I had a horrible experience with Cliff's BMW in Danbury CT on a repair of a leaking transmission input shaft seal. They were slow, non-responsive and the workmanship was poor. I was curious if others have had similar problems and also what alternatives are there for service. The people at Canton Cycles appear to be nice to deal with but the 50 mile distance is less than favorable.
Cliff's BMW repair experience
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168 Posts
Ktran:
I have not had any experience with Cliff's. However just my opinion on dealer service in general. They are there to make money and they are not emotionally attached to the vehicle like us. Also they will repair machines from their experience from doing the job many times. This may mean that they will cut corners because one they know they can and two it makes them money. I am not saying every dealer works like this but many do. It is not that they intentionally want to do it wrong it is the way the service dept. and the dealer is set up. Not one dealer wants to turn work away. When they are busy they will go faster and when you go faster things get overlooked. Nothing will compare to you working on your own machine. And for what it is worth alot of people like Canton. I have had work done there and just my experience with them they do not stand out above the rest. They do have a couple of technicians that have been wrenching on Beemers for a long time. What will make your service experience better for you is to clearly state what it is you want done and what you expect. Don't be rude or act like you know more than them just let them know that you are looking for them to perform the work correctly. A big example many times after getting your bike back from a service check some of the torque values on bolts that were supposed to have been torqued to a certain value. You will find they are not close. I try to as much as possible and use the dealer for warranty work or when specialty tools come into play.
Good Luck
Bruce
I have not had any experience with Cliff's. However just my opinion on dealer service in general. They are there to make money and they are not emotionally attached to the vehicle like us. Also they will repair machines from their experience from doing the job many times. This may mean that they will cut corners because one they know they can and two it makes them money. I am not saying every dealer works like this but many do. It is not that they intentionally want to do it wrong it is the way the service dept. and the dealer is set up. Not one dealer wants to turn work away. When they are busy they will go faster and when you go faster things get overlooked. Nothing will compare to you working on your own machine. And for what it is worth alot of people like Canton. I have had work done there and just my experience with them they do not stand out above the rest. They do have a couple of technicians that have been wrenching on Beemers for a long time. What will make your service experience better for you is to clearly state what it is you want done and what you expect. Don't be rude or act like you know more than them just let them know that you are looking for them to perform the work correctly. A big example many times after getting your bike back from a service check some of the torque values on bolts that were supposed to have been torqued to a certain value. You will find they are not close. I try to as much as possible and use the dealer for warranty work or when specialty tools come into play.
Good Luck
Bruce
Joined
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38 Posts
Service with a smile
To quote the late Rick Moran, a member who was a BMW enthusiast aside from being service mgr at Adventure BMW: "Don't waste my time telling me what the problem is unless you plan to work here, tell me what problem you are having with the bike so we can duplicate and document it. Then we can start troubleshooting". And this is where a lot of bike owners get off to a bad start to begin with. Get to personally know your dealer tech before forming opinions, there are more good ones than bad in my opinion. They are a lot like you & me usually.
This guy was a senior Navy helo tech as I recall and a meticulous aviation technician himself so I took his advice seriously.
To quote the late Rick Moran, a member who was a BMW enthusiast aside from being service mgr at Adventure BMW: "Don't waste my time telling me what the problem is unless you plan to work here, tell me what problem you are having with the bike so we can duplicate and document it. Then we can start troubleshooting". And this is where a lot of bike owners get off to a bad start to begin with. Get to personally know your dealer tech before forming opinions, there are more good ones than bad in my opinion. They are a lot like you & me usually.
This guy was a senior Navy helo tech as I recall and a meticulous aviation technician himself so I took his advice seriously.
Try Max BMW in Troy, NY. I moved from South Portland, ME to Hyde Park, VT alittle over a year ago and used to go to Max in N. Hampton, NH. Always had excellant service. A couple of weeks ago I called Tony in NY to see about a pick up for my bike. No problem. There is a charge if you're over 75 miles away but everything worked out great. Got the bike back in a week and they even washed it.
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