pre-purchase inspection- carrollton,tx area

[steven]

Can someone recommend a place to get a pre purchase inspection of a bmw -e34, in the carrollton tx area. tia

[dfwray]

[lincoln30]

I like Autoscope but for a pre-purchase inpection you can't beat Louden on Reeder Rd. Both are close to Carrollton.
You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely! - Ogden Nash

[Travelmark]

My experience with Louden. From the time I sent the first e-mail message requesting estimates took about 3 wks and multiple inquiries. An appt was scheduled within just a few days after they responded to my third e-mail request for one. For extra travel in the seats, they recommended complete seat track replacements $1,640. On the internet, I found a BMW Service bulletin to just replace a bushing - $25 for parts and 2 hrs for labor and I found out that anyone familiar with Z3 would be very familiar with the repair. I e-mailed my findings and they shrugged it off and again they it shrugged it off at pickup time. The lack of knowledge of this repair found in more than 100 entries on Z3 enthusiast forums (www.roadfly.com, www.[Oops!].com, www.waycoolinc.com) my confidence is dwindling. I also found information on the glove box repair. They blew me off on this subject to. “Stop by the dealer and pick it up yourself, it’s easy to install.”
They noticed the state inspection was coming do and as a courtesy they took care of it. Cool, since most of the inspection was completed in the maintenance I already paid for. At home I noticed they charged me $40. Going out to get into the car. The floor mat is dirty, annoying since I just had a detail. The Computer diagnostic plug is exposed and the trim cover is on the seat . . . the service writer quickly tries to reinstall the cover and breaks a piece off and tries to hide the fact before my eyes. They forgot to stamp the book. At home noticed the master cylinder exterior was newly cleaned and shiny, good sign. I pulled off the cap and found about 2mm of sentiment in the bottom. All four calipers nipples appeared as though no wrench had touched them, still a nice untouched layer of road grime and no sign of brake fluid anywhere, but no definitive proof. I found a power steering hose or pump leak underneath. No estimate or indication and no written check list.
Mark
1999 Z3 2.8 Red

[Travelmark]

Here is an update . . . after the owner got wind of my dissatisfaction; he quickly set up a follow up meeting and apologized profusely without being defensive. The service manager, owner and I discussed in detail each point of dissatisfaction. They brought the car in and double checked each item to my satisfaction. They fixed the seats at no charge for my trouble. The experience wasn’t perfect to begin with but their follow up efforts to reclaim my satisfaction were above and beyond. Thanks Louden, you have redeemed yourself in my eyes.Mark
1999 Z3 2.8 Red

[rustyh]

Just a guess, but I'm wondering if they didn't make haste to get back to you just because they were made aware you'd shared your experience with people on the net. I mean, by the looks of things it took them several months to get back with you to try and resolve the problems. You know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing even if it took several months to realize the wheel was squeaking.

But what about other customers that had experiences such as yours, i.e. attitude, incomplete work, broken (and hidden) pieces, etc? Should we really just accept that your experience was an isolated one? Call me a skeptic, but I seriously doubt it.

Think about it. Was it just bad luck that it took them so many emails before finally responding to you about an appt? Was a quote of $1,640 to fix the infamous seat rocking condition a mistake? (which btw, can be fixed very easily for around $10-$15 worth of parts). The glove-box fix is also well documented, and almost w/o cost to fix. Trim covers not being replaced almost speaks for itself. Trying to hide something you break is unforgiveable in my book.

I'm happy you ended up satisfied with Louden, but personally I wouldn't use them. And thanks for sharing all this, I need to get mine and my wife's car's into the dealer in the next 2 weeks sometime. I'm seriously doubting it will be Louden's.

And by the way, you're not the first person I've heard share stories like that. Trent