I am in a tug of war with the BMW dealer and my extended warranty company and was wondering if anyone had access to the bmw labor guides or mitchell labor guides for the a/c compressor, alternator, rack and pinion, drivers door latch cable, valve cover gasket, and right front strut mount r&r. According to BMW, my extended warranty wouldn't pay their labor in full because it differed from the labor guide times (mitchell) that the warranty company used. Also BMW told me that they used their "BMW Warranty" labor guide. Well the extended warranty conmpany told me that if BMW can show them the labor times then they would would pay the differences. So I'm not sure if the dealer is trying to strangle me and my warranty company for everything they can (if anybody is wondering this is Mini of Nashville that's doing the work and this is my first dealings with them so any info on the reliability of them would be helpful). The difference in money is almost $1000 and I keep getting these contradicting statements from both the warranty company who says BMW is using Mitchell labor guides and BMW says that this is all the warranty company said they would pay. Once the car was finished and the warranty company had paid the dealer, they were pretty pushy in insisting that I go ahead and pay them and just get the warranty company to pay me back, I know better than that, I mean I'm a technician myself so I understand how the labor times work but I'm not working at a shop and don't have any access to labor times so any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

At the dealer that I worked at, if it was past warranty, there was a multiplier used. Out of warranty labor = warranty rate X 1.6

That's what the problem is....I've dealt with warranty companys and distrust all of them, but usually they are spot on with the labor times because they use Mitchell or maybe Chilton's labor guide.

Also, I distrust the warranty companys so much that I don't let a car leave my shop if the bill hasn't been paid....period. Problem is that the warranty company's usually going to take between 30-60 days to pay. So the customer, if they want the car back has to pay me and get paid back by the warranty company. No leverage once the car is gone.

 

I am no help on the labor hours but I have had nothing but good experience with MINI of Nashville. I have only been there for warranty work but they were great and even overlooked my mods when doing warranty work.

 

The extended warranties only pay the factory labor times. The dealer is raising the labor times to their "customer pay price" That is an on going fight we all have. If your having so much trouble, we are happy to honor your extended warranty, just have to bring the car to us. With all that work the dealer should be happy to get the work. Give us a call if you need any help.

WAY

 

Way,

From what I've seen, the factory rate(warranty) differs from the guide that every warranty company uses. They use the more industry standard rate from Mitchell or Chiltons....