[Hej]

Got my '06 330i there a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that they're the only BMW dealership within an hours or so drive, they still worked to earn my business. Even though I've been tire kicking periodically for over a year, and generally didn't give off the aura of "guy with money" or even "serious buyer", the sales rep I dealt with never acted impatient with me as if I was wasting his time. His attitude was always "whatever you want to do".

When I finally decided to bite the bullet and get the car I had my eye on, it was brought to my attention by the financing lady that, due to some bullshit with Sprint and possibly also with an apartment complex I lived in many years ago, my credit score was about 100 points lower than expected on two out of the three credit bureaus. While she was processing my apps and trying to find a lender for the car, she warned me that I was looking at between 8.5% and 9% for the loan. However, major props to her, because she went the extra mile and shopped around some more, and eventually found a lender who was willing to use the 3rd credit bureau which (for some reason) still listed me as having top of the line credit. In the end, I got 7.3% on my loan, which is a tad lower than the standard rate they offer with their used cars.

Another thing that suprised me, was that since we found the BS on my credit report, since I wanted an opportunity to try to get better financing through a credit bureau (which I didn't), they basically let me take the car on loan without paying for it. After I initially dealt with the financing lady, my sales rep and another lady there sat me down and went over the cars controls & features and what not, and the lady even took care of programming the cars bluetooth to work with my phone. Ultimately, I finally left the dealership about an hour and a half after they closed, and continued to drive the car I didn't technically own for 4 days before coming back to finalize the loan.

After I had already taken delivery of the car (i.e. signed the financing paperwork), I discovered that there was what sounded like loose change sliding around inside the center console housing every time I got on the gas or brakes hard enough. I went back and mentioned this to them, knowing that this is not something that would be considered a "warrantee" repair. And even though that is the case, and I already had taken the car, they still agreed to take care of it at no charge with no arm twisting at all. I know that a big part of this is because they want to recieve top marks on the phone survey I'm expected to get about my experience with them, but there are plenty of other dealerships out there with alot more local competition that wouldn't really be that worried about it.

Keep in mind that the dealership as a whole probably only made about $600~$700 on the transaction (and figure the sales reps cut was probably $200 absolute tops). Yet at no point did anybody dismiss me as some idiot that they didn't need to show any respect to. Not to mention that there were three people there that all stayed there about 2 hours after closing to take care of me. I am mostly impressed just because it's so rare to find businesses that seem to take customer service as seriously as they do. We'll see if any of this changes in the future, after I've already given my telephone survey. But for now I'd definately recommend them to people I know. If anybody is interested in getting a car there, let me know as I'd be happy to refer you to the sales advisor that helped me.

[Hej]

P.S. ...

I also received good service from their service department. Things got off to a little bit of a bumpy start when they didn't have the part needed when I dropped the car off, even though I made an appointment. I was also having them get out some junk that had fallen down inside the center console and was making noise when I accellerated and stopped (which took two tries, as it turned out there was also some loose change in the floor vents).

After I got the car back and left the dealership, I found some scratches in my car that I was certain (but had no proof) were not there before. I went back to talk to the SA again, expecting to be told that it the scratches weren't their fault, and unless I could prove it was there was nothing they could do about it. Instead, he told me it was no problem to have the guys in the detail department buff them out. Although it was a bit of a hassle with getting everything taken care of, in the end I was happy that they took care of all the problems no questions asked and without charge.

[drw1926]

Yep, Baron's pretty good all around. I've only been in the KC area about 10 months, but I have used their service department a lot (83 E21 ) and bought a lot of parts and they are generally good folks. Most of the sales staff I have dealt with are great people too, but there are a couple to avoid like the plague. HIGHLY recommend Greg Griswold, super nice guy, no BS, actually RETURNS PHONE CALLS - can you believe that?

[cbtruckin]

This delaership is BARON BMW, Merrriam, Kansas

I went up to the dealer today to have them show me what they were going to do for $1000.

Long story short.

Had car in two months ago for alignment, wife picked car up, SA showed her the alignment specs and said everything was back in specs. Now wife isn't very car savy. SA says everything is good you believe.

Now we are finally able to get car back to dealer to check alignment because it still wasn't right. This is when SA told me car had right front repairs done to it and right strut bent. (We bought it used from a Suzuki dealer with clean carfax, so somewhere along the line the front right got banged up, someone fixed the right fender and maybe wheel, but did not fix bent strut with an insurance claim. My fault, I thought I looked everything over with a fine tooth comb but when pointed out I could tell. I'm not trying to get dealer to fix anything for free.) So SA makes it a point to let me know that damage was done between alignments and they fixed it the first time. I told him, "we've not had any accidents in two months. My wife didn't get the alignment specs from the first time so I ask him about the specs. He can't find the sheet and the "File Guy is gone for the night".

So I just show up this morning to check everything out. He goes over the repair order with me and I get copies of everything and I see the alignment spec sheet, so I ask him about it. He said he just found it this morning and the right front camber was out 2 degrees (bad) the first time they aligned it. So the strut was bent the first time they aligned it. I ask him, "So it was bent the first time, the mechanic did this alignment, gave the sheet to you and went over it with my wife and told her everything was back within specs and took her money, right?" Nothing but a blank stare. Then he told me that I wouldn't have to pay for the second alignment after I tell him that he's trying to screw me for two alinments. I asked to speak to the Service Manager and told him the story. He said he was sorry and this was their "Best Mechanic". I didn't say what I wanted to but asked for a refund for the first alignment that was incompetently done and give me back my car.

He asked what he could do to make it right. I told him I didn't have the confidence in their dealership to have any paid service done. Maybe the free oil change later on but I doubt it.

I took it to Autopia (local indy shop recommended by KC BMW forum), put it on rack, they showed me what was wrong and how to fix it and if they did it I was more than welcome to watch them. I told them to order parts and make an appointment. Plus it's about $300 cheaper.

So I called the Dealership manager and left a message, he's out for the week. We'll see if he gets back to me. I don't think I could let the dealer fix for this free now.


Just thought I'd put this out.
Thanks,
Corey