[nerdogray]

Thing that gets me are the actual laws that protect dealers. I've read about them, and it seems like so much wagging the dog trying to justify their existence. The whole time I'm reading it just seems like complete, artificial crap... pure greed disguised as "for the good of the consumer."

[nerdogray]

Nice ivory tower.

[Equilibrandt]

Sounds like most people in this thread have dealership Stockholm syndrome.

Similar to EVs vs Combustion cars..

Even if we DID have the ability to move to direct manufacturer ordering, do you all honestly think every dealership would close the next day? Good God, it's time to keep up with the times instead of whining like cranky old men. Y'all sound like my parents did when the first touch-screen smartphone came out and they clutched their flip phones, certain that a damn computer would NEVER replace their Motorola Razr.

The next ten years will probably have some sort of hybrid model (in states that would allow it) where dealers test the waters with online, manufacturer to buyer transactions; these will probably be a very small percentage of sales. These auto manufacturers don't have the luxury of instantly swapping to the cutting-edge sales methodology of companies like Tesla (which is a tech start-up that broke into the automotive state and wasn't burdened by a century of automotive process).

[BimaXfanatic]

Originally Posted by cheveux

Aticle: https://observador.pt/2022/05/30/bmw...ios-na-europa/ (IN PORTUGUESE)

A friend of mine is responsible for the BMW website in Portugal had already warned me. BMW is moving towards changing the way it sells cars, to a model identical to Tesla. They are 100% online purchases without interaction with the seller.
What do you think about this? I personally find it ridiculous. I think an investment in a car, with high values, should always be a deal made with human connection, someone we can trust.

For bmw, dealers become agents and salespeople become "car specialists" who only deliver cars.

What do you think?
Will this at least translate into lower prices?

Originally Posted by cheveux

Aticle: https://observador.pt/2022/05/30/bmw...ios-na-europa/ (IN PORTUGUESE)

A friend of mine is responsible for the BMW website in Portugal had already warned me. BMW is moving towards changing the way it sells cars, to a model identical to Tesla. They are 100% online purchases without interaction with the seller.
What do you think about this? I personally find it ridiculous. I think an investment in a car, with high values, should always be a deal made with human connection, someone we can trust.

For bmw, dealers become agents and salespeople become "car specialists" who only deliver cars.

What do you think?
Will this at least translate into lower prices?

Europe is a lot far away and most bimmer imports come from them though lol

[shawnhayes]

Originally Posted by OUGrad05

Tesla does have local service centers. BMW will still have local service centers.

Mine is 2 hour drive away. We have two 100,000 person cities with none within 1 hour of either.

Each of those cities has a BMW dealership, and the city where the Tesla center is has two.

Not the same.

Shawn

[Vivek.]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

Besides that, dealers generate a great deal of their income from service and warranty work so losing sales may not effect whether a dealer would want to continue.

Call pretty much any dealership and their recording will say "press 1 for service, 2 for parts, and 3 for sales". They've made a pittance on new car sales for years now and probably won't miss that revenue stream.


My roommate owns a Tesla (kinda raves about their lack of dealership BS) and recently bought a used truck for home improvements. Needed some recalls done. First dealer said they couldn't fit him for a month so he called another, got a sooner appointment. Called the first one to cancel his appointment and they magically found one for Monday, even earlier than the other place. If these service centers were manufacturer-run none of them would have any incentive to do warranty/recall work (in a timely manner if at all)

[SteveinArizona]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

I have mixed feelings. I have a deposit down on a Lucid Air Pure but I have a good relationship with my local BMW dealership (which is only a couple of miles away) and view that as a BMW advantage. I actually have the IX 50 as my second current choice behind the Lucid (which needs to get its software act together). Now if BMW could only get rid of the ugly (and now obviously useless) front grille.............

Anytime anything goes wrong with my BMW they always say come right in and they have a loaner for me.

Well...I couldn't do it. The grille on the IX is just too ugly for me. I switched to a deposit on a Lyriq to back up my Lucid plan.

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by SteveinArizona

Well...I couldn't do it. The grille on the IX is just too ugly for me. I switched to a deposit on a Lyriq to back up my Lucid plan.

To me the grill on the iX was the opposite of the M4. On the M4 I wasn't too crazy about it in pictures but thought it looked quite good in person. For the iX I didn't think it looked bad in pictures but once I saw it in person I didn't like it at all. Like the interior, it looked cheap to me.

[Quadruple VANOS]

Moving the sales process to an online model is undeniably an advantage to the seller whenever the product is easy to understand; and made by a well known brand. Vehicles from BMW check both those boxes. BMW is smart enough to see this reality and is acting accordingly. Hope everyone likes interacting with customer service bots!

[RM7]

Originally Posted by snareman

I'm still able to negotiate. I got $2,000 off my M8 going through a broker. That's not going to happen if it all goes direct through BMW

Wow, you saved 2K on a $150,000 car. You must be proud.

