Questions for SF bay area owners

[Otacon]

Hi!

I\'m relatively new to the bay area, and am thinking about getting an X5 due to additional family members. I\'m not new to BMWs, but been somewhat out of touch. I was wondering if there are any recommendations as to which dealer in the area are better, but also are there any tricks or things to know about buying a vehicle in CA.

Thanks in advance, and happy holidays!

[Rboosted717]

At all costs, stay away from Steven Creek BMW.

Aside from the poor sales, here's a little firsthand experience on Steven Creek:

1. While fixing the driver’s door handle they put a 12" scratch down the door of my X5 4.8is. They fixed the door (no cost to me), however upon trading in the car (for my X5M) another BMW dealership noticed the door was repainted and reduced the value of the truck.

2. After having the water pump replaced on my 4.8is, I immediately discovered the A/C no longer worked. They offered to recharge it for $200-300, however after speaking with BMWNA they offered to fix it at no cost.

3. During the 1st service on my new X5M (~3 weeks ago), they curbed my passenger wheel (blue "car lift" paint was left on the wheel), put two door dings in my driver side rear door, dented from front oil cooler (visible from the kidney grills) and lost my trailer hitch cap. After complaining they offered to fix the two dents and replace the trailer hitch cap, but would not fix the wheel nor the dent in my oil cooler. They claimed both were preexisting.
BMWNA gave me a cookie cutter response and never contacted me directly. Stevens Creek also claimed they wouldn't drill into my door (to fix the dents), however upon inspection I found a hole plug in my door jam.

I could list off a few other grips, however these three should be enough for anyone to avoid this place.

This is my forth X5 ('00 3.0, '02 4.6is, '04 4.8is, '10 X5M) which shows I'm a loyal BMW or rather X5 customer, however I'm tried of the poor, rather horrible BMW service in the Bay Area. BMW of Mountain View (formally Allison) wasn't much better than Stevens Creek, and I've never dealt with Peter Pan or BMW of San Francisco. So far the best has been BMW of Monterey, however its approx. 70miles from where I live. All I'm asking is to pick-up my car in the same condition I left it. I don't need it washed and I don't need the sh!t eating grin/attitude from the service advisors. I just want my car returned in the same condition I left it in. Hell I don't even ask for a loaner nor do I have special "particular" requests.

With that said, unless I move this will probably be my last X5, especially after spending so much on the X5M and getting it trashed on its first service.

[Otacon]

Thanks for the most informative write up.

I'm probably going to get the car from Berkeley or sf BMW. Peter pan seems rather snobbish.

Also, are there any features slated for this summer/fall that'd be worth me waiting?

Thanks

[DDP2011X5M]

Glad I didn't buy from Stevens Creek. Had a deal but decided to buy local. I also didn't like the fact they install front license plate on bumper's on all their vehicles.

Originally Posted by Rboosted717

At all costs, stay away from Steven Creek BMW.

Aside from the poor sales, here's a little firsthand experience on Steven Creek:

1. While fixing the driverÂ’s door handle they put a 12" scratch down the door of my X5 4.8is. They fixed the door (no cost to me), however upon trading in the car (for my X5M) another BMW dealership noticed the door was repainted and reduced the value of the truck.

2. After having the water pump replaced on my 4.8is, I immediately discovered the A/C no longer worked. They offered to recharge it for $200-300, however after speaking with BMWNA they offered to fix it at no cost.

3. During the 1st service on my new X5M (~3 weeks ago), they curbed my passenger wheel (blue "car lift" paint was left on the wheel), put two door dings in my driver side rear door, dented from front oil cooler (visible from the kidney grills) and lost my trailer hitch cap. After complaining they offered to fix the two dents and replace the trailer hitch cap, but would not fix the wheel nor the dent in my oil cooler. They claimed both were preexisting.
BMWNA gave me a cookie cutter response and never contacted me directly. Stevens Creek also claimed they wouldn't drill into my door (to fix the dents), however upon inspection I found a hole plug in my door jam.

I could list off a few other grips, however these three should be enough for anyone to avoid this place.

This is my forth X5 ('00 3.0, '02 4.6is, '04 4.8is, '10 X5M) which shows I'm a loyal BMW or rather X5 customer, however I'm tried of the poor, rather horrible BMW service in the Bay Area. BMW of Mountain View (formally Allison) wasn't much better than Stevens Creek, and I've never dealt with Peter Pan or BMW of San Francisco. So far the best has been BMW of Monterey, however its approx. 70miles from where I live. All I'm asking is to pick-up my car in the same condition I left it. I don't need it washed and I don't need the sh!t eating grin/attitude from the service advisors. I just want my car returned in the same condition I left it in. Hell I don't even ask for a loaner nor do I have special "particular" requests.

