[cybermaster]

All NorCal BMW enthusiasts,

Please share all your experiences on buying, service, etc. with your Northern California BMW Center to this thread.

Please includes the dealer's name and the city the dealer resided in.

Thanks all,

[just4kickz]

Michael Borbet
Allison BMW in Mountain View

very good guy who let me test drive one of the e90s in the lot... also beat the quotes from other BMW dealerships. only thing bad I could note is that the guy is always busy helping somebody... but I suppose thats with most salesmen.

[just4kickz]

and btw its norcal not nocal

[cybermaster]

I have really good buying experience with Weatherford BMW's Internet Sales dept. I got a good deal with them. The Internet Dept. focuses more on ordering . So, if you need something now, they can't give you a car with good deal. However, if you plan to order your car, you can have a good deal with the Internet Dept.

Hope this help

[cybermaster]

Originally Posted by just4kickz

and btw its norcal not nocal

Thanks, just corrected.

[klinkerklu]

We test drove @ BMW of San Francisco, Peter Pan in San Mateo, and Stevens Creek in San Jose. The only bad experience was Stevens Creek, the guy was a jerk and on top of that, gave us a lot of incorrect information about the car. If he couldn't answer a question, he would basically blather on about how great BMW's were. (again, still giving useless or wrong information)
San Francisco was very friendly and accommodating, as well as knowledgeable. It's not a very long nor great test drive area though.

For service, we so far have had pretty bad luck. We took the car in to Peter Pan to fix some minor blemishes that had occurred in transport after ED, and picked up the car with a long scratch starting below the driver's side blinker passing across both doors to the rear wheel fender, as though they had brushed up hard against something. After relating this story to friends/co-workers, we found out they were notorious for this, and many people had experienced dents and scratches after leaving their cars with Peter Pan. (Their working bays/garage space is pretty small so it is easy to see how these things would happen if the mechanics are not super careful.)

Next, we tried Allison in Mountain View. After calling several times before getting thru for a quote on an Ipod controller + installation, we finally got through, set up an appointment, their earliest slot was 3 weeks later. We show up 7:30 in the morning, and they've lost our appointment. (this was after calling the day before to confirm). It took us over an hour to check in, and they wanted to charge $125 more, as they claimed for our model, they had given us the wrong quote for the part (even though they made me look up the production number of the car when I made the appointment) The car was ready by 2 pm. However, when we picked it up, we noticed the warning symbol on the dash indicating the sunroof was not working. (it was stuck in the up position) We immediately called attention to this, to which the service manager replied, they weren't sure what that was, and everyone had left for the day anyway, so bring the car back on Monday. (BTW, they had also performed a courtesy diagnostics check before releasing the car. How can you miss the exclamation point and beeping?)
We take it back on Monday, it sits there all day (we call to check on the status and no one gets back to us throughout the day). I go to pick up the car, so I can take it somewhere else with hopefully some competent employees. When I show up, they can't find our paperwork again. They won't release the car without the paperwork. The receptionists pages the garage, and the mechanic walks in a few minutes later. I hear him tell her in Spanish that the car is still parked and was not worked on, and see him hand her the key.
She turns to me and says, I'm sorry, we aren't sure where the car is exactly, it could be up on lift, and everyone that can sign off on the paperwork is gone for the day. I was incredulous. After speaking with the only available manager, (who also could not help me) I ended up getting really nasty and fighting with him in the showroom, explaining very calmly that I WAS NOT leaving without the vehicle. An hour and a half after showing up to pick up the car, I left with the unrepaired car. It took them all of 5 minutes to bring it around.
The next day, I took it down to San Jose, and the guy checking the car in brought a mechanic out right away, since apparently the only thing wrong was Allison didn't re-set the sunroof controls after the Ipod Installation. I was on my way in about 6 minutes.
The icing on this sordid cake, is that Allison called while I was in San Jose, wondering testily what exactly was wrong with the sunroof since they in the process of working on the car and couldn't find anything wrong. (poor other unsuspecting customer!!)

