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Contrary to other views, who seem critical of German dealers, surely a charge, if it's a case of NFF, is justified? The dealer staff are spending time on investigating a 'fault' which may not exist or not be of a serious nature/covered by warranty, so someone should pay if the fault does not exist?
I've experienced this charge with a Mini under the same BMW used warranty. Car had a bad misfire, and was discovered to be a broken piston. Was told that I could be liable for strip down costs if the cause of the misfire was due to poor maintenance (ie: lack of oil) or other non-manufacturing cause.
It's a tough call, as you call Mini/BMW Emergency, they diagnose/confirm misfire, want to take the car to the dealer for investigation as it has warranty. Understandable, as you cant take it elsewhere, have someone tinker and then expect BMW to pick up the pieces. Luckily there was lots of aluminium swarf and a bit missing from the piston! Cut & dried case, though I had a plan B for a replacement engine had it not covered the £6k cost. Also had BMW's master tech spend 45min diagnosing a differential whine on a 10 month old BMW which was covered by initial 3 yr warranty, at no cost to me. I even waived the offer of a hire car as I tend to work from home, and it would have been pointless.
The charge is a backside covering tactic by dealers, no more, no less. Seen it with other manufacturers too who want to change upwards of £80 to attach a computer to read the stored fault codes.
Smaller garages tend not to charge for diagnosis, charging seems to be a main dealer tactic. In the case raised by the OP, the car has the balance of the 3 year original warranty, but if the dealer gets stuffy, go to another dealer.
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