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Comment by mulmen | Hacker News Reader

Based on personal experience I would happily support legislation that allows vehicle owners to record or supervise mechanics.

Pro tip: ask to see any parts that were “replaced” on your vehicle.

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They can just show you any part they want as long as it’s plausible. If they’re gojng to be dishonest about parts they might as well have the previous car’s parts avail., or just go ahead say your part is bad even if it’s still got milage on it left.

It raises the bar in a reasonable manner. You’re the paying customer, after all.

Agreed. Now, if I was given any (expensive) parts replaced, then it would be a bit more credible. Otherwise, they could have a whole box of 'replaced parts' that they routinely show customers as a to operate their fraud. But they won't let you take them; their excuse will be that they will be recycled as 'core'.

If you have to ask to see the parts being replaced at a branded dealer, BMW in this case, then you need to find a new dealer. In my experience the big dealers and especially luxury ones do no do this. The ones without a brand in the name and have something like “Luxury Motor” are the ones that do this.

I was quoted $15,000.00 in unnecessary repairs to my BMW by the local BMW dealer. A local shop with a generic name fixed the problem for $200.00. The dealer installed new spark plugs with improper gaps and charged me to replace fuel injectors and coils but the installed parts were revisions that had been obsolete for years. Either the dealer installed the wrong part or did no work at all.

BMW dealers are NOT inherently trustworthy.

Agreed on needing to find a new dealer, I will only buy another BMW if I move to a state with a trustworthy dealer. Unfortunately Washington has none.

BMWs MO has always been to just replace everything vs fixing a part. I had a belt tensioner out and they wanted to completely upgrade the belt system to a newer one that was more reliable. It was a sub $200 part vs a $3000 fix.

Expensive and probably unnecessary but I seriously doubt they would do fishy things to parts that required an inspection by the customer.

You don’t understand. There was nothing wrong with my car. They screeed up a basic maintenance task (new spark plugs) and caused a computer code for a misfire. They misdiagnosed this as a bent valve and told me I needed a new head. In reality I needed two spark plugs gapped.

I understand throwing parts at a problem but they misdiagnosed a simple issue so badly that I suspect malice.

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