[e90abc]

I'm looking to change my 3 series for something bigger either a 5 or 6 series. Seen a lot advertised at a couple of dealers not far from me, Big Motoring World and another called 4 Front. Anyone know which is the best to deal with.

[willhollin]

Originally Posted by e90abc

I'm looking to change my 3 series for something bigger either a 5 or 6 series. Seen a lot advertised at a couple of dealers not far from me, Big Motoring World and another called 4 Front. Anyone know which is the best to deal with.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275155

[e90abc]

Thanks for the link, obviously a few people have had problems with Big Motoring World, some of the comments are not the most objective I've heard. I'm looking to buy something with manufacturers warranty on it so I might still give them a look as they seem so much cheaper than a main dealer and some of the salesmen there can seriously piss you off. Any experience of 4 front they have quite a selection?

[pjs]

Stratstone Doncaster for oil service today, all very good. Free courtesy car and mine washed. Not even cracked an alloy! Plenty of tread left on my tyres.
January Joy.

[e90abc]

Well I've taken the plunge and bought a 520d se from Big Motoring World. I have to say I was very pleased with the whole process, dealt with a very nice lady, the car was very clean with service history and I reckon I've saved £1500 to £2000 compared with the local BMW dealers.
Picking it up Thursday so fingers crossed everything goes OK.

[E92Fan]

Originally Posted by e90abc

Well I've taken the plunge and bought a 520d se from Big Motoring World. I have to say I was very pleased with the whole process, dealt with a very nice lady, the car was very clean with service history and I reckon I've saved £1500 to £2000 compared with the local BMW dealers.
Picking it up Thursday so fingers crossed everything goes OK.

Check over that car VERY carefully...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275155

[Tippo]

Quick to post when things go wrong so to set the balance I will tell you about a much better experience at Benham in Wolverhampton today.

Was offered and made a hot drink on arrival and was picked up by a service lady straight away. Was warned that the diag fee would be chargable if nothing was found wrong with the car.

The brake fluid service was done and the DSC Light problem I had seemed to had dissappeared as they could not find anything wrong with the car. Good news then.

Was charged £144 all in for both the diag and brake fluid service so cannot complain too much about that.

The car was cleaned ok with no big dirty footprints on the door mat and sill this time. Hoorah.

Also the kind service lady showed me how to reset the MOT service date as it was showing the wrong month.

All in all very much better experience than last time. Well done Benham.

[E92westy]

Originally Posted by Tippo

Quick to post when things go wrong so to set the balance I will tell you about a much better experience at Benham in Wolverhampton today.

Was offered and made a hot drink on arrival and was picked up by a service lady straight away. Was warned that the diag fee would be chargable if nothing was found wrong with the car.

The brake fluid service was done and the DSC Light problem I had seemed to had dissappeared as they could not find anything wrong with the car. Good news then.

Was charged £144 all in for both the diag and brake fluid service so cannot complain too much about that.

The car was cleaned ok with no big dirty footprints on the door mat and sill this time. Hoorah.

Also the kind service lady showed me how to reset the MOT service date as it was showing the wrong month.

All in all very much better experience than last time. Well done Benham.

I've had good customer service from Benhams, despite the problems with my car and somewhat frequent visits...
Phonecalls returned and emails answered promptly, updates on progress given. Polite, friendly, helpful.
Everyone has a bad day at some point no doubt, but I haven't experienced their's yet.
Hope they keep it up!

[ComputerKnowHow]

I staved off writing about my experience with my local dealer until I'd got used to them and had used them a couple of times for servicing issues.

I bought my used BMW from Knights North Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent. I can only say how well I was treated from the moment I walked in. I knew I wanted a used 3-series, but had no idea whether petrol/diesel or ES/SE/M-Sport.

Within a couple of minutes John Smith (yes, that's his name, well it's really Jonathan Smith) was showing me straight to the many 3-series indoors which he knew were out of my price range but could explain the difference in trim levels. Some people have commented about the way they are treated depending on how they're dressed. I was in my jeans and trainers on the first occasion at the weekend, and it didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference - John was interested in getting me in the right car for me.

