[NormB]

As a first time BMW owner I came to learn that Planet BMW was some distance from Earth when going through the experience of picking ‘options’ for my X1. By the end of the process I was glad that BMW was considerate enough to include the steering wheel as a standard feature.

But I really had no idea that Planet BMW was in fact in another galaxy. I came to this realization when reading through the owner’s manual. Back on Earth owner’s manuals include such comforting things as fluid volumes, the location of drains and filler caps, and especially, a full schedule of required maintenance up to about 150,000 km. My X1 manual doesn’t even identify the oil filter cap or drain plug, let alone any of the rest.

Earthlings can usually compensate by cajoling their dealer’s parts folk to order them service (repair) manuals, admittedly typically for a ghastly sum. I have had these for both my previous cars. Are these denied to citizens of BMWland?

I am one of those folk who like to do things for themselves. Perhaps when it comes to cars I am a little extreme, having only had others do perhaps six repairs, no maintenance and one oil change during my whole (long) time of car ownership.

I’d like to continue this practice with the X1, naturally allowing BMW to do their ‘free’ maintenance for the first four years. But I have worked the Internet pretty hard and have not found a place to get service manuals for the X1. I have not even found a fully detailed service schedule. I have not yet contacted the BMW parts department locally, but at this point am assuming that if I have not seen the service manuals on offer on the Internet they are probably not on offer at my dealer either.

Help! I have a 2014 XDrive 28i