EXCLUSIVE: First Mercedes, now another premium manufacturer to cancel this great customer benefit?

It does cost a tremendous amount of money to include the maintenance with the car and I wouldn't be suprised to see BMW drop it soon.

001 you have said it was a mistake for Benz to drop it, but they have had year over year sales gains without it. Lexus has never had it. I don't think it will hurt Audi when they stop.

I hope I get my new BMW soon, before they stop free maintenace. I put my deposit down for the new M3... please come out soon!

By stopping free maintenance, you are telling consumers that you don't have faith in your brand and its quality.

YugoRocks - while your assertion is valid, these companies can absorb the cost much more easily than individuals, just like insurance companies don't set premiums based on the maximum damage that each customer might cause in a year but rather based on averages for the group that the customer is in. Similarly, not all cars break down all the time; so increasing the price of the car somewhat to include maintenance is the smart thing to do, because the increase is averaged over all cars in a class and not individual ones (so the lemon is canceled out by the problem-free car).

I am not sure about it... if they sell around 1M cars per year, concurrently they are providing maintenance to 4M a year (assuming a 4 yrs/50 mi maintenance plan)... so if the cost is $100M a year, they are paying $25 per car per year... so I guess they can rebate $100 for any new cars without maintenance... (so everyone can afford a mighty german... ;-))

I do not think the lemon idea applies to maintenance... it is just regular oil, brakes, so on... the rest goes through warranty...

BTW... my last 3 series, I just need to change the oil three times... and brakes once before running out of the maintenance plan... I am sure that BMW can afford that... (And it is really nice to know they will! ).

J

I don't know how BMW and MB define "maintenance," but I got full coverage with my 2001 Audi A4 - meaning that if anything broke, it was replaced free of charge (up to 50k miles/5 years).

"
BTW... my last 3 series, I just need to change the oil three times... and brakes once before running out of the maintenance plan... I am sure that BMW can afford that... (And it is really nice to know they will! )."

I'll bet you paid for more than that. You should ask for a refund. Had you not had the maintenance plan, the price of the car should have been lower, you would have paid less for the same service.

At least by BMW specs, full coverage is divided in two:

Warranty: covers if anything breaks

Maintenance: covers items affected by regular use (oil, brakes, wipers, fluids, etc.)

Actually, you can be buy both separately (specially when you are extending them).

I will be interesting to know how much MB reduced prices when cancelled the free maintenance program... I bet nothing...

"Those who can buy a MB, those who require less expensive vehicles buy a BMW..." Yeah.. those who know nothing about cars and buy status, buy MB. C'mon man overcharging rich people for inferior cars should be illegal. :)

Looks like this isn't a rumor anymore....Got a sales letter from AoA regarding the Q7...Read the "offer" about dealer maintainence... Dealer maintanence will be $550 for 4 years moving forward. It use to be included with the vehicle purchase...If you pre-order the Q7, however, you get it for free.<br><br><br>
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Dear XXXXX,<br><br><br>
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If you count yourself among the first thousand people to call the all-new 2007 Audi Q7 4.2 your own, you can count on four years of regularly scheduled maintenance visits being covered because the Audi Care new vehicle maintenance package � a retail value of $550 � will be on us. Audi Care covers regularly scheduled maintenance appointments at 15K, 25K, 35K and 45K service intervals, or four years, whichever comes first. In order to qualify for this special offer, the first thing you need to do is � hurry. You'll need to be one of the first 1,000 to order your Audi Q7 4.2 before May 15th and take delivery before December 31st, 2006. Find out more about this offer, Audi Care, and, of course, this groundbreaking vehicle, at your Audi dealer.

Some Lexus dealers include scheduled maintenance for their customers – mine covers all manufacturer recommended stuff for 25,000 miles – that’s the 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25K services. Plus I get loaner cars for any service and free pickup and delivery service. Now THAT’S luxury service.