[MarkW83]

I too put BMW at the top. The dealers I've bought my cars from have always gone the extra mile e.g. on my 330d they fitted black grilles/black exhausts/black roundels/fog light bulbs/indicator bulbs/interior dash trim completely free of charge (albeit after a brief "discussion"), and also put on their own transport just for my car to get it from the docks before Christmas as they knew that's what I wanted. And all this with also giving me 12% off the car.

Service Dept. is even better: the lady I deal with can't do enough for me. On my 135i, I had a few relatively minor issues e.g. rattles, brakes squeaking, trim misaligned; she sent her head technician out to my house on 3 occasions to go on a test drive with me, and even collected and dropped off the car from my partner's work on two occasions. Again, 5* service.

I must admit that the Sales dept. weren't really forthcoming with any of the above, but after a slight push they were more than willing to keep me happy.

Anyway, sorry for thread hi-jack!! Just to give another view point as Rich did above; it really does depend only on the specific dealer and even specific person you deal with; it's not really "BMW" in general, though if there's such inconsistency, something should be done about it so that everyone does get the same experience...