can get a print out of the complete history of work that was done on the car, maybe this can be helpful to see what was NOT done on the car..

after my car ran out of service plan I started to do maintenance myself, it was scary how visible components, like the guibo which was cracked, was ignored. I would rather buy a car from somebody (a fanatic.. ) who can supply me with invoices for all the work that was done on the car

 

[whattingh]

Ok after some thought and what have been said here I have decided that agents is not the way to go anymore.

I do always keep a book on the car i have that have when everything was done, cost, parts when kms etc and with the invoices. Even diy stuff go in the book.

The car is sorted for now. It just got a inspection one service. Next oil change is definitly going to be diy.

For some people a stamp in the service book mean something so I'm going to do what I saw I think on here, make my own stamp.

 

[andrewbuch]

make my own stamp.

http://www.rubberstampsa.co.za/

cost R166 for a stamp with company name, address, cell number & email address

 

[Sankekur]

FSH only has a point on a relatively new car with low mileage, its just a way for people to see that he car has been well maintained up till now (yeah right, dealers couldn't even check tyre pressure correctly it seems). On older cars it has much less of a value if any as a car that has say more than 100k km on the clock is is reasonable to assume that it had survived the perils of being serviced under motorplan and that it had to have been reasonably maintained to have reached this amount of km's, and the value only decreases as the km's increase, at 300k km whether a car has a FSH or not is kinda redundant as something had to be done right for the car to have reached that kind of km's. This is of course how it is supposed to work, but in reality people will still want to know whether a car has a FSH irrelevant of the km's, because people are dumb.

 

[whattingh]

Well I always seen it I a person has a FSH as put in some effort too maintain the car. So form of papertrail can tell if the car was looked after but no paper trail you have no idea what he say is true. Yes paper trail could be fake but a person that dont take care of the car is not going to worry about paper trail.