Why profit $100-150 off a bunch of battery replacements if you can find one person who will let you get away with ~$800 upcharge, add on a $240 diagnostic fee, see if they'll pay the diagnostic fee double, then record them as a willing mark in the service logs so you know you can hose them next time?You can find several videos on YouTube demonstrating how to swap and register a battery on the i3. It does look like a bit of a hassle, but no way labor for that should be $800. Here's an example:It costs $955 to replace the battery with almost $800 of that being labor.
Why? Because the location of the battery is in a very difficult location to access and it takes time to get to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLZO7pB_uVg
Not sure where OP lives, but in my HCOL area of Greater Boston pretty much all of the stealers seem to have learned the following:
1. There's a contingent of people who will just never DIY any maintenance on their car whatsoever, even simple stuff like changing air filters.
2. There's a lot of people around here with deep pockets, and no time or interest in researching around for better pricing.
3. Oh and if you bought/financed the vehicle from them, some people willingly share their monthly/annual income with the stealer salesman. Now that's some valuable info for the other side of the house...
It's just business, they found their niche and they're exploiting it.
You can get 4 OEM batteries for the cost of the stealership installation. One can decide for themselves whether paying 400% markup is worth min/maxing the life of the replacement 12V battery.BMW 12 volt batteries are large, expensive and supposed to b e"registered." Registration lets the alternator know not to work so hard.
Best battery price got at an independent was about $500. Dealer charges $700.
Statistics: Posted by seltzer — Thu Jul 25, 2024 8:45 am