Inspection II price

[SC David]

Just wondering about how much you guys have paid for your Inspection I/II's. A checked with a shop called Optimal here in Santa Cruz (Bay Area) and they're asking $480. I wanted to know if this was reasonable or not.

[dave b]

That's about what a dealer may charge. I had mine done at an indy for about $150 last time.

Since then, I spend about $90 on parts and a few hours to do it myself. Not much to it other than changing the spark plugs, the filters, and the fluids.

Hope that helps.

[632 Regal]

what else is involved in the inspection? perhaps they assume everything is perfect after 50k or so?

[SC David]

Well, I'm not entirely sure what they will have to replace. The car seems to run pretty well, even better than it did when I bought it about a year ago. It should be the routine stuff; oil, air filter, belts...all that good stuff. I suppose I could do most of it myself, but I'd rather leave it to them to make sure that there's no major problems arising. The guys there seemed nice, and I've heard good stuff about them so I'm confident that they will do a good job but I just wanted to get a ballpark for how much these things cost. Thanks for the replies.

[TimGinCentralNJ]

...they make it so tough in NJ to properly dispose of hazardous fluids (brake, coolant, oil, etc) I usually find myself having my indy do the fluids to save me the hassle of disposing of them.

The county I live in has 2 'hazardous waste drop-off' days per year. The last one I went to took 3.5 hours off my life waiting in line, and I got there 30 mins before it even opened. And they wonder why so many people opt to hide these chemicals in their trash, or (lord forbid) dump them in the ground, rivers, etc.

At least I'm saving some money :)

Tim G.
'91 535iM
117k


That's about what a dealer may charge. I had mine done at an indy for about $150 last time.

Since then, I spend about $90 on parts and a few hours to do it myself. Not much to it other than changing the spark plugs, the filters, and the fluids.

Hope that helps.

[dave b]

That sucks about the hazardous disposal in jersey. I usually just go to jiffy lube and dump it down their pits. They don't seem to mind....

[winfred]

they don't mind because the the disposal company that hauls it off for free sells the old oil, you buy the storage tank and they empty it free

[Jason]

There are some reputable BMW service places that are relatively close to me, and I like to take the car there for things that I think they would be better suited to than my regular mechanic... one of these places wanted $850 for the job which is absurd, another wanted $500, my regular mechanic wanted $450... if you look at what an inspection II consists of on bruno's site, you will see that you can do it yourself for very little, and then let them do the things you couldnt and save some $$

[Warren N.CA]

can do it yourself. If you can't raise the car, you can still do most of it yourself. Save money; learn about your car; Have fun(well, sort of.).



Just wondering about how much you guys have paid for your Inspection I/II's. A checked with a shop called Optimal here in Santa Cruz (Bay Area) and they're asking $480. I wanted to know if this was reasonable or not.