QUIKAG

hirev,

Tell us more about this auto broker. Let's say your M3 was $80k. 4% less than sticker is a whopping $3200 discount. What does the broker charge? 1%? That's only $800 probably too cheap for an auto broker to make a decent living, so maybe 2%? $1,600? Your discount is only 2% then?

Just trying to figure out how an auto broker is a better deal than just haggling with a local dealer. Now you're in SF and most dealers there literally probably do cocaine, so maybe you use a broker to go out of state is better for you, but wondering about other states, say TX where we swing a stick and can hit 10 BMW dealers in a 300 mile radius.

vader1

Thanks for the heads up but I want to pick it up in Europe, go with my 76 year old dad and let him rip through a couple mountain passes and drive through Switzerland. He is getting up there in age and LOVES to drive. He gave up a crap ton of nice things taking care of all of us kids, if I am going to buy one of these, I'd like to give my dad a little adventure. I had such a good time doing my European delivery I want him to get to experience it. He takes care of my pretty much invalid mother so getting him out of the house for a week to ten days and hiring a nurse would do him some good.

On top of that, an M2 for me has to be blue and a manual transmission.

ZSAK

No problem and I hope you get to do your trip. Just for the memories, time is precious.

Legal Bill

I bought mine. I planned to keep it for 100,000 miles but that would be ten years as the DD. My plans kind of changed and I may or may not keep it that long depending, but I might swap it for another BMW.

And yes the depreciation part is real, but 95% of domestics depreciate as fast of faster, they just have a lower initial cost.

The reliability stuff is overblown. When you look into some of the data a very large portion of the complaints were idiots who did not know how their tech worked and called it broken because they were clueless. Most owners on Bimmerfest report very good reliability and yes you get the occasional guy with the mystery problem their dealer can't fix. I am only at 22,000 but still not a hiccup.

Just about any car should be pretty solid to 100,000 these days. I could bring up the long term C&D Vette that had a zillion issues, but anecdotes are not data. Everybody knows a guy who knows a guy who had a nightmare BMW. You see a ton of old BMWs running around which should say something.

My dad had one of those Audi A4's which everyone KNOWS is an unreliable car, but he put 96,000 on it with just brakes and tires. Sold it to a son of a coworker of mine who drove it another 30,000 without any issue.

I think half the problem is expensive parts. My friend calls his POS dodge "rock solid" even though it has nickel and dime stuff all the time. Everything on that car goes out but he can go down to the store, find cheap parts and fix it in his driveway. A headlight controller on a 3 series HID auto adjusting light is $600. Somebody replaces one of those and they bitch about it for weeks. My friend may do ten repairs before hitting $600 in parts, but thinks it is dependable even though he is working on it every other weekend. A window switch, a fogged up headlight assembly, leaking window seal, O2 sensor, starter solenoid,warped rotor, stuck caliper, etc etc and he says "No biggie".
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Very well said!

Legal Bill

Congratulations and good for you for finding a way to give dad some time off. I hope you take a ton of pictures of the trip and post them here. Any idea when you will be flying over?

vader1

Congratulations and good for you for finding a way to give dad some time off. I hope you take a ton of pictures of the trip and post them here. Any idea when you will be flying over?
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When I can find a slot to order one. I am not sure it will be this year. I have been to Europe a few times and September is perfect. Still nice weather (a little cool in the mountains) but all the kids have gone back to school so flights and hotels drop quite a bit after about the first week. You can really find some deals all over the continent in September. After that, much of it gets pretty cool. But in Sept, you still get 70 in Paris, mid sixties in the alps, and in the high eighties in most of southern Italy or Spain. And far fewer tourists.

If I can't find one to order my wife and I were supposed to go to London for our 10th in Sept. I suppose I could fly over with my dad and rent something to drive around before hand and the wife could just fly out later and meet me there. Not quite as cool, but better than nothing. If I can't find one my dad was a Notre Dame grad and we are going to hit up a game against Army in San Antonio in November. I could try to locate a new toy down there, fly down, see the game and drive back with him. They have lots more used Porsches down there than they do in Minnesota. Every time I look at used Caymans or Boxsters online, they are in Dallas or Miami.

Bill, have you past the nreak in and let it rip yet? Still waiting for a review of your 235. How do you like it? Automobile mag has a long termer they just love.

Marioshi

I am curious about this as well, mostly because I would like to do that for work, I love the chase of finding a deal!

BTW, there are 10 BMW dealerships within 45 miles of SF...

CosmosMpower

I don't see the point of a broker unless you're lazy or don't have time. I got 12% off when I ordered my M3.

s.hasan546

i agree that good brokers are great at their jobs. I love mine. But good SA's also can give deals that brokers can't match. My buddy's m4 was at a better price than any broker, even my broker.

Also there is usually not much to take off of an M car? lol since when? The M2 for now, yeah they won't take off much. The M4 has a $4,000 spread i believe. After the initial launch period, they will cut into that spread often.

kolyan2k

I had M3, 335i, S2000, test drove new V8 Mustang, 2012 ISF, and M235i with M-Performance LSD.

Really liked ISF....cool car but hard to buy for a good price in excellent condition, ended up with M235i which beats ISF in most categories but Japanese reliability. Hopefully M235i is reliable since it has the latest changes on N55 motor

Oh yeah.... Mustang sucked for some reason....just not my car at all.