At the end of the day, you only have a couple of major alternatives: (a) find an honest salesman, or (b) get an absolute. final, "out the door" itemized price, including sales tax, license fee, etc., onto paper.

I suggest that people go ahead and negotiate a price over invoice, and as a final step to seal the deal, ask for an itemized "out the door with everything" price.

P.S.

(a) The training and advertising fees are legitimate costs, sort of, as the dealer really does pay these for every car he sells, i.e., they are actual variable costs paid to BMW NA included on every invoice. But not every dealer makes this clear during negotiations.

(b) Some dealers take this a little further and add-in completely inappropriate costs, such as prep fees, which are not an actual invoice cost.

(c) BMWs do not come from the factory with floor mats, and the cost of floor mats is not included in the invoice or MSRP. Many dealers automatically throw-in the carpet mats to keep their customers happy, but some who offer really low-ball deals do not. Mats will cost ya' about $100 or so if the dealer does not toss them in.

On the build your own site, I selected ZSP and noticed that multi-contour seats were $900. On the options page, they are $1300. On the pricing sheet, they are $1200 which is what I remember them being last time I configured on the BMW USA site. Has anyone heard of a price reduction on the multi-contour seats when ordered as part of ZSP?

As others have said, you're dealer is wrong here and you should definitely NOT be double charged for the seats.

This reminds me of the issue that affected the '07s and '08s (it was the case on the '08 that I had) that is discussed in this thread...

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ort-seats.html

The issue was that you didn't get any kind of "credit" for the sport seats when ordering both Sport Pkg and the Ventilated Seat Package. I bought the car anyway, but it did seem like I was paying for two sets of seats and only getting one. :dunno:

When I first saw this thread I figured this was another one of BMW's "double dip" pricing examples, but I guess not. Your dealer is wrong.

it drives me nuts when a car salesman doesnt know what there selling... no F...... brains....they should be fired right on the spot!!!!! and if the mgr isnt sure either then fire his a.. too