A service rep from BMW of Arlington/Alexandria, VA, told me they don't loan cars if your BMW is older than a 2008....mine is a 2005...this struck me as being odd and not indicative of good customer service. Is this typical of dealerships? As you can imagine, I'm a keeper - if I really love my car (3.0 Z4 Dinan), I keep it and do most repairs myself...
Others may have some comments, it would be a rare day for me to be using a dealer loaner. Interesting policy choice, I wonder what the rationale might be... although possible, who would go to the trouble of forging their credentials & leaving a car behind for service as part of an elaborate ruse to make off with a recent-model loaner? Anyone who resides in the states would have to be an idiot to do that using their real name, you'd get caught eventually unless you left the country (or were exceptionally skilled in forging new identities for yourself), in which case the only logic would be selling the car on the black market before exiting. I suppose in coastal areas with port cities, maybe there would be a problem, someone does all that and a vehicle is thrown in a cargo container on a ship and sailed off for the black market somewhere else in the world before the ink dries on the signature line of the loaner agreement. At least, something like that, there would be some logic behind the policy. If you ask them why, let us know what they say!
The loaner policy is up to the dealer on how to run this program. I worked for a dealer in the past that would not loan to people who did not buy there vehicle from that dealer. Stupid policy to say the least, my new dealer will give anyone a loaner if they are available. I would talk to the service manager and see if you can strike a deal about you getting a loaner a good customer with a vintage vehicle. He would be stupid to say no to you spending your money with them over a loaner car. But thats just my thought process.
