It's not just BMW Dealerships, its most dealerships no matter what the make!!!!
I was an auto mechanic for about 15 years, mostly at dealerships. Auto mechanics called technicians at the Dealerships are paid piece work or a flate rate.
Example: a (A tech.) making 20.00 per hour, does not get paid 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. They get a 35 hour guarantee for the week. so with that, they get paid by the job that they are doing, example: an oil change pays them .5 hours, a 15,000 mile service (tune-up) pays 3.5 hours, front & rear brakes 4.5 hours. So the more jobs they sell, the more money they make, hence the DEALERSHIP makes! A technician can make 60 to 70 hours of pay in a 40 hour week depending on how much piece work is performed. On the other hand, some times they only make 20 hours of piece work in a 40 hour week & this where the guarantee comes in. If they make less than 35 hours worth of piece work in a 40 hour week, they get paid 35 hours of pay @ 20.00 an hour!
I once worked @ this Acura dealership and business got slow, for months we were just collecting our 35 hour guarantee. So they were going to be layoffs unless production picked up. There were 6 techs, so I thought we would be laid off in seniority order. They decided to layoff each tech according to their production %, so if your production was the lowest you were the first to go.
I was # 5 in seniority, out of the 6 the techs, but I was the first one to get laid off. The # 6 tech's productivity was better than mine, the reason: He was not a better mechanic than me!
Plain & Simple he was a CROOK .......
Back in the early 90's, Acura just had about 3 models, the Legend, the Integra & the NSX.The CROOK had in his workbench draw, a set of worn brake pads for each model, a set of worn spark plugs for each model & dirty filty air filter for each model etc. So when you brought your car in for a tire rotation & inspection & everything checked OK! He would show you all these dirty & worn parts that were not yours to begin with, & then tell you, you need FRONT & REAR BRAKES & A TUNE-UP!!!
FRONT & REAR BRAKES = 4.5 HOURS @ THE DEALER LABOR RATE @ ABOUT $90.00 an hour, plus a 300% mark up on the parts!!!
TUNE-UP = 3.5 HOURS @ THE DEALER LABOR RATE @ ABOUT $90.00 an hour, plus a 300% mark up on the parts!!! So you do the Math!!! cha' ching', cha' ching'!!!!!
They are there to make $$$$$MONEY$$$$$$, however they can!!!!!