[a14lee]

Hi everyone,

Thank you to the community at large for providing excellent information on everyone's favorite car manufacturer. I hope to add a little information to the wealth already contained in these pages.

I am in St. Louis, and I will be heading out this weekend to go negotiate for a new e90 335i. It seems like people are getting near dealer invoice for their cars, so that will be my starting point.

I have been visiting the various dealers over the last two weeks and here are my thoughts so far:

Suntrup BMW - First contact was painless. I went to test drive a CPO 328 stick they had, and the CA had the keys/car ready within 35 minutes of me calling them ahead of time. Unfortunately, my experience with them since has not been so good. I told them about the car I wanted to trade in and my goal on price. I also told him I would bring my wife by on the weekend to test drive the 328 and a 335 they had on the lot. I called ahead on Saturday, he wasn't there, so I left a message, but have not heard from him in 2 weeks. I have also read a lot of bad info on the entire Suntrup company.

Plaza - I called ahead and asked if they had any 335i's with manual transmission. Talked to a CA and he was pretty helpful, "tracking down" a used 335i manual they had on the lot, which turned out to be a pretty ludicrously equipped car. He was busy helping another customer by the time I got there, so he put me in touch with the used car CA, who was very helpful in finding cars for me to look at and test drive. The only 335i's they had however were slushboxes, but at least my visit was not wasted.

Autohaus of Clayton - I called about 20 minutes before showing up to look at a CPO 330i with stick they had, was told they had it. I showed up, and they no longer had it, but there was another one they just got in trade. I was told they would detail it, certify it, and notify me when it was available to test drive. Although it feels like a bait and switch, the CA has been very good at keeping in communication, giving me updates about the status of the car (which is still not available 2 weeks later because of some body work they had to do to it for a scratch). Correspondence rate however has been A+ so far.

I'll keep you guys informed about how it goes this weekend. Hopefully, it will help anyone else in the St. Louis area interested in a new BMW gauge how to approach the dealerships here, which I have heard are all pretty bad.

FYI, a friend of mine custom ordered a 335i last year before the economy exploded for 2.5% above invoice and received delivery within 6 weeks. I am anticipating with BMW sales down 20% in May 09 compared to May 08 that I will be able to do better than that.

Thanks for reading this far.

[IlliniDave]

I got my CPO'd 330i through Autohaus (Gerd Peterman). Great customer service in both the sales and service. I had the N52 engine ticking problem and they did the full cylinder head replacement before the 2nd required bleed process (I didn't even have to force the issue), so good there.

Good luck!

[a14lee]

So I went to Autohaus and Plaza today. The two experiences were quite different.

I have to say that Autohaus treats you very well and does not try the typical carsalesperson tactics to get you to buy a car or pay more for a car. It was pretty easy to negotiate down to a price which was within 500 dollars of invoice for the car we wanted; however, they came up far short on the trade-in value of my car (4k+ short). They told me that they use black book to get car values. I have heard this before, but find it really irritating when dealers do this, especially considering that car dealer auctions do not allow for the same sort of close inspection of the car as a trade-in. Another thing that is irritating, maybe understandable from the dealer's standpoint, is they use the "good" condition to value your car. Give me a break... as I'm sure everyone on this forum can appreciate, people that are into cars take good care of their cars. I have brand new tires on my car (less than 1000 miles) and I get nothing for it. What's the point of negotiating down to a price, only to lose it in the trade-in value of your car?

Plaza was different. The salesperson did the typical salesperson maneuvers... "where did you get this number?" "No, that's not invoice, that's below invoice." "we don't make any money if we sell you the car at this price." I literally got up to leave no less than four times during the negotiation process only to witness a dramatic change of heart. That is so irritating. Then when we went to value the trade-in, they offered 2k LESS than autohaus had even. The salesperson had then proceeded to tell me that I should look at the trade-in as really 4k more than they were offering me because I had negotiated 4k off the MSRP of the car I wanted to order. The most annoying part is that Plaza has a car very similar to mine, just 2 years newer, that they're listing at DOUBLE what they offered me. You would think with the volume and advertising and brand diversity, Plaza would be less inclined to rip you off, but oh well. The fifth time I got up to leave, the CA yet again said "wait, let me tell the manager you're leaving." Another 5 minutes and he came back to say we could go. A partial save happened when he apologized for wasting my time.