[RM7]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

The elimination of the "sales stealership" business model has already been invented and is available to all....think Carvana, CarMax, TrueCar, Costco, CarsDirect, CarSense, etc, etc, etc

Not really, at least with Costco, all you do is set a price. It's not a great price, but its a good price and you don't have to at least fight over that...but dealerships still play all the games with rebates, mfr financing options, trying to push you into their local financers for kickbacks, offering ridiculous "protection" packages on top, and so on.

They play "dumb" when it comes to mfr offers and hope they can trick you out of applying/getting them.

[snareman]

Originally Posted by RM7

Wow, you saved 2K on a $150,000 car. You must be proud.

Thanks for the snarky response, but yes these days that's a heck of a discount.

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by RM7

Wow, you saved 2K on a $150,000 car. You must be proud.

The last time I checked, $2,000 is still $2,000!

[RM7]

Originally Posted by snareman

Thanks for the snarky response, but yes these days that's a heck of a discount.

Well I saved 2K on a 50K car by doing the Costco thing, so IMO the dealer model is doing you no favors…

[snareman]

Originally Posted by RM7

Well I saved 2K on a 50K car by doing the Costco thing, so IMO the dealer model is doing you no favors…

Not sure how the Costco thing works, but I saved another $2,000 doing the USAA thing which I assume is maybe similar. I wouldn't have saved the first 2000 if it wasn't for the broker /dealer process.

[RM7]

Originally Posted by snareman

Not sure how the Costco thing works, but I saved another $2,000 doing the USAA thing which I assume is maybe similar. I wouldn't have saved the first 2000 if it wasn't for the broker /dealer process.

Yes, it should be similar, negotiating a price. But the % you are saving and the % as your disposal income is much less, given the value of the car. If you think this is doing huge favors for you, more power to you, but the majority of people are ready to shed the dealer model. The writing is on the walls. At this point with the success of Tesla and similar business models, it’s going to be adapt/evolve or die.

Eventually dealers will be like video rental stores.

[snareman]

Originally Posted by RM7

Yes, it should be similar, negotiating a price. But the % you are saving and the % as your disposal income is much less, given the value of the car. If you think this is doing huge favors for you, more power to you, but the majority of people are ready to shed the dealer model. The writing is on the walls.

I'm not saying I'm in love with dealers. Heck I recently disowned my dealer that I had been blindly loyal to for 15 years and 7 BMWs because of horrible service from multiple people there and am now a free market buyer. I'm just pointing out that there are trade offs.

[BobBMWX3]

I have had some great experiences at dealerships and some bad ones...funny enough even at the same dealership. I am currently not a fan of buying many things online only, but have had to change my mindset. I could see that happening with cars. I had a great experience purchasing custom shelves online.

There are a lot people that have basically bought BMWs all online (getting an allocation, ordering, etc). There are a number of car buying options that are online only now. It is already happening. Maybe the dealership model will change to meet this new market.

[Westside Guy]

Originally Posted by BobBMWX3

I have had some great experiences at dealerships and some bad ones...funny enough even at the same dealership. I am currently not a fan of buying many things online only, but have had to change my mindset. I could see that happening with cars. I had a great experience purchasing custom shelves online.

Buying at a dealer can be compared to getting married.

Some people like to use online dating apps and others prefer to meet the old fashioned way, in person.

Some people have good experiences with marriage and others have had bad ones.

I have been married 3 times and all of the above applies to me.

PS, it never hurts to go for a test drive!

[SpartanFan]

Originally Posted by itrocks4u

I have yet to meet a sales rep who is knowledgeable enough to tell me more about the car than what I can find via Google search ams these forums.

Ordering online, with all sorts of options and being able to track it is all one needs.

Yep, my sales rep didn't even know that the HK radio was available and had a customer waiting for it to be available to order. This forum provides so much more valuable info that the dealerships.

[pr0gi]

What about my precious discounts

[jp1984]

Originally Posted by DocL

So no more hard sales pitch from the salesperson about the paint protection plan for $900 that they already put on the car? I loved calling them out on that BS.

Nope! Now those will be added automatically, with one of those light gray boxes right next to it that are already checked, but for some reason you can't unclick it.

No matter how hard you try/ what you do.

Then you see you are about to be timed out on your order, but you have already waited in queue for an 390 minutes, plus you got in the "special allocation" queue, which is even harder to get back into.

So you can roll the dice with calling BMW HQ to get that removed, but ya know, then you end up in a phone tree and never speak to anyone.

Eventually your car arrives and they forgot to do the $900 PPF AND you paid for it. Sales manager says contact BMW HQ because they did the order - BMW HQ says contact local dealership because they have the car.



I think I will stick to classics from now on haha.