🚗 The BMW Experience

Today, I took some time off work to take my brother-in-law's car in for service at the local BMW dealership.  Before I get into the experience, I want to set out the context. BMW is not a brand that interests me and it's not even in my consideration whenever I am looking to buy a car or even recommend cars for others to buy. For cars, I want the bare minimum. From my perspective, cars are machines that take me from one place to another. I knew two things about BMWs:

• luxury brand
• expensive

Anyway, I picked up the BMW and drove to the nearest service centre, which was less than 10 minutes away. I didn't enjoy the ride. I felt uncomfortable and just didn't feel like it's something that suits my nature and/or personality. However, I can totally see why my brother-in-law bought this car 😆 I parked in the designated parking area and stepped into the reception area. The first sign I saw said:

we are no longer accepting AMEX cards

Interesting, a luxury brand and not taking Amex cards felt odd. After a few minutes, I was talking to a lady who said the service will be completed by 4pm. She was using an old iMac computer (Before 2020). Actually, I saw over six iMacs on display. Kinda cool that BMW appeared to be all in on Apple devices. I was told to wait a few minutes at the cafeteria while she organises for someone to drop me back home. In the meantime, she said I can enjoy some cake and coffee.  Everyone looked sharp and professional, while I stood out in my black sweats and plain black jumper.  I asked for a skinny cappuccino to go because I didn't want to wait long. As she made my coffee, I looked around and noticed something interesting. All the iMacs were running Windows, not macOS. I found this amusing. It just goes to show that perception can be so far away from reality.  Five minutes later, a young lady dropped me off. The coffee was wonderful.  This concludes my BMW experience. The experience is certainly nicer than when I take my Mazda 3 in for a service. However, not that great for me to consider a BMW for my next car. Actually, I wouldn't even consider this experience has a plus point for a luxury car experience. I have higher expectation. They should have provided me with a nice eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce that is made in-house and not from a can.