So we have a brand new car, with a 4 year maintenance plan, and no where convenient to take it to where we can be assured that it will be looked after properly. I guess we will be taking the trek down to SJ for oil changes, etc. and hope they are as on top of service as they were when they helped us with the sunroof .

[cybermaster]

klinkerklu,

WOW! Thanks, for all the glory details. I almost bought my car at Mountain View BMW center. I guess that we have to go to Stevens Creek San Jose BMW center for service.

Thanks

[klinkerklu]

Yeah, I'm glad we have a sense of humor, since the experiences were pretty ugly. But what can you do? Not go back, and keep track of the good employees/service that you do find...
BTW, Stevens Creek garage is enormous. The cars are packed in a little tight in the repair bays (for my taste--but I'm also the person that considers a "good" parking spot to be half a mile away from others), but the areas are kept clean and organized.
If you want a BMW courtesy car, book 2-3 weeks in advance to guarantee they save you one.

[cybermaster]

I heard from some friends that BMW of San Francisco and East Bay BMW in Pleasanton give good deals.

[Autobot]

Any one deal with Seaside in Monterey? I am going to have to deal with them here in the near future and was wondering if anyone has dealt with them.

[SanFranDan]

I ordered mine through BMW SF. Boy have they changed in the last few years-for the better. 4 years ago I went there to look at a 325. I wondered around the showroom, sat in some cars and not one persoon said hello to me. I then asked the "receptionist" where most of there inventory was. She told me to go to the roof. I looked through the roof and still, not one person said hello. I was there at least 20 minutes and it was a weekday. I left and cancelled BMW off my list of prospectives. In January of 2007 I went back to BMW SF as my lease was up on my car (not a BMW). Walked in the door and immediatley someone was there to greet me (it was a weekend BTW). I looked at a few cars and a salesperson approached me and asked me if I needed help. I was not ready yet, so I "kicked a few more tires". After 5 minutes I found the salesperson that had approached me. Her name is Jenny Scullin and she was great, got us a good price and helped us order the exact car we wanted. She emailed me updates on the progress of my car and kindly answered all of my questions. Thanks to that experience and Jenny, my opinion of BMW has completely changed.

[HK_M3]

Originally Posted by Autobot

Any one deal with Seaside in Monterey? I am going to have to deal with them here in the near future and was wondering if anyone has dealt with them.

I am guessing you mean BMW of Monterey in Seaside?

Besides being disinterested in selling me a car...they matched all other prices I could find. They would even take a car out of allocation so that I could do ED.

-Nate

[Autobot]

Yeah they used to be called Seaside BMW but recently have changed thier name to BMW of Monterey. Yeah I have been up and down on different things with them and was just tryign to see if anyone else had any interation with them. They don't seem to like to deal with me too much, not sure if its my age and the area or what not but it gets annnoying sometimes.

[06-325]

So far I have been dissapointed with the BMW service. I have been to Peter Pan of San Mateo and BMW of SF. Don't have much to complain about Peter Pan BMW except that they don't give you loaners and drive you around for a while in a van to get you to work. At least they pick you up after the service is completed.

BMW of SF:
1st time I dropped my car for oil change they gave me a Corolla and charged me $5 (because it was an upgrade from Chevy something!).

2nd time I opted for a drop off only to find out later that they don't pick you up after the service is done! After some argument, I was able to score a cab voucher for $10 from SA for my return trip to the dealership. It gets more interesting. The day I dropped my car off nobody called me back. I was in and out of meetings all day and didn't follow up with them till after 5pm. They were closed for the day.. The next day after I left a nasty message, my SA calls back and says that he left me a message or at least to someone else... I didn't get a message and don't care if someone else got a message it was not me. He offered no apologies. The car interior was not cleaned.

I had better service when I had Toyatas and Nissans for sure.

