Luxury German Cars, be it Audi, BMW or Mercedes, if you are seen in one, people know you are successful. However, get caught in one with the hood open on side of the road, the whole image gets shattered. So it’s essential that your luxury car gets the right maintenance and works the way it was meant to be. We got a chance to see how Deutsche Motoren dealership does the servicing and maintenance of BMW cars. Is paying the high prices of authorised dealership justified? Let’s see.
We reached the venue – Deutsche Motoren facility in Sector 63 Noida and checked out some of the beautiful cars and even cycles parked in the dealership. It is an integrated facility with dealership and servicing under one roof. Soon we were welcomed by the After Sales Service Head – Mr. Sanjay Grover who gave us a tour of the facility.
We first saw the paint booth where the step by step process of painting was shown on a hood of 5 series. It starts with denting, followed by putty to fill the gaps, smoothening of the putty, primer, primer smoothening and then final layer of paint. The painting is done in the Blowtherm Oven so that the paint finish is of the optimum level. What we saw next impressed us a little bit more – Car-O-Liner : The Body Straightening Bay. What it does is, it brings a bent car back in shape. In case of an accident where the chassis get’s bent but is repairable, the whole chassis is placed on the platform and the platform pushes the chassis back in shape. All the service engineer has to do is enter the car model and a few other details. The machine does the rest. We are not sure how many people would trust a re-straightened chassis, but for those who want it, it exists.
We moved to the next bay where we saw BMW Genuine Spares and how they are different from Non genuine parts. One should be careful while buying spares in open market because non-genuine parts can also masquerade as genuine to fool the customer and it will affect the car’s performance.
We then walked through the Service Bay which is capable of servicing 130 cars per day. Not only are there designated bays for various stages of servicing but each bay has BMW Special Tools and Special Equipment to perform the servicing. We all know that every manufacturer has their own set of screw head designs which require special tools.
We then heard a beautiful noise coming from a M4 Kitted Car as it made a dramatic entry and we saw a massive display of the M Performance engine. Yes, we have driven it on BIC, but in a closed hall, the sound was just something else. Others who had not heard the M4 before were definitely much more impressed.
We love seeing engines. We then saw the BMW 3 Series GT Engine on Display. The crankshaft of the engine had gone kaput because the regular oil change wasn’t done. We loved how well machined the pistons and other parts of the engine were.
Then came the information about BMW’s BRI (BMW Repair Inclusive)/ BSI Package (BMW Service Inclusive) package. According to BMW, buying these packages for your Beemer saves future costs.
They had BMW Accessories and BMW Lifestyle Products on display. Right from Peppy Foldable Bicycles, to Coffee Mugs; from BMW branded Stationary to Caps and Wallets.
We signed off with a signature on a bonnet, had our coffee and headed back home. It was nice to see the service experience of a BMW owner.
