[onesixeight]

For anyone in the Honolulu (O'ahu) area...

Go see Glenn Mervine at BMW of Honolulu! I've bought at least 10 cars from them in the last few years and they have the best service in the business. I bought a 745 Li from them 2 years ago and the car has been in the shop constantly for numerous problems. The management at BMW have offered to buy back my car without question. I still have the car and I am waiting for a 750 replacement car. I always get a loaner 530 Sport whenever I bring my car in for service!

I ordered a new 3 series for my sister and can't wait for delivery!

[kahala12]

Hi Onesixeight,

I live in the area as well, I have had a 330 for a little over a year, with nothing but problems with it, I must bring it into bmw of honolulu as least once every 2 months for a "new surprise" lucky it is under warranty. But never the less, they always tell me that loaner cars are scarce, and most of the time I have a shuttle or if less than a day, and if I need a car to drive I have to foot the bill for a rental from enterprise. The few times you are able to get a loaner its a 3 series. But anyway I have ordered a new 330I with some hestitaion as far a reliability and might hop over to mercedes since they have a fleet of loaners, as I still have not taken delivery of my car and my deposit can be refunded.Does you salesperson make sure you have a loaner or is it just within the realm of the service dept?.I would like to know, so I can address the issue before I take the keys.

Aloha

[Athos]

Kahala--you might want to consider that Mercedes has had a lot of quality problems in the last few years--way more than BMW. I was considering a Mercedes before I decided on the BMW e90 (the new 3.5 v6 in the e-class and c-class sounds pretty good) but apart from the differences in cars there were a couple of things that didn't weigh in Mercedes favor. One was their recent history of quality problems. The second was that they no longer cover maintenance with model year 2005 so you have to pay for all non-warranty maintenance now.

[nimo]

Great customer service with BMW of Honolulu. FYI, I dealt with Curtis Fujimura. $34,000 out the door for a Titanium Silver, auto, and sirus satelite system-325i. What do you guys think on the price, could I have gone lower?

[kahala12]

Originally Posted by nimo

Great customer service with BMW of Honolulu. FYI, I dealt with Curtis Fujimura. $34,000 out the door for a Titanium Silver, auto, and sirus satelite system-325i. What do you guys think on the price, could I have gone lower?

Why would you get Sirus?, you cannot receive sat radio here in Hawaii as of yet. I have had much better results dealing with dealers on the mainland than at BMW Honolulu, not to bash anyone at the dealership, but form my recent experiences with them, I will never again try and buy from them again.I am purchasing a ED 330i, with CA,AT,Premium,AS,Metallic Paint, for 39,500 including shipping to Honolulu.BMW of Honolulu will not really negotiate on price as other dealers on the mainland will, and they seem to have attiudes if you ask for any kind of deal. So in essence I will give BMW of Honolulu a -5 on a scale to 10, but thats just my opinion.

[nimo]

Well, the car came with Sirus, I did ask them to remove it and remove the cost but he couldn't do that yet did lower the cost.

You are right they don't budge much, but I wanted a 2006 model, and there were no used ones yet and no other dealers on the island. Salemans reply to my negotiating: "Not everyone can drive a BMW. BMW does not make as much profit as Lexus or Acura. And most luxury dealers can't compare their warranty and maintenance with BMW." I needed a car that time and they gave me the highest trade in value for my problem camoflauge vehicle. I did not want to wait 3 months for an ordered one and the titanium silver just sold me. I did bring in a internet build sheet printout with just the non-metalic paint and steptronic transmission option which help bring down the cost a little.


Here is the break down of my car before negotiating:

2006 BMW 325i $30995
automatic 1275
metallic paint 475
sirus 595
destination charge 695
subtotal $34035

tax 1418
docs. & lic 310

total ~$35800

[kahala12]

Originally Posted by nimo

Well, the car came with Sirus, I did ask them to remove it and remove the cost but he couldn't do that yet did lower the cost.

You are right they don't budge much, but I wanted a 2006 model, and there were no used ones yet and no other dealers on the island. Salemans reply to my negotiating: "Not everyone can drive a BMW. BMW does not make as much profit as Lexus or Acura. And most luxury dealers can't compare their warranty and maintenance with BMW." I needed a car that time and they gave me the highest trade in value for my problem camoflauge vehicle. I did not want to wait 3 months for an ordered one and the titanium silver just sold me. I did bring in a internet build sheet printout with just the non-metalic paint and steptronic transmission option which help bring down the cost a little.


Here is the break down of my car before negotiating:

2006 BMW 325i $30995
automatic 1275
metallic paint 475
sirus 595
destination charge 695
subtotal $34035

tax 1418
docs. & lic 310

total ~$35800

Well seems like you made a good choice, you do have to wait if you order, at least 3 months , I ordered from them, but I cancelled as I did not like the deal they were offering, so I have a BMW already so it is easier to wait, yes the cars are that good, well worth the wait. Nevertheless I know you will really enjoy your car, just gald you did not have to pay for Sat Radio . hope you have many happy miles with your new BMW, enjoy

[nimo]

Kahala, thanks for the reply. Hopefully, we can have more local residents BMW owners post on this thread and share our knowledge.

