Pingman

Hi all,

I want to order a 08 535. I just drove one recently and they are terrific automobiles. If anyone knows of a good professional dealer/SA in San Diego, please send me a PM.

Thank you,

Jeff

markiemark

Jeff,
SHORT VERSION:
I bought my 05 525 thru BMW of San Diego. Go to their website and look for the internet sales link, the guy I dealt with was Pat. He is pretty straight up. A lot of people like Cunningham in El Cajon, and I've heard good things about Brecht and Harloff in No. County, but my only experience is with BMW of SD.

LONG VERSION WITH INFORMATION YOU DIDN'T ASK FOR:
I can't in good conscience make a recommendation with telling you the following:

Do your research and figure out what their cost is and what they want over invoice. I always ask for fleet sales, tell them I want a 5xx, 2007, color, ask them what they have in stock or coming in, what's their invoice on it and what they want over invoice. I also got pre-approved by BMW Financial. I got mine for about $500 over invoice, but the 2006's were just starting to ship so they were unloading the 05's. And I think they had a lot of 525's as opposed to 540's or M5's or whatever.

As is usual with car dealers, you usually get jacked around a lot. I knew what the cost was and what a reasonable profit was (probably from asking on this board). I also knew what the money factor was for leasing or purchase and had a Reg Z spreadsheet (leasing) so I could find out if they were screwing with me. They would ask down payment and lease term, how many miles, etc. then say "your payment will be $x. I would follow along in my spreadsheet and if it didn't match my calculations I would say "You're not using the right money factor" or "Something's not right here" and they would invariably fess up by saying "Oh, we have to add an $800 fee for this or that", or you they were using the wrong residual. If the number was off by a $1 I would have them walk me thru each variable so I could see what they changed. After a while they stop trying to mess around with you.

The main problem was that out of all of the dealers in southern cal (including the LA and Orange County guys), only BMW of San Diego would agree to give me the advertised money factor. They would usually first ask "where did you see that rate". Then they'd look it up and say "well, that is only for that exact car, the one we have has leather seats so its not the same deal". BMW of SD didn't even try to play that game, I could pick any 525 of the same model year regardless of the options. So, when a dealer would say they couldn't or wouldn't honor the money factor, I said thanks and hung up. Cunningham did call back 2 days after I purchased saying they really could give me the money factor after all and I made a point of telling them how they screwed up. The others would call back for a year saying "what can we do to get you in that car you want". I'd say "give me the advertised money factor".

SERVICE AND WARRANTY ISSUES
I can say that I haven't been too happy with either the BMW warranty and general customer service. I have had my car in to both BMW of SD and Cunningham and both of them treat you less than ideally. A lot of it seems to be that the people on this board know more about the service bulletins and issues than the dealers. Last time I had it in I requested that they fix the RDS (which was disabled in a previous update but fixed in the latest one at the time). They called back the next day and said " RDS only works if the station uses it, so there's nothing to fix". So I had to get the service bulletin number off this board and read it to the guy and give him the number before he would fix it. You would think they could do that on their own, why do I have to tell them? My biggest issue is the software updates; even with a known problem that the update is supposed to cure requires a lot of persistence and effort before they'll give you the update.. They usually try to insult you by telling you they'll have someone go over the owner's manual with you, or too bad about the smell from the A/C, you'll have to pay to get it fixed. My window cracked about a week after I got the car. They looked at it and said "we can see a point of impact, so its not a stress crack so its not covered under warranty." About 6 montsh later I noted that the plastic cover on the I-drive screen developed a hairline crack. When it was in for service I told them about it. They called and said I must have hit it with something so its not covered by the warranty. I asked them what leads them to believe I hit it with something, was there a point of impact or something, they said no, but they've never seen it before so I must have done it. Nice insult. I reminded them that they said "we haven't seen it before" when I said my BMW assist never worked yet they refused to fix it, then a couple months ago I got a recall notice on the unit. But, will they give me my free year of use because I never got to use it, of course not. BMW of SD promised me an update to allow the MP3 function, but then refused to do it (oops, your production month is out of the range). They are good about having loaners, usually but not always a BMW but at least you get one and its a flat $10 no matter how long you have it. I've never got a BMW loaner from Cunningham. They send you over to a car rental place and you usually end up with a Geo Metro or Neo or some other POS. They always say its first come first serve on the loaners, but I think they only have 4 or 5 otherwise I just have really bad luck.
Good luck, hopefully someone else will give you some feed back from the North County guys.
END.
Mark

vegastrashed

The next time you take your car in for servicing at BMW of San Diego specifically ask for Ann Munson. She's the only SA I will ever deal with there.

lynx10

(I like Ann also, but I've never had a real problem with any of the SA's at BMWSD.)

I'm waiting for a 08 550i that I negotiated a deal with at Brecht--it's the second BMW in a row I've bought there. I called all of the BMW dealers in SD asking for the fleet manager as a screen, and Brecht was the only one that connected me directly. The rest of the deal went pretty smoothly.

YMMV, but I think they'll make a fair deal with you if it matches my experience.

lynx10

(PS: The loaner policy at BMW SD is a big plus in my mind also.)

lynx10

Would calling customer relations at BMW NA help at that point. Aren't there regional reps that can mediate (and possibly pay for) conflicts between the owner and dealer when differences of opinion arise?

gwf545

I like Brecht in Escondido. I've bought two 5's from them and I think I got a good deal on both. One was ED. Service is o.k, recently expanded and more professional than in the past. I've never had a problem with them. When it comes to dealing, I like the Rizzo method described here: http://www.bimmerfest.com/faq/rizzo.html I used it the last time and got the best price again from Brecht.

550i now

I shopped all south OC and SD dealers 2 years ago for my special order 545i. Brecht wouldnt deal, Cunningham was stubborn, Harloff didnt respond, but BMW SD was open to negotiating.

I used the afore mentinoed Rizzo method and it put me together with BMW SD's top salesman, Pat Springer. The rest is history. I will buy from him/them again.

The added plus is their service dept. has been top notch and centrally located for convenience.

just sent you a PM. good luck!

markiemark

They (Cunningham) told me they would have the rep come in and look at it. I told them to let me know when so I could be there. When they called to tell me my car was done, I asked about the BMW rep. They said he had already come and looked and said it wasn't a warranty item. I reminded them I wanted to be there and they just shrugged it off and said "oh, we forgot". I asked for his phone number and when I called it was the BMWNA number in New Jersey or somewhere. I let them (BMWNA) have an earful and they said next time it was back in they would make sure I could meet with the rep. I haven't been back in yet (I have two recall notices: 1 for the BMW assist and 1 for the emissions) but I will soon and will probably go back to BMW of SD.

lynx10

That would be my last visit to Cunningham.

Is warranty service (or customer relations) so unprofitable that dealers wouldn't think it important to work with the customer and risk losing them?

I feel like I don't have enough information about that topic to know the answer.