36654
New member
My wife gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. The auto correct drives me crazy.
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Supporting My Local BMW Dealers
- Thread starter bobs_one
- Start date
My wife gave me a Kindle Fire for Christmas. The auto correct drives me crazy.
36654
New member
New Philadelphia, PA is on US 209 just northeast of Pottsville,
Yeah, but no BMW dealer..........
I assumed the auto correct bit him. The dealer in New Philadephia, OH (home of the fighting Quakers) is Mathias BMW and has good reputation.
36654
New member
Hermy's is a good dealership. It's my "go to" shop.
Support Your Dealer.
I'm fortunate to have done business with Hermys in Port Clinton, PA. for 48 years and I never get gouged. They always treat me fairly and the cost of tires meets or beats all the internet prices. The same is true for any service work and in fact, sometimes I will request something and they will look up the service history and tell me It has already been done, rather than just taking my money. Almost 50 years with the same dealer and I can't say enough good things about them... A couple of Krauts taking care of an old Kraut (and resident pain in the ass).
I'm fortunate to have done business with Hermys in Port Clinton, PA. for 48 years and I never get gouged. They always treat me fairly and the cost of tires meets or beats all the internet prices. The same is true for any service work and in fact, sometimes I will request something and they will look up the service history and tell me It has already been done, rather than just taking my money. Almost 50 years with the same dealer and I can't say enough good things about them... A couple of Krauts taking care of an old Kraut (and resident pain in the ass).
bwalker33467
New member
Question:
Are you saying if a brick & mortar quotes more than online they're a "bad" tire shop?
As for a BMW Certified mounting and balancing a tire... If you're not employed in the motorcycle industry you may not realize how difficult competent people are to get. Combine that with someone who actually cares about what they're doing it becomes an exceptionally difficult task to accomplish. Most motorcyclists tend to be pretty picky about who works on their bike. I've been involved in the motorcycle business for 35 years and I've never hired a minimum wage individual to perform customer work in the shop. It's not worth the risk. Both from a safety point of view as well as potential financial risk.
Scratching one or two rims a month will destroy any type of profit you may have made as you discover the so-called tire changer has scratched someone's rim. Even worse if you have someone running some trick composite rims. Should this be happening? Of course not. But it is reality with so many new hires despite having graduated from a tech school or having gone through in-house training. And of course there are the wheels where tires have been installed backwards. We probably see that every week of the year and these were tires installed by others.
I have a policy where we only allow experienced people to work on our customers motorcycles. Your idea is great in theory but reality puts it into a different light. I truly wish it weren't so. But my experience has shown you will almost never have someone complain about a highly experienced tech working on their bike even if it is "just" a tire installation. In fact, most prefer "tire changers" to stay away from their bike. YMMV
If the dealership also removes and installs the wheels, the task gets a bit more complicated. If you remove the rear wheel on my last bike, you needed to lube the splines in the rear with moly grease. Forget it, and the rear end wore out in a few thousand miles at a cost of over $1000.
Chris
Chris
36654
New member
What model was that?
pglaves
#13338
You post with great authority but your profile absolutely fails to provide any bona fides that suggest this is warranted or tells us who you are. So by necessity I am compelled to take what you say with a grain of salt or maybe even deep suspicion. Solve this dillemma for me and fill out your profile and let us who what shop you are now at.
bwalker33467
New member
Actually, if a dealer "screws it up" BMW NA will do nada, nothing, zippo. Every business on the planet makes mistakes. Customers are surprised when a dealer makes a mistake on their motorcycle; a.k.a. "how could you do that?", or, perhaps "I can't believe it". What is important is how a dealer backs up their mistake.
As far as BMW NA is concerned they will not do anything for a dealer error. Does this mean they never have? I imagine they have in certain scenarios but don't count on it.
In fact, what is a fairly common scenario is when BMW NA declines a warranty repair the dealer steps up to the plate and eats the repair. NA is well aware the dealer doesn't want to risk offending the customer if at all possible and corporate gets off scotfree.
Another interesting scenario is when the O.E.M. expects shared participation in the repair cost. Despite the fact the dealer had zero to do with the manufacture of the vehicle the O.E.M. may be willing to goodwill a repair if the dealer is willing to bear a portion of the cost along with the customer willing to bear a portion.
bwalker33467
New member
An excellent point. Very few business people would be willing to make the required investment in a motorcycle dealership, very high 6 figures and into 7 figures, for the miserable returns involved. The internet has done its best to make it even worse although it is certainly no responsibility of the customer to help a dealer stay in business. But make no mistake when you have a local dealer go out of business that customer base is affected and usually not for the better, short term at least.
Large internet houses, some of them owned by motorcycle parts & accessory wholesale distributors, are looking to add incremental revenue to their bottom line and they hurt the locals by doing so. Long story short if you're a Euro dealer operating with multiple franchises you are not getting rich by anyone's definition but you do assume an incredible amount of financial risk, a risk most people would not be willing to assume. If at all possible try to support your qualified local dealer or a qualified independent and stay away from internet purchases. Many of these people work extremely hard to do you right. And none of them are making a whole lot of money doing it.
