texasaggie97 Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I would like to know from anyone in the Houston area where is the best place to take your bike for service? I have never used a service shop here and I want a place I can trust. I do plan on doing most of my own servicing but I do want to know a place I can build a relationship with. Thanks Link to comment
hopz Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 Interesting post. First of all, I lived in Houston till about 2002 when we moved to SLC. I have a great friend in Houston (Woodlands) who was one of my riding buddys when I lived there. We visits me often here in Utah. He actually would give up one of his Harleys if there was a good dealership local to him. Unfortunately, at last report there are none. The one in the south part of town is well-known to be surly, not particularly reliable and sometimes hard to deal with. There is a new one slightly to the west that may be better but no reliable reports yet. Austin has a passably good reputation but you have to get there... pretty far trip. I am not aware of an independent shop working on BMW's. Good luck. You would think a city of Houston's size would have a good shop, but I guess letting go of the H-D brand is hard. Link to comment
texasaggie97 Posted March 9, 2013 Author Share Posted March 9, 2013 Why is it that so??? My Brother Rides a HD and it is a pretty bike but does not compare to my RT in the areas of Ride, flexible riding styles and bang for your buck. I can not agree with you more just drove to Dallas to pick up my bike because I could not find a dealer in Houston I liked. If I can not find a place to sell me a bike I can only imagine what the service will be like. I was writing this because I wanted to see if my gut was correct about these dealers. If anyone has any news on BMW service spots in or around Houston please let me know. Link to comment
kmac Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 My guess is that Texas is a bunch of gun toting, redneck, chopper riding, stuck in their ways all American place that does not have enough tree hugging hippies like here in Cali.... I am kidding of course, I am sure yet another bad attempt at sarcastic humor. But jokes aside, I live in what we call the I.E., or the Inland Empire, A mostly suburban area inland and east/south east of Los Angeles and Orange County. Also it is inland north of San Diego. I actually have 10 different BMW dealerships within a 90 minute ride. Even closer, 5 of those are within and hour and 3 within about 30 minutes. So maybe there is SOMETHING to the "tree hugging hippies" hypothesis and the correlation to the number of BMW dealers...lol. Just as a reference though I did find "Gulf Coast BMW" Gulf Coast BMW Motorcycles in south Houston. www.gulfcoastmotorcycle.com 1210 College Ave, PO Box 868 South Houston TX 77587-5402 713-944-7951 And Team Manusco Power sports in Houston Team Mancuso PowerSports Southwest www.tmpsw.com 7250 Southwest Freeway Houston TX 77074-2004 713-995-9944 Not sure if either are any good and can not say if they are friendly as I have NO affiliation with either. However I will say, in my experience here in Cali that any "powersports" type of dealership where they carry many or most brands the service is rarely good, the staff is usually young and inexperienced and rotates frequently so you rarely see the same parts, sales or service guy twice and the overal experience is not normally very good for me. I really prefer more small, owner operated and specialty type of shops. This is of course not without exception, but a general rule. Having been a big dirtbike guy and an MX racer for 40 years I have bought alot of new MX bikes and there has definately been a change in the industry since most of the small single brand or minimum brand local shops have been bought out and consolodated into the huge conglomocorp "PowerSports" type of shops they have become like car dealerships...vultures. All about the bottom dollar and profits and not customer service and repeat business. No relationship building, just money motivated. I hate them. Link to comment
hopz Posted March 9, 2013 Share Posted March 9, 2013 I was trying to be discreet. There is (yet) another forum which I am a member of. This same sort of thread came up about 6 months ago over there. The best reply... (not me since I was attempting to be discreet) said... as a BMW guy in Houston the had to choose between a Drunk, an Abusive Dealer, and and a Crook. I was trying to remain discreet. What you have over there in that coastal region is a bit of a drive for the guy in Houston... Link to comment
Skywagon Posted March 10, 2013 Share Posted March 10, 2013 well since nobody local replied...I have my bike serviced at Gulf Coast in Houston. They aren't terribly different than my Chevrolet Dealer, my Lexus dealer, but are a far cry better than any airplane service centers here...I could really use a good A&P IA in Houston. I digress. They aren't always on time, they sometimes leave out a nut or bolt on the body works, and sometimes they forget to call when they are going to run long....All that said, they have done service on my bike serveral times including 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30k service....multiple full fluid changes except brakes which I do my self, replaced parts when the bike fell over, etc. Could they be better, yes, are they an acceptable place to have reasonably good service yes, you can call the Service Manager 7x24 on his personal phone which he is happy to give you and get a tow or help...will I take my bike back to them again...Yes. They also support the Houston BMW club with local rides, gifts for BMW events, support for Xmas parties, etc. They also have Triumph. There are two other BMW dealers in town I have not used just due to distance. One is Wild West and the other is Mancuso. There is MPH Cycles an independent I have heard is good, but I have not used them either. There are two BMW dealers who went wheels up in the last 5 years No affiliation Link to comment
texasaggie97 Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 David, Thank you for you time and response. I picked my bike up Thursday last week and have 600 miles on it already and needed a place to do the first service. I wanted to find a dealer that would one take care of my bike and do the job right. I have had multiple issues with dealers in the past when I lived in California. I ended up doing all my own service to insure it was done correct. Thank and maybe our paths will cross on a local ride. Todd Link to comment
Skywagon Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Your welcome....come join the Houston BMW club. We do rides from time to time with a few good tech days thrown in. A good group of people. Here is a link http://bmwclubofhouston I bought my bike at San Jose BMW and had it serviced at Walnut Creek and San Francisco BMW. I used to live in the Bay Area also. I promise not to give you the UT Hookem Horns sign if you come to visit Link to comment
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