Concord's done that before--to not just you.

I ALWAYS buy from BMW of Humboldt Bay...the people there are just "good".

They always give you the straight forward deal, and free shipping to all parts northern and southern california. Never have to go in, never have to "haggle"...just get it done.

OP,
Sorry to hear about your bad deal. It's not that bad of a deal because you still ended up paying $4500 off MSRP, right? Note for the next time though, you can ALWAYS walk away! First of all, never disclose any more info than you need when negotiating the price with the SA. After you have a signed purchase agreement with your ideal price, then you can talk all you want.

I just purchased a 3.0 at the BMW dealer in Fremont and got roughly $400 above invoice PLUS the $2500 Holiday Credit. I've heard that Concord BMW is one of the largest BMW dealerships in the Bay Area and that they had good customer service. Either you got a bad SA or you had a "Screw Me" sign on your forehead when you walked onto the lot.

About having to buy the car this year, correct me if I'm wrong, but you only need to have a purchase agreement/invoice dated in 2009. So, you could have still shopped around.

It was a $6000 difference on mine....

I hate dealerships as much as you do. They will lie straight to your face and make all sorts of claims to strengthen their bargaining position. I was actually told a similar story by one dealership in my area. .."the 4500 eco credit was split 50/50 between the dealership and the factory, therefore we can't offer you more discount.." What I did? Bought from a different dealership for 1k over invoice.

The only thing we can do as consumers is patronize the dealerships that are (more) honest and not spend our money at the ones that are crooked. Unfortunately, since you ended up paying full price for the vehicle, the dealership and its employees did the right thing and negotiated perfectly with you to get every penny they could from you. The situation is directly analogous to real estate so I'm not sure why you showed your hand to them and expected them to give you something anyways.

On the other hand, I do agree that they should have thrown you a bone with a cheap phone adapter to make you happy. I hope they at least threw in the floor mats!

Anyways, enjoy the X5 and try to forget about the experience.

Yeah,

You all have some great words to share. The important thing is I got the car. Is the $2k off MSRP or thereabouts going to kill me? Of course not. But, I suppose it was the point of the whole thing. The gesture.

My mistake, was telling them that I HAD TO TAKE delivery by the 31st due to tax reasons. Believe it or not, I did call every dealer in Northern & Southern California. I must have called 20 to 30 dealers. I even called dealers in New York and Arizona. No dice.

Obviously that speaks highly of the demand for the vehicle, and had I had more time I would have walked for sure. But, oh well. I'm glad to know it's not just me who thought this was a crappy deal.

I'll never go back, and lesson learned. It's an awesome SAV and I'll post photos soon. Thanks for the moral support all!

Funny how pissed one can become over what amounts to 1.5% to 2% of the vehicle purchase price, in the scheme of things, but again it's the "gesture" that I was looking for. Alas, it's a recession, and I just bought a luxury SUV, maybe I should stay silent and enjoy life!

2,000 mile road trip starts Wednesday, through Southern California, Arizona, Colorado, and Northern California. Will report frequently!

Cheers,
E

P.S. for full disclosure, I required a 35d with Nav, so that limited the choices somewhat. The one I ended up with has adaptive drive which was also on my list of preferred, but not mandatory requirements, so I made out just fine, crappy dealer and all.

As some others have echoed, it's better to have the right car at a slightly inflated price than the wrong one at a great price.
In the future I would get on this Board during the process of buying. There are are lot of savvy people here in SAV world.

So true.

What I've learned from car buying is that you ALWAYS walk away. 90% of the time, they'll call you back with a better offer.

But as of late, the last three cars I bought were both from the dealer's internet sales. I was amazed at the ease of the process- how much less games/tactics/back and forth there is vs physically being at the dealership, and the pricing has almost always (3 out of 4 times) been less expensive from the Internet sales.

When I got my X5, it was well under invoice (due to trunk money). But while I was at the dealership a few months ago and asked about a custom built 35d. The sales wouldn't budge from MSRP, but would have if I got one that was on the lot.

Sorry to hear about your bad deal with Concord, I've found that most BMW dealers in the Bay Area are arrogant, and have an undeserved sense of self-importance. I hate walking into a dealership and being made felt like I am wasting their time (Stevens Creek BMW), or being treated with condescending attitude (Peter Pan BMW). I bought mine from a dealer 200 miles away because he claimed to have a production slot for 2nd week of November, and the initial experience and the deal were good, however once they got my deposit that was the end of good customer service. Now I am doubting that he told me the truth about the production week, as my car went into production 2 weeks late. Maybe it was just do to normal production delays, or maybe he lied to get my business as he knew the only reason I was choosing him was the production slot. From what I've read on these forums and from personal dealer visits, BMW of Mt. View seems to take care of their customers the best. This is only a superficial observation as I haven't actually bought a car from them, but when my 330i comes due for replacement I will probably try them.

mtech is so right.
Had that exact experience at a local Dealership last month.
The Salesman must of called me 6 times trying to sweeten the deal each time. I finally told him he should have read the recipe better and had the sweet taste right the first time.
Gave my business to a Dealer 100 miles away who came in at a fair price immediately.

Hmmmm....don't know if I would use the word "family" when referring to a car dealer. Unless you mean "crime family"?