36654
New member
Hmm......and the local dealer will show up at your place of employment and ask your boss to give you a raise?
As Sears and Roebuck replaced the general store, and Walmart displaced K-Mart and Sears.....the internet (Amazon & such) has displaced mail order and brick & mortar.
With each change, the customer eliminates the economic inefficiencies associated with the middlemen between the manufacturer and the customer.
Local dealer
I have purchased tires from dealer had dealer install them got one really cheap tire from dealer because in their mind was to old in my mind it was not have purchased tires off internet cheaper because one got discontinued model or a cheaper tire than what they normally carry. Now the cheapest install I can find is $50 if I take the wheel off and take old tire when done. If you take bike for some of the routine service you hardly notice that extra $ to put tires on. At least 4 times a year they have a really nice open house,chili cook off contest holiday party etc. usually a parts discount and always meet nice people and a free meal hard to put a value on something that gives you the opportunity to make new friends. Plus I am lucky they are 50 miles away next 2 it's 150 mile so next Saturday I will be at gateway bmw open house, hopefully when wife lets me buy new bike they will be still be open.
I have purchased tires from dealer had dealer install them got one really cheap tire from dealer because in their mind was to old in my mind it was not have purchased tires off internet cheaper because one got discontinued model or a cheaper tire than what they normally carry. Now the cheapest install I can find is $50 if I take the wheel off and take old tire when done. If you take bike for some of the routine service you hardly notice that extra $ to put tires on. At least 4 times a year they have a really nice open house,chili cook off contest holiday party etc. usually a parts discount and always meet nice people and a free meal hard to put a value on something that gives you the opportunity to make new friends. Plus I am lucky they are 50 miles away next 2 it's 150 mile so next Saturday I will be at gateway bmw open house, hopefully when wife lets me buy new bike they will be still be open.
chiba
hack'd
I've watched my boss - a fully certified BMW master tech for nearly two decades - put hundreds of tires on hundreds of wheels. He uses a big tire machine that runs off hydraulic pressure, forced air of some sort and magic, I think. The thing scares the crap out of me, like it's something from a Stephen King book. In the last few years of watching him run that machine, he's scratched a scant handful of wheels and it guts him every time. Anybody whose wheel he's scratched gets their tires installed for free, usually until they start insisting that they have forgotten all about the transgression and force him to take payment for the work again.
I think with a ton of practice I could get comfortable running that machine, but until then, it would be professionally irresponsible of him to let me put tires on a customer's wheels, and this is proven out by the fact that the only wheels I have touched are my own and those belonging to my brother's motorcycle. When I did my brother's tires, I made the boss watch me like a hawk because I was completely paranoid about damaging his shiny black wheels.
In other words, if I was the boss, I would never put the newest, lowest-paid person in the shop on the tire machine. Ever. Too risky. Those big shop machines are nothing like the fully-manual rigs many of us have at home in our garages or basements - like a No-Mar or something like that. You can damage a wheel with one of those and they're run completely on human arm power! I think a lot of people don't understand how powerful those big tire machines are.
We all want the work done on our motorcycles to be done to the highest levels of quality, but at the lowest price possible. These two concepts don't always mesh, especially when you throw in the factor of wanting the work done as quickly as possible! I admit to sticker shock the first time I purchased a set of tires from and had them installed by a BMW dealer. Yet the other (non-BMW) shops in my area charge relatively high rates for tire changes, especially if you ride the bike in. One shop I know of will charge you $130 to put on a rear tire whether you ride the bike in or bring the wheel in off the bike - and they steadfastly refuse to install any tire not purchased at their shop. As much as their customers complain about it, they still keep getting their tire work done there. I guess they figure $130 plus the cost of the tire once every year or so outweighs the value of buying the tire online and doing the installation themselves. It's clear from this thread that a lot of folks are on the other side of that value equation.
36654
New member
How would this tire changer differ from the ubiquitous pneumatic Coats machines found in many garages since the 1940's, if not earlier?
chiba
hack'd
It may well be a Coats. I found one on their website that's similar to the one in the shop. Next time I'm there I'll take a closer look at the branding. http://www.coatsgarage.com/tire-cha...oats-motorcycle-tire-changer-model-rc-150-200
36654
New member
If you've ever tried to pry a farm tractor tire off of a rim, you'll look at a Coats (or similar) machine with nothing but heart felt love and affection............
chiba
hack'd
I hope I never have to work on a tractor!! They're kind of big and scaryIf you've ever tried to pry a farm tractor tire off of a rim, you'll look at a Coats (or similar) machine with nothing but heart felt love and affection............
I've done car & SUV tires on this little machine - couldn't balance them, but could change them.
36654
New member
Experience..........Gaining enough knowledge to know what you don't want to do for a living
akbeemer
SURVIVOR
I spent four years in high school and college working in truck tire shops. Roadside service calls, three and two piece split rims and recapping truck tires. Taught me that school was a good idea. The older guys that I worked with and who taught me the ropes were hard men that knew they were trapped in the job forever.