He advised that I could take as many test drives as I wished, and if there wasn't anything in their group stock he could keep searching for my ideal spec/price through the dealer network and closed auctions. I took 3 different cars out for test drives - 320si, 320d SE and 320d M Sport. I wanted a 320d M Sport but there wasn't one in stock with Knights.

Two weeks later, and I had found three cars on the BMW site I wanted - located in Edinburgh, Manchester and Wolverhampton. He advised he could generally get other groups' stock, but sometimes had issues with getting cars from Stratstone. John had also rung me about the one in Manchester.

No matter, the car I wanted was at Benhams in Wolverhampton. John gave me a £250 discount without being asked - you may not think it much, but I thought the car was at the right price in any case - had it driven to Knights, MOT'd taxed and fully valeted within 10 days and stuck half a tank of diesel in. The finance was a bit hard to follow, but I got 4 years of shortfall/gap insurance for the price of 3 into the bargain. John also took me out in a test drive of my chosen motor before I signed everything. I did have to provide a deposit, but I think that's only fair. I was committing to buying a car from him in any case. They took my Vauxhall Astra at a very fair price (above what Parkers and Glass recommend for a p/ex) and it was no hassle with them taking the car off my hands.

If you've seen any of my other posts, you'll notice I've had quite a lot of AUC warranty work done. I had to jump up and down a bit over the DSC failure in order to not pay for a courtesy car (Knights charge £10 for insurance cover) but each time the work has been carried out, car vacced and washed and completed when they said it would be done. We've had a bit of argy-bargy over the release of paperwork to me.

I've also had my fair share of free Starbucks coffee at Knights... I think Knights is pretty good.

In summary, if you're buying a used BMW in the Stoke-on-Trent area, try John at Knights. He's extremely courteous and wants to know what car you're interested. Oh, and the price? Cheaper than car supermarkets - I know, because I spent the interim couple of weeks scouring the local area... I understand used car prices have risen slightly since October/November 2009.

Hope this is useful info to anyone looking for a dealer.

Extra: I got a quote from parts at Knights North Staffs for the Alpine hi-fi upgrade. "Expensive" would be an understatement. Nearly £1000. I think not.

[e90abc]

Picked up the car Thurs afternoon, everything OK cleaned really well and touch ins done. I've about 100 miles in it now drives lovely, no problems, I'll keep you posted.

[Hotcoupe]

Originally Posted by e90abc

Picked up the car Thurs afternoon, everything OK cleaned really well and touch ins done. I've about 100 miles in it now drives lovely, no problems, I'll keep you posted.

Any pics?

[SORA MONKEY]

my experience is mixed anyway here goes:

1) Had boot adjusted by Vines of Gatwick (VOG), they broke the adjuster, replaced adjuster, attitude was "well these things happen". SA is no longer there.

2) Had services by VOG and replaced evaporator, fixed hot console issue with good service

3) Cooper Cobham oversprayed my car and i had to go back three times to correct, but they did.

4) Cooper cobham replaced my seat padding and headlight unit, just found that my rubber seal from the unit is missing.

So all in all VOG are not bad, not a dog anyway. Cooper have a good rep I view them as variable.

[Jeff123]

Stratstone Derby

Bought a 2 year old 320d M Sport Auto from this dealership just prior to Xmas. Although I am happy with the car (so far) and with the price, there are a number of factors that mean that I probably won't do business with them again in a hurry - unless I am looking for a specific car and their price is cheaper than others.

1. I agreed an outline deal over the phone and stupidly gave them a £500 credit card deposit to secure the deal until I could test drive the car the following day. When I was negotiating the finer points I was treated in a fairly threatening manner, with the Salesman claiming that I had already bought the car. I said that I would cancel the credit card transaction and he slightly backed down.

2. The Salesman was new to the job and constantly had to refer to colleagues. On the test drive, he could not answer simple questions, such as what MPG would you expect? What is the difference between M Sport and SE spec. I knew the answers, but was just making conversation.