I work nights this week (at work now haha), so I didn't have time to go to Suntrup. Stay tuned for that report.

All in all, I would have to say Autohaus had a classy feel to it. Plaza had the typical dealer feel to it. Of course, I only dealt with one CA, so maybe the others are different.

On the bright side, the economy right now will allow you to negotiate to within hundreds of dollars of invoice. At this point, I recommend Autohaus.

[JeezuzFr3ak]

I ended up buying my car at Isringhausen in Springfield, Illinois, as I had nothing but bad experiences at the other BMW dealers in St. Louis. However, I had not gone to Autohaus, which I have since heard good things about.

Granted, it was a 1.5 hour drive, but Isringhausen was great in all respects. They actually offered to deliver the car to me, but I wanted to be the first one to drive it (other than factory QA).

You can go to their website and contact the internet sales rep, who is great. They don't play any games during the sales process, and I got the best price through them.

In all, I think it was worth the trip.

It's also worth noting that Plaza BMW has done a great job with service, and their service foreman Jeff is really good at what he does.

Good luck, and make sure you get free floor mats! I can't believe they make floor mats an option....

[a14lee]

Well, here's the update.

I ordered a BMW! yay.

A. Isringhausen never responded to my internet query.

I ended up going to Suntrup West County BMW and they beat the best offer I had by 1000 bucks. I received KBB value for "good" condition for my trade-in and the price of the car was as good as the offers at the other two places.

I will say that I was treated very courteously by the salespeople there, and did not experience any of the weird bullying/accosting behavior that I had read about this dealership on the internet. There was not even any of the typical dealership hassle like I had experienced at Plaza. They had even called me earlier in the week with an 07 335i with manual transmission that was a lease return. They also had an 08 335i that had been sitting on the lot since last year with 78 miles on it. Alas, I chose to make my BMW exactly as I wanted it.

Since I bought my car there, I will have to say I recommend Suntrup. Both for ease of transaction and for price.

Now I just wait for the production number. The wait is going to suck...

[stevepoz]

Congratulations on your purchase.

The key is getting a good salesperson. I found a good one in Brett Midgley at Autohaus and had a very good buying experience. My purchase process took a long time and for some reason, the people I dealt with at Suntrup kept leaving.

[tulsas]

Congrats. I had VERY bad experiences with all the STL dealers, and I ended up buying from Newbold in O'Fallon IL. I highly recommend them. Plus, their service department is tuner friendly. If you haven't added a piggyback yet, you should go for a ride in a 335i with one. It totally transforms the car. I went to the dealer to buy a new M3, but after driving the service managers 335i with a piggyback, I saved 15K and bought the 335i.

[stressdoc]

The distance is certainly an issue, but fwiw I have been extremely happy with Machens in Columbia, MO, especially the service dept.

[335iPaul]

I go to Plaza because it is close to work, and so far with regards to service, they have been pretty good. I have not gotten a real "warm fuzzy" from any of the SA's there though so I don't deal with any specific one at this point. I think it is because most of the SA's are older and to them I am some dumb kid with a Bimmer coming in who thinks he knows everything (often times I do know more than they do about the car though).

With Tulsas saying that Newbold is tuner friendly though, I may keep them in mind. I didn't buy new, so I dont have a purchase story.

[stevepoz]

Originally Posted by 335iPaul

I go to Plaza because it is close to work, and so far with regards to service, they have been pretty good. I have not gotten a real "warm fuzzy" from any of the SA's there though so I don't deal with any specific one at this point. I think it is because most of the SA's are older and to them I am some dumb kid with a Bimmer coming in who thinks he knows everything (often times I do know more than they do about the car though).

With Tulsas saying that Newbold is tuner friendly though, I may keep them in mind. I didn't buy new, so I dont have a purchase story.

When I took my E90 in to Autohaus, I had a good 15 minute conversation with the SA when I went to pick it up. It was a very casual and laid back atmosphere. MUCH different than when I used to get my Passat from the Dean Team in Kirkwood

[Mike01ci]

Originally Posted by stevepoz

Congratulations on your purchase.

The key is getting a good salesperson. I found a good one in Brett Midgley at Autohaus and had a very good buying experience. My purchase process took a long time and for some reason, the people I dealt with at Suntrup kept leaving.

Brett knows his bmws...I would highly recommend!.... email/sms/phone etc he is always available...