most of the vehicles i've owned in my life have been gm products. and almost all of those have come from one dealership. i'm not even going to try to list them all but i'll say that there have been a few. my vehicles, erin's vehicles and nearly every one of my commercial vehicles have come from Jim Winter Auto Group. it's fair to say, they know me there and treat me pretty well.
two years ago, the lease on erin's gmc yukon was about to expire. we looked pretty hard for something to replace it. we knew that we wanted a smaller, more efficient suv but just didn't like the looks of what gm had to offer. so, we made the choice to try something new.
the first step into bmw of ann arbor had us convinced that the X5 was the vehicle for us. not because of any salesman trickery, because it had everything we wanted: it was smaller, had seating for 7, ipod integration and a huge sunroof just to mention a few. sure, it was a little more money, but we felt it was worth it for what we got: 5 years no cost scheduled maintenance on a premium vehicle with premium features and premium service. they even provide loaners on service days! and once a year they do a complete interior and exterior detail. at least, that's what we were told...
a year and 9 months in and we've had some trouble. the last time the car went in for service, it took 9 hours to perform an oil change. sure, they gave erin a loaner but told her it would only be a couple of hours. with not enough time to drive home and back she went to the mall to kill a few hours then took the loaner back. my pregnant wife sat in the waiting area until 6:00pm. i was not happy. they told her that it took so long because they had to charge the battery. they continued on to tell her that she wasn't driving the vehicle enough to keep the battery charged and recommended installing a battery charger because, of course, batteries aren't covered by the no cost maintenance plan! not driving it enough? the car is less than 2 years old and has over 30,000 miles on it! i'm not sure how we could drive it much more!
this week, the problem arose again. as erin and i got ready to head to the hospital for our ultrasound on monday, the bmw would not start. the battery was dead. once i got it charged, it showed all kinds of errors. in particular, a "transmission malfunction." i called and left a message for the service department at bmw of ann arbor explaining the problem and asking for a call back as soon as possible the next morning. by 10:30 the next morning, i called again as i had heard nothing from them. i was told that i could bring the car in at my convenience but that a loaner wouldn't be available until monday. yes, they told me to drive a car with "transmission malfunction" from spring arbor to ann arbor. again i was not happy. after several phone calls and an "i'll have to talk to my manager" they were able to send someone with a loaner to pick up our car.
the next morning the diagnosis was that we had bumped the turn signal which somehow turned the parking lights which, in turn, drained the battery. no one can seem to tell me why the car showed a "transmission malfunction" other than to say that the low battery must have "messed up" the car's computer. to make matters worse, they again stated that we weren't driving the car enough to keep the battery charged and suggested we put a charger on the car at night to "keep this kind of thing from happening again." that's right, plug the car in every night. i laughed at him, thanked him for his time and hung up the phone.
so, a quick trip to visit our friends at Jim Winter Auto Group reassured me that it's time to go back to what we know. we've found a car on the lot that will suit us just fine and i can't tell you how good it feels to be supporting the local economy and local people with this purchase. i'll miss the X5 (because i truly loved that car) but i'll sleep well tonight knowing that i'll never have to deal with bmw of ann arbor's "premium" service again.
and, for the record, our bmw never did get that full detailing that we were promised.
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