Brian,
Down here in London most franchised prestigious dealerships appear to have a "greed is good policy" and ultimately the customer experience and service suffers as a result of this. Stuff you'd take for granted like: customer goodwill / courtesy valet / loan service car / chauffer for service drop-off & pick-up / doing the repair 100% right the first time"¦all seem to be a real effort!
Prior to importing my Boxster from Stuttgart, I owned BMW's and always used Eastern BMW Edinburgh for servicing. Like Edinburgh OPC, Eastern always provided a first class service. I did use BMW's centres in the south east for some warranty work & a minor body shop repair but wasn't that impressed so continued to use Eastern for the main servicing.
From my BMW & Porsche ownership, I can honestly say that I've always received superior service north of the border. However, I've since discovered a good BMW centre [Sytner] for my girlfriend's car, on the outskirts of London/Essex that has impressed me so far. My girlfriend had to upgrade her 3 series saloon to a 5 series touring last year after the arrival of our baby daughter, to accommodate the pram & extra baby luggage. Anyway, at the time of typing, the car is actually over there awaiting collection on Saturday morning. After getting home from the nursery run on Wed morning, one of the balloons [pneumatic bezels] on the self-levelling rear suspension exploded resulting in the rear-end listing. Car was recovered to the "new local" BMW centre and despite 3 mechanics being off sick all week and a backlog of around 40 cars, they managed to complete the repair late Fri afternoon. I'm sure the service manager took pity on my g/f or was amused by her wit
I'm hoping to relocate back to Scotland later this year and will have more time to particate in club events now that I'm finally getting round to PCGB membership.
Andy