Thanks for the response Dave. I certainly won't risk my warranty and I expect I'll just pay up and 'look big'.
It's not actually about the money, more a matter of principle!
So, you buy a brand new car which has a 2 , 3 & 4 year service program (as described in their documentation), but because the vehicle manufacture date was 4 months prior to the vehicle being first registered, the schedule is actually 1yr & 8 months, 2yrs & 8 months, and for the major inspection, 3 year & 8 months.
I've never seen anything in BMW's sales literature about this, not even in the small print.
My daughter has a new Audi and I talked with Audi today who informed me, the service dates are re-set during the pre-delivery inspection when the vehicle is first registered for a customer, which is what I expected from BMW. I think I'll contact Mercedes next and the other so called 'premium brands' and see what their procedures are.
I'm not giving up yet. I've already written to the motoring editor of our local paper (car magazines and nationals next) to see if they want to do an article from a industry wide perspective, as I'm not sure how many other manufacturers adopt this same less than satisfactory process as far as I'm concerned.
Bourny