2007 BMW 335i story (with Cliff's notes)

[bigbootch]

I love sport coupes, and especially the BMW 3 series. I've wanted one since I was like 13, but I have been financially able to afford one only in the past couple years. I was waiting for the 2007 body redesign, and last week it finally came out... I read about it in a car magazine last Wednesday, and the day after (Thursday) I was at the dealership with my check book.

After test driving it, I knew that I wanted it. So we did a search in the inventory (of all 335's in the US) for 335 manual with the following options: premium package, sports package, cold weather package, and active steering. Several cars came up, and after ruling out a bunch of them on color (I don't want red interior), we had one that I wanted: metallic black exterior, brown leather interior.

We negotiate on the price (call it X, and it was a pretty good price - we'll come back to X), she says the car is in PA or something and it will arrive within 2 weeks conservatively. OK, great, I go home excited.

The following Monday, I find out that the car is in early! I am super excited, and set up an appointment for 4 pm the next day to pick it up (that's right after my work ends).

Then come Tuesday, I am sitting at work and I cannot stand to wait til the end of the day. I call them around 11 am and ask if I can pick it up now. He says he's not sure if it's done detailing yet, he'll check on it and call me back. He calls me back in 10 minutes and is like, uh the car that came in isn't the car you wanted, there was a mistake. Uh oh. It turns out that the car I wanted (black/brown) has already been sold at another dealership by this time. Now I am PISSED.

Still keeping calm, we do another search in the US inventory, and find another car that is exactly the same as the one I was supposed to get. Except, it has already been shipped to another dealership, but not sold yet, so they would have to pay $800 to have it shipped over here. So I'm like no I'm not paying more than what we already negotiated for. So he says he will talk to his mgr and call me back.

He calls me back and says they will cover $300 of the $800, leaving me to pay the extra $500. And he says if I don't want to do that, then my only other option is to order one from Germany and that will take 2 months. After thinking about it for about 10 seconds, I tell him well in that case I'm just not gonna buy a car. 1. I don't want to wait 2 months, and 2. I don't want to pay 500 more than what I thought I was gonna pay, so I'm just not gonna get a car. He says OK, well, if that's what you want.

OBVIOUSLY the $500 was not the issue here, it was the principle that they [censored] up and as a result I would have to pay $500 more than I otherwise would have. From the start, the price they gave me (X) was very good, and I would even have insta-agreed to a purchase price of X+500, so the absolute value of the price was not the issue. I just didn't want to give those [censored] an extra $500 for no reason.

Cliff's Notes: I chose not to get my dream car of all time over $500.

[PITTM]

wow. that dealership sucks.

rj

[lippy]

Wow, terrible business sense.

[PITTM]

ask if theres someone you can talk to at the top. having them make you pay 500 dollars because they made a mistake is beyond outrageous.

rj

[bluey]

id do the same thing. principle.

[bigbootch]

On the one hand, it was a case of neither side was desperate. As much as I wanted the car, I am perfectly fine driving my current car, so I could walk away from the deal. Similarly, they could walk away from the deal b/c the car wasn't even in THEIR inventory, so they are not desperate to have this car shipped over and sold to me. Both sides said, "Well I'm not desperate, you're not desperate, we can't agree on terms, so shrug no deal."

HAVING SAID THAT, I am 99.99% certain that even if they did eat the whole $800 (instead of just $300 of it), they would still have made a profit on my sale. So for them to pass up on a profitable sale for no reason is completely idiotic.

But who knows, maybe I did get such a good price that the extra $500 would have made it unprofitable for them (hah, yeah right).

[euphuistical]

Don't get active steering, I heard it sucks.

[thedustbustr]

tell him you will pay cash. then ask for a few grand off the price. eat the 500.

[uncleshady]

Which one of those B's is BASTARD. I need to know this before I vote.

[bigbootch]

From the start I was going to pay cash, and this was made known immediately (I brought my checkbook to the dealership). Maybe that's why I got a good deal in the first place...