The running-in period of 1000 KMs lasted about a week and I made a reservation for the first maintenance appointment at the BMW Service Center in Petakh Tikva, a town on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. The service center is located only 300 hundred meters from the site of my former beloved employer – Intel.

When I imagined how a BMW service center is like I had very limited success because, unfortunately, I’m an software engineer and not a poet. As the matter stands, SW engineering is not really an engineering discipline – its not like building a bridge that can stand up to daily traffic. Its more about building these bridges in one’s imagination, so imagination is involved, but in a structured way. So I’ll try my hand, in this post, at structured poetry.

We learned in the army that every good thing is divided into three parts. When referring to the BMW Petakh Tikva Service center, these three things are:

• Facilities
• The Service
• And the most important – the human touch

So lets dig in, and start with the human touch.

The human touch

Since December 1st I rode already almost 4000 KM and visited the service center 5 times. This is, of course, a large number of visits and the reasons for this large number will become evident in the following posts in this blog.

The important point is that after these 5 visits I feel that the staff of the Motorrad department are my good friends and I trust them with anything related to my new and precious motorcycle.

When I first entered the service center for the running-in (1000 km) maintenance call, I met Edi, the service specialist. Edi welcomed me pleasantly and explained the procedures and options for everything. Most importantly, he gave me his phone number and said I can call or text him for anything, and I already used that option not once. Soon after the first visit, I needed extra help and Edi spent time with me, collected information, revised the information, browed parts databases online with me and all of that for no extra charge, kindly and pleasantly.

On my first visit I also met Nahik, the manager of the Motorrad department. Nahik also gave me his phone number and asked to call him immediately for any issue, which I did just one day later.

I met Eli, the workshop manager who patiently explains everything and answers all my questions. I also spoke with some of the mechanics who also answer every question and explain what they are doing (and of course, the customers are expected to stay out of the workshop area for most of the time).

Facilities

The first thing I noticed when I entered the motorcycle department is the total cleanliness – even cleaner than in hospitals, and I scored quite a large mileage in hospital’s as you’ll be able to read in the Hebrew parts of this blog.

There’s a jacket and helmet hanger in the entry hallway.

Here are some photos of the workshop area.

The customer waiting area is separated from the workshop by a glass wall. The waiting area is spacious and comfortable with 2 sofas and a large desk on which I can sit and work on my laptop.

What really sets BMW apart from all the other service centers that I visited are the snacks, fruits, a coffee machine, Coca Cola cans (!) and even alcoholic drinks (!!!).

Free food is a great benefit. In one of the recent company meetings of NVIDIA, Jensen admonished the assembled employees and said something like:
– You are all millionaires here, so why, when there are some refreshments outside, do you storm the tables like a herd of starved buffalos?
So free food is great even for people who ride BMW motorcycles.

Service

It seems, and I believe, that the Service Center operates according to the highest standards and procedures specified by BMW. What I liked most, so far is:

1. The service center installs parts that I bring myself. This is very important here at Israel because original automotive parts cost a fortune. This is true for all automotive OEM parts, not only BMW and is related to the Israeli regulation and tax system. The prices can be more than twice as high as the prices for the same parts in Germany. So having my own supplied parts installed is a great benefit.
2. The Service Center is not keen to charge me for each and every small work item. Edi and the team already helped me out, free of charge, with some work, as I will tell in the next posts.

And, an important note – the photos are used by permission from the Service Center.