| rev:text
| - Honestly, I like to give places the benefit of the doubt for various reasons, so my "real" score would fall around 2.5, but I rounded up because I'm a giver.
I've been to this dealer shopping for a CPO 325i twice (once for me, once with a friend while he was looking), and I also had my first service performed here on my car not that long ago.
First off, the used car sales experiences...
This place mystifies me with their "asking" prices more often than not -- why are they so high?! When I was looking, they had a 3-series with more miles, less options and more wear and tear than others I'd found at competing dealers for $3,000 more. Also, their used sales department (as I experienced it) was not as professional as the other pair of alternatives in the valley. I knew more about the car than the sales associate; the second time I went (with my friend, after I'd bought *my* car from another dealer), the sales associate told my friend the car we were test driving had a package (which I knew it did not, based on my own knowledge of these cars). When I questioned him on it, he refuted me, saying that it does have the package, and that I just didn't know what the right "signs" were to tell without looking at the spec sheet. I know I was right, and that it did not have this package, but he proceeded to tell my friend that it did, in fact, have it as I stood there. Also during this second visit, I inquired as to why their prices seemed inflated compared to those of the other Chapman facility and (especially) BMW NS. The response was, "We tend to give more for trade-ins than other dealers; for instance, where NS might give you a low-ball only $10,000, we would probably do $12,000 or $13,000, so the differences are more than made up." Immediately I'm thinking, so what if I don't have a trade-in(?), which is exactly what I did when I purchased my own. The point is, if they could give you that amount for the trade-in, you can take that info and use it to negotiate at *other* dealers that have lower pre-negotiation prices to get your trade-in taken at that amount anyway. At the end of the day, the fact is, its easier to negotiate down to $25K from $28K than it is from $32K.
Now, on to the service experience...
I took my car in for an oil service and a few small warranty items for my first visit experience. Normally I deal with other dealers for these items because they're closer and more convenient, but I was going to be in Central Phoenix all day and I dropped it off early, so I pretty much knew I'd get it back by the day's end whilst on my way home. Drop-off was easy and relatively quick, got the loaner within 20 min (a base 328i -- can't complain). I get a call to pick it up about 3:30pm, and I pick up and drive home. That night I was at my boyfriend's parent's house for a dinner that had been planned for a little while. Afterward, I came home, parked in my driveway, and slept the night away. I awoke in the morning, coffee in hand, to find a large collections of spots had formed under my car in the form of oil -- the largest of which was the size of my brake discs. The drips were from all over the bottom of the engine compartment; open the hood, and I find oil looks like it was literally sprayed all over the engine, strut towers, radiator surround and cover and the grill. It had gotten on the radiator fan, and also sprayed out the front of the car on to the bumper and paint finish. I was extremely lucky I parked on the street at my significant other's parents house instead of their driveway. I went back a few weeks later and the spot was HUGE on the asphalt -- definitely could've been an embarrassment. At any rate, being a Saturday, I called at 11am (service closes at noon), and had to leave a message for a call-back. I get a call at 12:30pm from an associate in the 'sales' department to tells me that service has closed and to make an appointment on Monday to get the issue resolved. I asked to speak to any manager on duty who told me to bring the car in and I'd get a loaner for the remainder of the weekend until this could be solved. I finally got there... and waited over an hour to turn the car in and get a simple loaner. No apology or sentiment (really not important, but you know). I heard back on late Monday to pick up the car -- apparently the tech didn't clean up after the service, and it wasn't checked before being approved for pickup.
In either case, this was an inconvenience being that I had to make an extra trip (40 mi round-trip), spend extra time, clean up their mess (quite literally -- and the spots will be there in some form forever now).
I'm sure its a competent dealer, but I definitely don't like their used car sales department, especially compared to Chapman in Scottsdale and BMW NS. I also would be reluctant to use them for service on my car going forward, though I would still do it in a pinch.
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