[cvc 22349a]

Sonnen BMW sucks! My CA (Jim Archibald) is a very professional/no pressure salesman, but unfortunately he was on medical leave when I took delivery of my car. If you're interested in European Delivery, Jim will make sure the order is correct and scheduled properly.
When I took delivery of my car, the lady who handles the paperwork was completely pushed out of shape that I had changed my address because it caused her a bit more work. The sales manager didn't want to take any time to answer any questions and very reluctantly agreed to repair two problems with the car. The service advisor didn't order a part that needed to be replaced prior to setting my service appt. The repair work performed to one of my wheels was shitty and they attempted to charge me for another repair that wasn't even performed. Needless to say, I go to another dealer for service and will never return to Sonnen.
I'm also fairly certain you can negotiate a better price at another Bay Area dealer.

[maibmwm3]

Vi Quach over at BMW of Fremont is really good. Although my car is on order and I haven't gone through the delivery process yet, he has given me the best deal and experience on my E90 335i. He's very easy going and pleasant to talk to and whenever I have a question he usually responds pretty quickly (that day or 24 hour turn around time). We'll see how my delivery experience is in a few weeks, but for now it's been very delightful!

[E90Mack]

I have bought 2 BMW's there and had them serviced there since 2006. They have always given me great deals, meaning that if you are persistent they can be talked down on anything. They have been really, really fair with service. Fixing things that were out of warranty, that clearly just broke and told them so, etc. I would have bought my last car there but I needed one in a hurry and they didn't have the right car.

[E90Mack]

Told me that they had a 2009 M3 sedan, DCT, that I could come down and see it. We confirm the night before that the car is still there. We all drive 80 minutes there, baby, wife, two cars (as we were hoping to sell one) and the internet sales manager, Ron, tells me that the car had been sold the night before, but that there were other great cars I should look at. Actually, there weren't. This was dealership was ghetto. Looked great on paper, not in person. Ron was shaddy.

[E90Mack]

Just bought a new 2011 335 I there from Tony. He was good to deal with, seemed low to moderate on the BMW on the knolwdge scale. It took a lot of pressing to get the deal that I wanted. Lots, but there were...flexible.

[E90Mack]

First off, they do not go to great lengths (like a lot of other BA BMW dealers) to check to see that their web site inventory is accurate. This is annoying.

Worked with Carrie, almost bought a 2009 335i from her. She was nice, the car had more issues than I could live with. My rating for sales would be good to average.

What is bringing this down is the service department. We have had some bad issues there over the last 2 years, to the point where I live in Marin and get my cars worked on at BMW SF. Once fixing the sunrood in the X3 they said they were done. We showed up, and it was in pieces, not close to being done. They couldn't give us a loaner for the HOLIDAY WEEKEND and it actually would not be done until later the next week. Not impressed.

[PaloAltoE90]

Just thought I'd share my experience at Peter Pan BMW in San Mateo.

I bought my CPO from Ray Manas. I worked out most of the deal online and by phone. He was easy to work with and friendly but not to the point of being annoying. He also helped me get a free carfax for my other car I wanted to sell. I'd recommend him.

The finance department at Peter Pan sucked. Flat out. I had to wait for 1.5 hours when there was no physical person in front of me – just some mystery phone deal. Whether or not there was a deal, I think it was very unprofessional the way the finance department treated me.

At least I got the car that I wanted.

[Eagle1oh7]

Living in Vacaville the closest BMW Center to me is Concord BMW. Great showroom with good dealers to talk with. Great place to get your car serviced with an exceptional waiting area if you don't mind waiting. They had a staff rotation so my new Service Advisor is Kevin Tastard and he's been good so far whenever I have questions regarding service or quotes for parts installation. I didn't get my car from them, but I count on them to do the job. Their collision center is awesome with a cute girl working the front desk. Dave Medeiros helped me out after I smashed into a truck tire tread on the I80 westbound.