With that said, unless I move this will probably be my last X5, especially after spending so much on the X5M and getting it trashed on its first service.

[Otacon]

Speaking of front plates, I just got cited today for not having one. $114 fix it ticket.

Sigh, now to uglify my car.

[DDP2011X5M]

That's too bad. Just use double side tape until you pay the ticket then u can remove. No drilling into bumper.

Originally Posted by Otacon

Speaking of front plates, I just got cited today for not having one. $114 fix it ticket.

Sigh, now to uglify my car.

[Otacon]

It's ok. I'm about to trade the car in for an X5

Sad our Econ state, cops are ticketing for everything now.

[timeslip]

I just bought an X5D from Mtn View BMW, and had really good results. PM me if you want my CA's contact info.

[zibawal]

Originally Posted by Otacon

Hi!

I\'m relatively new to the bay area, and am thinking about getting an X5 due to additional family members. I\'m not new to BMWs, but been somewhat out of touch. I was wondering if there are any recommendations as to which dealer in the area are better, but also are there any tricks or things to know about buying a vehicle in CA.

Thanks in advance, and happy holidays!

Call up Vlaho at BMW of mountain view, I just acquired a 2012 x5d through him. I also use them for service need. Send me a pm, and tell him, zala and ARSH has referred you. We are based in Los altos. These guys are part of auto nation, I got 2 bmws from Fremont BMW and one from Valencia shipped to me, all 3 dealership, coincidently with auto nation.

I could have gotten a couple hundreds more haggling but was not in mood of traveling even to Fremont to do so and did want to keep my business with m view this time. Vlaho Miltek is Internet sales manager and the way he treated us and from placing the order and delivery has been the most pleasant hassle free experience 4th time around and IMHO, it was worth extra a couple hundreds more that we did not heavily insist for. This sales experience with Vlaho totally changed our perspective about BMW of mountain view.

But depending upon proximity you shall do ok with Fremont too.

I was in diesel, so they are short availability perhaps for regular gas models you shall do very well getting competition advantage.

Best of luck happy new year!

[Biff Grissel]

SONNEN BMW of marin is terrible aswell. Avoid at all cost.

[zibawal]

Originally Posted by timeslip

I just bought an X5D from Mtn View BMW, and had really good results. PM me if you want my CA's contact info.

Ditto! What's up with them, people use to tell to stay away from their attitude lol

So two out of 5 posts pro m view is +1

[Otacon]

Thanks for all the tips. So I started negotiating with weatherford BMW in berkeley. They agreed to $1000 above invoice very quickly, so I think I wasn't aggressive enough (that or my invoice is way higher than theirs). I've not signed anything other than credit app yet so they can lock the rates.

I used bmwconfig.com to get invoice pricing, is there a better source?

[Mammoth_Snoborder]

Use trucar.com and I highly recommend Michael Borbet at Mountain View BMW even though I got my car from BMW of SF. Michael was able to beat out every Bay Area dealer in terms of pricing and he is very responsive. I eventually went with BMW of SF as Sara Lundy the sale manager (no longer there) was highly recommended and they were only 10 mins from me.

[DDP2011X5M]

If your ok with a new 2011, I was able to negotiate 15.4% off MSRP on my 2011 X5M.

This was off the charts when you look at TrueCar.com.

I purchased from BMW Vista in San Diego. Just so you know, they are owned by the same owners for Stevens Creek

[ZooyorQ]

I've bought two BMW's from Mountain View in the last year. I've had a great experience with the sales side but the service side can be a bit of a debacle (seems overly busy and difficult to schedule with)..

[zibawal]

Originally Posted by ZooyorQ

I've bought two BMW's from Mountain View in the last year. I've had a great experience with the sales side but the service side can be a bit of a debacle (seems overly busy and difficult to schedule with)..

I agree, their service is super busy now, they dont have enough renters, and service stds have gone down. They brought detailing on house and that was a wash off and disappointing bad work for high price i shall never take my car for detail again there. but would love to find a professional good and reasonably priced detailer around this area. more so their repair quotes past warranty are stupendously high, parts/labor. I never was told what is their parts/labor repair warranty? any one?

[Thinkkkker]

Being from the East Bay of San Francisco, I bought my '12 X5M from Coast BMW in San Luis Obispo (Scott Boulanger) for thousands less than 5 Bay Area dealers. Concord BMW was the least willing to budge on price. Also had the Newport Beach BMW dealer give a great offer beating virtually everyone. Good luck

[baby huey]

Don't hesitate to put the Internet to work for you. Local dealer was uninterested in a reasonable trade-in value, so I went on-line and ended up buying in MI with an acceptable trade-in value. Dealer delivered my X5M right to my front door, loaded the trade-in, and went back to MI. Only one downside - I hade to deal with the DMV to register the car. That took a day!