After working at dealerships, seeing what all the managers drive, seeing the owner driving a Maserati Quattroporte, seeing SA's lie by saying and doing amost WHATEVER it to get a customers car into the shop (sometimes for even pointless repairs that will fail again shortly, to literally not even doing oil changes when the customer paid almost $100) I have absolutely NO sympathy for them having issues "making a living" selling cars...and this is coming from a guy who sold cars for anything from $100-$12000 over MSRP, day in and day out for about 3yrs total. Rightfully so that US purchasers look for the best price, otherwise everything from clothes to TV's will still only be sold at mom and pop stores instead of places likeebay, WalMart, etc.

Obviously paying a markup for a product is expected, but at some point, it's far too much...buyer beware though. Most every desk manager and owner I've have the misfortune of working w/ was completely out of touch and only gave a crap about the sale, no matter how upset or a poor decision it was to "force" the customer into buying something they ultimately couldn't afford, just so they can compare numbers w/ the competing dealership in their region. I switched to real estate instead and it was great for years, but as we all know, greedy banks and shady realtors took that industry down as well....that is the epitome of viscious cycle.

Anyone who bought cars from any dealer has been taken once or twice why would dealer expect them to bend over and hand out the vaseline again and again.

But I am scratching my heads reading business-week or money magazine for how customers of Lexus love their dealers. Has anyone blowing weed smoke in the waiting room of Lexus or what.
Maybe that part of demographic, Lexus owners tend to be in their early fifties while BMW onwers are in early/mid forty.

Dealers (long)
 

What you are describing with BMW in the US is an underperforming dealer network. BMW Canada, purely as one example, is a different organization, with a different dealer agreement. The dealers I have dealt with here have all been better than the average experience recounted in the US. My current dealer is great. I bought my last five vehicles from them without a price negotiation. When I had a warrantable failure they bent over to get the car in the same day, twice (LF wheel bearing on the X5, HP fuel pump on the 535). They have 65 BMW loaner cars, but in both those situations they were all out, so they called a rental car agency, and paid for it. Scheduled services are booked in advance, and they have always had a car for me. I have referred lots of people to them. They are the most successful BMW dealer in Canada, because they take care of their customers. I am sure they have some percentage of dissatisfied customers, but my experience has been good. I have referred multiple purchasers there. So, in my mind, it isn't BMW corporate, which owns BMWNA and BMWCA, but rather the dealer network that is the big differentiator.

I also worked in two locations of a Ford dealership, and saw a successful dealership model. Working in an independent repair garage that dealt with about 20 different dealerships for both parts and occasional technical support, I saw a wide variety of automotive dealer models and approaches.

I don't think it is about the demographic of customers, but rather the relationship that the corporate team has with the dealer network. Is corporate prepared to pull the dealership if there are problems? Do they have too many dealers? Not enough? How good are their training programs for both service and sales teams? What are their warranty reimbursement percentages like?

It grates on me whenever I see the phrase stealership. I have been working in various automotive and non-automotive dealer businesses for over 25 years. Some dealers shouldn't be in business. But to lump all dealers in with the bad ones is wrong. It also works against consumers, because while they should be on guard, and be informed, to assume that their dealership is a thief will not bring them better service. They should hold their dealers accountable, and understand that what you really have going on in the US is a viscious cycle whereby customers assume they are dealing with thiefs, dealers act like it, and everybody moans. Instead, find a good dealer, tell everybody about them, and help reverse the cycle.

Just some miscellaneous ramblings.

One of the problems in the U.S. is the power of the dealers. Historically, the auto dealers were one of the "pillars of the community" supporting lots of local civic things. This led to them having lots of influence on the individual state legislators. As a result, lots of the states have very restrictive laws as to the conditions under which an auto manufacturer can pull a dealer's franchise. The U.S. car manufactures have been trying to cut the number of dealers for the past 20 years or so, but these restrictive laws have been in the way, often resulting in the manufacturers paying large sums of money to the existing dealers just so they can close their dealership. Because of this, the auto manufacturers have limited ability to bring bad dealers in-line with corporate policy and desires.

As an example of the dealer's historic political power, many U.S. States have laws prohibiting car dealers from being open for business on Sunday -- the dealers essentially got together and figured that if they all closed on Sunday they would all still sell the same amount of cars, but they wouldn't have to have their salespeople work on Sunday.