I have a 2003 BMW 530i (E39) that just keeps on going and going and going - love this car.  I only drive 5-8,000km per year and the mileage is just under 110,000km.  Rego is 3,600 baht per year and insurance is about 10,000 baht, so I consider it pretty good motoring value for Thailand.  But it is 15 years old and a lot of the "small things" are just wearing out: mouldings, trim, rubber gaskets, hoses.  Whenever I'm back in Canada or the U.S., I pick up whatever spare parts I can fit in my luggage for about 60% of what BMW Thailand would ask.  For years I took it to an independent BMW/Merc/Audi garage on Rama IV near the intersection of Sukhumvit Soi 40 but they moved away a couple of years ago.  I've had one experience with another garage (which I shall not name but is on an Ekkamai odd soi) and was left unimpressed:  60,000 baht to fix the aircon as they claimed to have replaced all of the major components, but no used parts were returned (Rama IV always returned the old parts as some reassurance that they had actually been replaced).  As I left the garage, the engine was running VERY rough: returned immediately to be informed that I needed new ignition coils.  The engine was running fine when I dropped the car with them.  Needless to say, I did not have them do the coils - I replaced the 2 faulty coils myself after paying an extortionate price for the parts at a BMW dealer.

 

Now I'm looking for recommendations for an independent BMW garage, preferably in the Sukhumvit/Rama IV/Petchburi area - any thoughts?  I need some bodywork, too, so ideally a place that can do both mechanical and bodywork.

Assume that you mean KW....on Ekkamai. I never had a problem with them. There was a thread on same subject a few months ago so you could check this and previously a poster mentioned that he used a garage on Rama 3, but did not name it - possibly Rama 3 (III) Garage.