BMW military sales

[Ralph]

Not yet (still OCONUS). But, I do remember it being mentioned in the sales pitch that I won't be - we'll see how that goes.

How do you like the M3? A coworker has one and he loves it just not the gas mileage.

 

[RHPF]

I've never had a dealer not provide a loaner when the car was still in the 50k window (6 dealerships in 4 states, none of which were the one I had bought those cars at).

Without dragging everyone through all the details: I had a brand new (at the time) 2007 BMW and had issues with it. There were >5 dealerships in the area, but all refused to issue a loaner car since I bought it elsewhere. Eventually, the electrical problem got so bad I couldn't shut the car off (only the engine), everything else stayed on. Turned out it was a bad ECU. Well, I had to make a 1.5hr (each way) drive to the dealership I bought it from, who gave me a beat up compact Mazda rental for the 2.5+ weeks it took to get a new ECU from Germany. Then the day it was fixed they expected me back there to return it, or face a rental fee of $~35 a day. Needless to say I was extremely unimpressed since the problem started the day I picked the car up and the monthly payment =/= a beat up Mazda rental.

Case 2: A buddy with the same car at NAS PCola told me he had no problem getting loaners there. Then he and I were at NAS Corpus, and he came up and told me that the Corpus dealer wouldn't provide a loaner and he was annoyed to say the least.

The cars are nice, but too expensive for a company that only cares about you before you buy the car, not at all after. As one of you pointed out, it's where you will buy your NEXT car that matters, and BMW isn't it for me these days. Capitalism works, and I'll vote with my wallet.

 

[Scoob]

How do you like the M3? A coworker has one and he loves it just not the gas mileage.

Ditto, but right now I'm paying a buck a gallon...

 

[ltedge46]

If you talk to BMW NA, they will tell you it's up to each dealership and they have nothing to do with it. Great cars, but something to keep in mind if you are paying that much.

True statement, the dealer in Newport News where ours was delivered was terrible and never had good service. The dealer in Va Beach however was awesome and gave us a loaner everytime even though we didn't buy it there. In fact my wife brought it in for an oil change one day and they had to keep it overnight for an inspection so they wound up giving her a 7 series as a loaner! They always washed and detailed the car no matter how simple the service. When we moved to Jax, at first the dealer here wouldn't give us a loaner, but when we explained that we bought the car through military overseas sales and moved due to a PCS, they relented and gave us a loaner when they had to keep it overnight.

Now, the warranty is up, so for scheduled maintenance we take it to an indepentant certified mechanic. Oil change alone runs about $70, but on the plus side, only has to be done every 15K. Has about 80K miles on it now and still runs like new, planning on keeping it for another few years before considering an upgrade.