Do you happen to know of any reasonable wheel shop in Honolulu? I would like to upgrade from the stocks 16".

[Asiann]

Very good with the whole buying process even though they dented my bumper and fixed it of course. The sales magager sucks and my first impression is that he is an asshole. Other than that Kui was my salesman and did a very good job with everything! Now lets see how the service is.

[Storto]

I just purchased a 2008 328i coupe and I'm expecting delivery soon. I have had a great experience when I'm physically at the dealership, but I have made three phone calls to two different people and have yet to get a call back. I think it may be the fact that I'm a pretty big guy, and I always seem to get good face-to-face service, or maybe none of their voice-mail works .
I made some inquiries about having an alarm and an iPhone tray installed while I was at the dealership. The parts department was extremely helpful and at the top of their game. They couldn't find the iPhone parts while I was there. They asked for my phone number, and stated they would give me a call if they found anything out. I got a call no more than 10 minutes after I left the dealership.

• 5 for the Parts guys
• 3 to the people I got transfered to

[vision54]

Originally Posted by kahala12

Hi Onesixeight,

I live in the area as well, I have had a 330 for a little over a year, with nothing but problems with it, I must bring it into bmw of honolulu as least once every 2 months for a "new surprise" lucky it is under warranty. But never the less, they always tell me that loaner cars are scarce, and most of the time I have a shuttle or if less than a day, and if I need a car to drive I have to foot the bill for a rental from enterprise. The few times you are able to get a loaner its a 3 series. But anyway I have ordered a new 330I with some hestitaion as far a reliability and might hop over to mercedes since they have a fleet of loaners, as I still have not taken delivery of my car and my deposit can be refunded.Does you salesperson make sure you have a loaner or is it just within the realm of the service dept?.I would like to know, so I can address the issue before I take the keys.

Aloha

Kahala,

Sorry to hear that you are having so many problems with your 330i, but thinking about getting into an MBZ would be a downgrade in my humble opinion. Let me elaborate. When MBZ bought Chrysler, MBZ got the short end of the deal. Chrysler engines and other major parts got better due to MBZ cross platform theory and engineering. Chrysler jumped in quality where as MBZ QA went down quite a bit. Although I no longer live in Honolulu, but I see more and more Chryslers on the road and believe it or not some of them are ex-Benz owners. I currently drive a 2008 M3 convertible and owned it for about a year. Fortunately I haven't had any problems. The M3 is my 9th BMW in 15 years and I have to say nothing drives like a BMW.

Several reasons why MBZ I would think three times before buying a Benz.

-High Price tag compared to the comparable, bad resale value
-Quality assurance isn't like what it used to be.
-Oil change and maintenance, you foot the bill. at least BMW covers maintenance for 4/yrs 50K miles.

Give BMW another chance, I think of buying a new car just the same as meeting a new companion, She's has to look and feel good, Intelligent, low maintenance, and most importantly FUN to be with. I know you don't get that in an MBZ. How do I know? I just get into my friends MBZ.

Good Luck.

BTW, The problem with the loaner availability? Whenever you get called for a survey on your visit, always give them a bad score on the convenience of your visit. If they don't recieve all 5's on their score they will not get the $150/ customer visit and BMW dings them for the overall annual bonus at the end of the year. The outcome would be that the GM will call you personally to have you share your unpleasant experience.

Aloha.

James

[HIE92M3 owner]

To all BMW owners an future buyers:

I literally bought $250,000 worth of cars from BMW of Honolulu! I had excellent service from the sales department and parts. The only problem I had was with the service department. They damaged my m6 twice consecutively when I brought it in for service. The first time it was damaged.....they basically called me a Liar and said the damage was already there before I brought it in! They ended up fixing the damage because I had a witness who saw them drive my car around before the service
concierge inspected my car. The second time they damaged my car...they couldn't say anything because I inspected the car with one of the service guy.
I really could not believe they damaged my $110,000 m6 and are not cautious with a high price car. I bust my ass for everything that I buy and it pisses me off these
assholes have no respect for someones car!!! Especially if
they want return business! I was vert hesitant to purchase
another car from them but I really like the new M3 and
the new smg double clutch transmission and the total look
of the car. Unfortunately just last week they damaged my
front quarter panel! What really pissed me off was the
servicing manager(Mark Hironaka) was not willing to fix
the damage and accusing me of being a liar and thought the damages were already there??!!! WTf!!! Dejavious again! The only one who stepped up to rectify the situation was the sales manager Glenn Mervine the sales manager. I am not saying everyone in the service department are bad but obviously they have some isssues back there. Also the way the servicing manager handled the whole situation unfortunately will reflect the company as a whole and I can honestly say I will never buy a BMW from that dealership. I am actually looking to purchase the new Audi S5.

[HIE92M3 owner]

Also I wanted to add to my last comment. They also changed the presets on my radio and racked up 5 miles to my car! Why did they change the presets to my radio and WTF did they put 5 miles to my car? It's pretty obvious some asshole or assholes were joyriding in my car and they have no control who handles your car or monitors it.