Alright, I am getting ready to put down my deposit on a 530i order after one failed deal and months of reading, test driving, and weighing the options.

I live in Hawaii and we only have one dealership and the best deal that I could get was $500 off MSRP. Someone told me to check out California or Washington - which I did. By purchasing out of state I am saving about $1,900 on the total cost of the car - shipping, registration, and taxes included. All I have to do is to pay and arrange for shipping out of Oakland, pick the car up at the dock. take care of the registration and other fees, and pay Hawaii sales tax. The dealer will get the car to the dock and the shipping company will inspect the car prior to shipping.

The potential downside might be that I will not be able to inspect the car prior to shipping and check to see if there are any cosmetic problems like dings. Also, the local dealership might not be as helpful when I bring it in for servicing. The local dealship doesn't have loaners so that will not be an issue - only shuttle service provided. I also have an Exporer that I get serviced at a dealership other than the one I bought it from and haven't had any problems.

Anyone have any opinions with what I am about to do???

 

To do other than your decision would be a $1900 mistake. Your island BMW stealership should not have an issue with servicing the vehicle. The service department personnel generally could not care less where you bought your car. For them to do otherwise would be unprofessional and would garner customer complaints. Good luck with your purchase.

 

For that much savings I would say go for it too.

777 Kapiolani Blvd.

 

I don't understand why you can't take the lower bid over to your local dealer, and wave it under their nose asking them to match or beat it?

Surely they should want that sale.


My BMW sales guy here told me that BMWNA keeps tabs on who buys cars, and where.... and that when they see someone who lives in one city buy a car from another city or state, they view this as a VERY BAD testamonial to the local dealer who lost the sale. It seems strange to me that your local dealer would be so unwilling to offer better than $500 off MSRP, if it means not getting the sale at all.

Then again.... you are in Hawaii.... and I would guess that the supply/demand forces there work out in the dealer's favor more than mainland dealerships.

 

Thanks for everyone's advice. I feel much better about my decision.

subterFUSE: Interesting info about BMWNA. I told my CA what I was getting on the mainland and I just wanted something competitive. The guy couldn't get a $1,000 off of MSRP and blamed it on management. I think he was probably telling the truth. If a sales guy can make a quick sale and get a $500 commission then he would do it - even if it came out of his comission. Why waste time on haggling with someone who has options? Why not take the money and go on to the next sale - especially if they invested all that time on a customer. Management, on the other hand, only cares about profit margins and how much the dealership is making. No doubt they are under pressure from the owner to produce. I assume that dealerships don't have an unlimited supply of cars. They can request more but I am sure they have to put in their orders months prior to production and are limited as to what they can bring in. Another issue is the impact a sale out of the norm would have on the market price for a BMW in Hawaii. I think unless you are a repeat customer they will not go beyond $500. Curious that the discount off of MSRP on a 3 series is the same discount off of a 5. Weird. By my calculation BMW of Honolulu would have made $4,000 profit on the car that I was thinking about ordering. This didn't include hold backs or any other incentives.

Simply put, they sell cars at that price because they can.

 

This was sort of the point I was making.

I don't live in Hawaii, but my basic assumption is that most things cost more there than in the mainland USA... simply because it is harder to get there, and the volumes are lower.


Example.... You probably pay a lot more than I do for gasoline. But that is because they have to get the gas all the way out there to you after it has been refined.


I would think that cars are the same way. They have to get them to you, which is costly and difficult.

Another example.... here on the mainland, if a dealer doesn't have a particular car.... he can do a dealer trade with another dealership somewhere. They will just throw the cars on trucks and ship them. But in Hawaii, you can't just throw a car on a truck..... it's got to go by boat, which is much more trouble.

So I can see why a dealer in Hawaii might have tighter restrictions on the numbers of cars they can sell.... and this would clearly dictate the profit margins they must get.

 

Hello, I myself work at BMW of Honolulu (service department). As far as servicing, we would have no problems with your vehicle here.

 

Awesome! thats nice to hear

 

Thanks for the info. I take my Ford into McKenna and they give me great service even though I didn't buy the car there. If you can give your opinon on purchasing from the mainland I'd be interested in what you have to say.

Also, what's the deal with loaners there? At what point do you get one?

 

Actually we do have loaner cars, a total of 16. We are very limited to loaners compared to the mainland. I've heard Crevier had a total 200 loaners cars. We go by a first come serve basis. When you check in for service and a loaner is available then it is all yours. Maybe I can help in your purchase, who was your salesman? Let me know what you need (model,packages,options) and i'll talk to the sales manager about some type of deal