3. They promised to valet the car (my 6 year old trade-in was cleaner), but, upon picking the car up, nothing had been done. In truth, the car was not filthy, but had things like coffee stains on the plastic trim, dirt on the seat adjustment etc.

4. What really pissed me off was the transfer (or not) of my private plate. I have had a private plate since 1988 and transferred it between 6 cars. Normally, I agree a deal and pick up the car a week or so later with the plate transferred. Stratstone flatly refused to do this for me and insisted upon transferring my number onto a retention certificate and have me drive around on a '57 plate for 2 weeks. They then contacted me to say the plate could be put on the car. They claimed that the DVLA rules had been tightened recently to prevent "ringers" etc. I rang the DVLA and a guy said that he did not know what they were talking about - WHAT DO OTHERS THINK ABOUT THIS?

5. I was taken into a separate office and a guy from finance tried to sell me 5 types of insurance:
- Extended warranty
- Tyre damage cover (£249)
- Shortfall insurance
- Motor insurance
- Scratch and dent insurance

This all seemed OTT to me.

6. I had to take the car to another BMW dealer after a couple of weeks for a minor issue and they did a "healthcheck" on the car - tyres, brakes etc. They pointed out that all my tyres were wearing on the inner rim. The worst case was 7mm of tread in the middle of the tyre and 4.2mm on the inner. Concerned that I may have to replace "good" tyres prematurely, I contacted Stratstone and was told that there was nothing that they were prepared to do as the tyres were all above 3mm tread. I have had to have the car wheels "Hunter" aligned, where they found that 8 out of 12 checks were out of tolerance. One was so far out that it was off then end of the scale! In my opinion, Stratstone sold me an "approved" BMW knowing that the alignment was likely to be out.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but I am on crutches and have some time on my hands for the next week or so.

Jeff

[- Paul -]

Not long winded at all Jeff - thanks for taking the time to pass comment - I hope it will help others in future.

[Jules6]

Originally Posted by Hotcoupe

Any pics?

Would love to see pics????

[jimmycyn]

Found my ex demo E92 on-line at Listers Kings Lynn. Transported to me in Scotland. Car NOT as described i.e partial respray, worn leather and odd bits. Was offered full refund but settled for cashback and ALL items rectified to my complete satisfaction.

Manager Dave and salesperson Shaun are great to deal with and were so keen to make matters right. Do give them a go, especially if you live nearby

[Jeff123]

Stratstone Derby - addition

One thing that I forgot from my previous post.

The car is 2 years old and was prepped by the company before sale, however, I asked about previous service history as the book was not stamped. It seems that the car had an oil service 6 months ago - £146 at Fawdington Newcastle, by the previous owner. Stratsone managed to get me a faxed copy of the work for my records.

However, I am now in the process of sending the service book to Newcastle to get it updated and stamped, plus a proper copy of the invoice.

As I see it, if you are buying a BMW that is still within the manufacturers warranty from a main dealer, you are paying a premium price for a vehicle that should be "quality" stock. The very least the seller should do is to make sure that the service records are up-to-date and the book stamped. Surely, this is a really easy thing for a junior member of staff to do!

None of the problems that I have encountered are major, it's just the kind of attention to detail that a premium brand should offer.

Jeff

[dxb335d]

I rekom E90abc is dodgy.

[simples]

Originally Posted by dxb335d

I rekom E90abc is dodgy.

hmmm, i wonder. nah can't be?

[Jeff123]

No

The car is fine. Almost unmarked both outside and inside. Well built, runs well, etc. I spoke to the guy in service at Newcastle and there isn't a problem - just a lack of a stamp in the book. When you sell it, that what people seem to look for.

Jeff

[Jules6]

Originally Posted by dxb335d

I rekom E90abc is dodgy.

+1 Deffo

[NFS]

Originally Posted by dxb335d

I rekom E90abc is dodgy.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...94#post6576094