While I was at my local dealership today I asked the guy at the service counter how much it would cost for them to enable my onboard computer. I can currently get the temp. and MPH. He told me that "they haven't done that in a long time but they could do it and it would only take them an hour or so and the standard reprograming fee was $100." Correct me if I am wrong but I thought this was a quick procedure. Plug in and a few clicks later OBC activated. $100 is a little pricey to know what my average mpg is.

Has anyone else had this done to their car? How much did your dealer charge you? How long did it take?

I live in Buffalo. Anyone have recomendations for a dealer who will do this cheaper? So far every experience I have had with my dealer has been bad. The guys in the parts dept. are nasty and seem to only like the people who drive BMW and the sales staff don't know much about the cars they are selling. ok I'm done ranting now.
Thanks for any input,
Jeremy

 

What year is the car, if really early it may not have the OBC to do all of that, my '02 doesn't. I only get outside air temp.

 

Cheaper than it was as a factory option.


Also many places charge min 1 hr of shop time or $150....
So a pretty good deal...welcome to the world of stealerships...
Dealers have huge overheads to pay for, beyond a standard shop...
That "free coffe", flat screen, x-box....all costs in the lounge...

 

way back when I bought my 02 new off the lot they gave one reprogramming for 'free' and anything after that was something like $50 .... you could change one thing or 10, the programming fee was the same, but there was a charge.

One of the nice changes in the GEN2 was the ability to make most of the comon changes w/out needed the dealer.

 

Mine is an 05. I understand that they have overhead and that no dealer is cheap. I just really didn't expect it to be that much. I am looking to buy a cable and get the software and do it myself. There are a few other things I would like to change other than the OBC. I really just wanted to rant yesterday.

 

Let me know how you make out with that. I've done very limited searching to find it.

 

$100 is pretty standard for MINI Dealers. You are basically paying just for the labor cost, which is charged in hour increments (also they have to schedule the appointment as an hour of work). If they really want to play by the book, it's more like $150. The advisor may give you a deal (my last master key programming was free, because I'm a regular), but that's at their discretion to go against BMW's protocol, if it will keep the customer coming back.

 

Are you talking about Towne MINI/BMW? For them, $100 for a reprogramming is probably a good deal.

 

You will be hard pressed to find a dealership charging less than an hours labor for programming, and for most that means 120 an hour. Where I work that is what the price would be

It was 120 for the JCW flash where I got mine, and it did take basically the whole hour to do.

 

Just wanted to update folks on this thread.
My dealership wants $250!!!

 

The whole 1 hour or $100 is pretty standard at most all dealers not just MINI.

 

My dealer MAG did this for me gratis. We have a very good dealer here. Free is good.

 

That was my thought, I remember paying $250 for that as an option.