I also feel BMW should call to remind upcoming appoint as they may not know what's on iDrive but I am sure they know "max limit service date". Most cars are chauffeur driven and those guys miss the reminders on iDrive, etc.
BMW cars offer condition based servicing (CBS) and customers typically say NO to everything that is not required by CBS. This does not mean service person should not do a thorough check and recommend what is needed but it does create a bias in the mids of the dealer to be less pro-active. This does make owning BMW a bit cheaper
You will also see Mercedes customers complaining about too many jobs included in the estimate. Though the customer can always decline the jobs, most just accept whatever the dealer recommends. I agree with you, I too prefer the dealer doing a thorough check and recommending a list of jobs to be done and allowing me to decline unnecessary items.
Mercedes also has more mature processes in place. I notice this difference in all aspects of their after sales experience: the front office staff, pick-up/drop personnel, follow up calls, warranty/insurance claim processing, parts availability, involvement of MB technical team and escalations, etc.
However when things go wrong (beyond routine servicing), the local dealership and the particular employee you deal with matter the most. In this respect, it is a complete toss up between the two.
To conclude, Mercedes is relatively better organised but it is mostly cosmetics. They are nearly the same when it comes to stuff that really matters: reliability, cost of ownership, redressal of customer complaints, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by el lobo 6061 German cars by design take in FRESH Air even when you set the HVAC to Re-Circulation mode.
Both my car X1 and Vento have the same thing. Reason being stale recirculated air is bad which is why after a certain interval fresh air input is required. |
This I am not sure. They do not take fresh air in recirculation mode. However they turn on/off recirculation mode under certain condition which is different from letting fresh air when the AC is set to recirculation mode. For instance when you put the car in reverse, they turn on recirculation mode. The turn off recirculation mode when you drive for extended period in recirculation mode. If you are getting outside air when the recirculation mode LED is on, then it is a problem to be fixed. To complicate things further, BMW also has "automatic recirculation" mode that uses sensors to decide when to block outside air, etc. I don't use this mode as I want to be in control of when to block outside air.