BEWARE: SAN FRANCISO BMW

[jcbjr]

I thought I was going to have the best Xmas ever. Things took a very ugly turn when it came to delivering my X5 35D. I ordered this vehicle on November 1st and patiently waited with great anticipation. I got the word from my SA that the car would be in and ready for pick up Xmas eve. I was elated.
Where I made a big mistake was having them install a trailer hitch before I picked it up at a cost of $1047.83 with no discount on the parts.
My delivery time was supposed to be 12 noon on Thursday 12/24. We arrived at 11am to get the paper work taken care of in advance. Upon arrival, we were told that noon was probably not going to happen. It was taking awhile to finish the trailer hitch install and the vehicle was to be detailed after that.
No big deal we had some time. The SA knew we really wanted to get back on the road (home to Redding 225 miles north of the dealership) because we had Xmas eve dinner plans with my wife's mother at 5:00p.m. We waited and waited and kept getting updates every once in awhile.
At 3:30 the vehicle finally comes around for delivery (3 1/2 hours late). We started our delivery process. During our walk around , we spot several very obvious scratches in the black plastic rear bumper that had been removed to install the hitch. We brought this to the attention of our SA and he went and got the service manager.
They looked it over and said,” yes there were some marks on it, but that kind of thing happens when the bumper is removed.”
I said,” you have to be kidding me! This is a brand new $60K vehicle with scratches on the bumper and I am supposed to be OK with it?” I told them that I was not OK with it and I wanted the bumper to look like new.
Their solution was to take it back to the detail shop and try to cover the marks with some armor all.
They return and said it turned out “PRETTY DECENT”. The scratches looked the same.
We commented that this is a new vehicle and it shouldn't be “PRETTY DECENT” IT SHOULD BE PERFECT! If we wanted “pretty decent” we would buy used vehicles, and said the vehicle wasn't acceptable for delivery.
Then the sales manager was brought out to look things over. She takes a casual look at the bumper.
She said,”it doesn't look too bad.”
I said,” looking not too bad was not the same as looking new”.
She asked,”do you live in the city? All the cars in the city get their bumpers scratched up anyway.”
We told her we live in a small town and were not accustomed to having our bumper's scratched up.
Then she went on trying to justify that we were going to receive scratches on our bumper since we tow. I reassured her that all of our other vehicles that we have used for towing didn't have any scratches on them.
Her solution was we could order another car (wait another two months), get our money back, accept the vehicle as is, or purchase another vehicle on the lot. Problem was they had no other diesels.
I suggested that only the bumper be replaced.
She said,” ABSOLUTLY NOT!”. The deal I got on the car was so low that the dealership couldn't absorb the cost of a replacement bumper. She also informed me that this vehicle was in high demand and that the SA sold it below what he should have.
She later came up with the idea that they had a replacement bumper from the factory, and was going to pull it out of the packaging to show me that they come from the factory all scratched up. Then was later mistaken that they didn't have the same bumper in stock.
She assured me that it is impossible to install a trailer hitch without some scratches to the bumper.
To say I was stunned would be an understatement. I have been driving a borrowed 26 year old VW Vanagon for a month waiting for this vehicle because I sold my Audi Q7 a month ago in anticipation of my new X5 35D.
I then asked her what the cost was of a replacement bumper. I wanted to know exactly how much money the dealership was going to have to absorb, because of their careless tech who did the install. After another extended wait I was told the cost was approx. $600 and that I would have to pay for it. Again I was stunned!
I have bought many new cars in my life and have never been treated the way I was treated by BMW of San Francisco. I made a call to my local dealer in Chico and was told they wouldn't have anything until maybe February. To say I was stuck between a rock and a hard place would be an understatement. I finally decided I more or less had to take the vehicle as is and will be replacing the bumper at my expense myself. I know how to remove and replace plastic bumpers without damaging them because I am not careless. I am going to be contacting BMW of North America first thing Monday morning and informing them of my experience at SFBMW to see if this is acceptable from their point of view. In the mean time I will be letting everybody I know of that might be interested in a new BMW to not patronize BMW of San Francisco because they could care less about their customers.