I remember advising you against owning a bimmer in CH some time ago ... I was fortunate enough to have good service experience with my previous car here but the arrogance and attitude of the BMW sales people around pricing/ discounts or even offering extra's turned me off.. not sure I will buy another BMW...Audi and AMAG is superb on the other hand..customer service almost as good as what I was used to at US foreign car dealerships

Neuenhof is a good garage - they replaced the clutch on my 3-series in the 90s for free.

UK-plated car six months out of warranty. Say Hi to Nils, he speaks excellent English.

For any product, it's about luck. I'd have left with a loaner for the duration (Swiss passport seems to help) but, on the other hand, I have travel insurance to cover that so one way or the other, I'd be covered.

Car to Paris though I'd go +1 to avoid. TGV? Check.

And goodwill to pay for the tickets as you're a dodgy foreigner? On the list of things to ask for....

Do take the extended warranty on the car

Murphy's Law: a trip of 1,000 miles begins with a leaky radiator and a broken fan-belt.

...if you take the train out, you can probably catch a ride back with Wawrinka, he should be coming back soon

Huh? Where? Definitely not the one in Zurich (Überland).

Then I guess I should have come to buy a car from them in 90's because the things clearly must have gone south since then.

Well I don't know about Nils but the pompous lady is the only one who speaks English and sometimes she seems to be aggressive. Last time they couldn't find the tyres in the store-room which were left there under my name and it took them time searching for them. The other time, after the first service my oil gauge blinked on yellow asking to add a liter of it so I had to go back to the garage. Little things but it makes you thinking if they really give a damn to quality and customer satisfaction.

Two of the dealers I know there are very professional but sadly they do not provide the after sale service.

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For years we have dealt with the OPEL dealer in Baden. I have sent clients there and the business from ABB and ALSTOM is important.

You only find out after buying a car what service is like and I have say the service department at the OPEL garage gets top marks from me.

all good and dandy but OPEL?? it is a Chevy of Europe..cheap and low quality...in fact...that's like ["insert any US car brand name] of Europe meaning not so good

Kloten, Uster, Volketswil...go to the less crowded places...Ueberland is a bit too big for me...i like the personal touch.

Speaking of the devil... Someone mentioned bicycle service before. Well, two years ago I bought my commuting bike from a small shop downtown of Wettingen. Although the price was not so cool at the first glance if compared with same bikes in the UK but the after sale service has always been excellent. The owner inspected my bike and adviced me on the spares. I even managed to buy a chain of exact same length without need to use special chain tool. I got me brake pads and tyres all under CHF100. Everytime I go there good chap takes time explaining me things and always serving prime advices. Here we are only talking about few bucks. The car business is a bigger buck's game therefore it should be treated even more seriously. At the end of the day it is always a matter of luck and luckily there are several places to take your vehicle to for a check.

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maaaaannnn ...whatever you are on...pls share

I haven't had any problems and at one time we had 3 OPEL cars. Opel assistance is there if you need it. My point was the service from the dealer is excellent, as it should be. Once the car was not ready when it should have been making it impossible for me to pick it up so they brought it to my home for me. Now that is what I call service!

No seriously did I miss something? Is it poisson d'avril day? AMAG are the most disorganised monopoly motley crew who with their tardy and lacklustre attitude I have ever have had the misfortune to meet!!

Now don't get me wrong the cars they import are great but, their idea of high end service leads a lot to be desired... After jumping the Bayerische Motoren Werke and Merc I own a 4 ringed super monster as my day to day, to think of letting AMAG anywhere near that is simply out of the question; there are no "technicians" there simply part fitters who read VCDS diagnostics and replace a part without knowing what the fault may actually have been caused by!

Now I must say Audi dealerships are good and helpful, Horgan in my experience true, but AMAG's policies suck... A couple of examples:

To think it is acceptable to take my bro's brand new mtm S5 cab back for a company recall on the water pump and supply him with an entry level a3 in return...

To take my colleague's W12 for also a recall and give him a Polo (after only a half hour of arguing about being granted a loan at all), keeping the car for 4 days over quote due to "Germany haven't told us exactly how to proceed" and said own car being returned with 300km more on the clock and filthy..

Now, I'm just super glad I never got my 911 here, I have heard some horrors there too, seems AMAG group cars are slamming it now but the "mother company" , guess similar to the old UK VAG group, leave a lot to be desired.

Any of my "AMAG" branded cars will be safely staying in the hands of my specialist tuning / race / enthusiast technician independents I think!

Erm... perhaps it's a Swiss thing but in both California and the UK the dealer always picked the car up and returned it anyhow... Never really looked into that 'cos, as posted above, I don't want AMAG tech anywhere near my car and as much as I like Horgan Audi for little things I may want I love driving down to RCP and chat and see what insanity loaner they are going to give me As a totally childish boy last time's 610bhp dragon made it worth the while for sure

OMG! Sad to hear I'm not the only one in the boat and dealing with similar issues. Makes me wonder if there is a place one can really get true service. (I liked kebabs and gyros small fast food restaurants )...

Bottom line is that if you are local you know your way around and where to get the things. Herr Fredrick can get bunch of replacement screws for freeco from Herr Meyers garage meanwhile Frau Helga can get free piece of cheese from beloved Beatrice's diary shop whose spouse owns top marque garage. Sense of community, right? I wonder if they take us "clueless" foreigners seriously and try to milk on every possible occassion. I think they wrong because I wont get screwed and I will always make a storm in a teacup just to prove their incompetence and I'm very seriously taking pleasure in it on every possible occassion. Nothing has changed in this world. Service is a service, fraternity obligation binding all brethren with same rules applicable everywhere from country to country A, B and C. Have a great day

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I can recommend two BMW garages.

One would be Auto Marti in Niederwangen, Bern.

http://www.automarti.ch/

Their quotations were always higher than what I actually paid in the end, thats a plus. Second, they explained the work quite detailed, it wasnt like here is the bill, now pay and GTFO.

Another one would be Schupp & Kiefer in Lörrach.

http://www.schupp-kiefer.de/go.to/mo...rtalseite.html

I ordered a Windschott / wind deflector for a e46, they quoted me 340€ over the phone. Again I paid less, plus they also gave me 10% discount, so I paid 234€.

Yesterday I had the A/C serviced together with some tire work, paid 168€.

They confirmed that my brakes had to be replaced, but said its fine to go for another 2-3k km.

Plus, the girl at the reception is a real scorcher.

mmmmmmmm Kebabs and gyros!!!! Damn I really want one right now!!! grrrr

This is so with most car makers. Fix the easy thing first, but when the s**t hits the fan, fix everything in sight. I've never had a problem with my BMW dealer - they have fixed several things at their cost (out of warranty) and charged me only for parts.

They are very good and I have bought 4 BMWs from them.

Remember a saying from a friend of mine who owns a very large car dealer: "The salesman sells the first car, the mechanic sells all cars after that."

fwiw.