It is so sad that we enthusiasts get such bad service from these dealerships that it makes you think twice about owning one....for those that have lived here know this dealership USED to be great, excellent service for years and for the past year or two they have become truely the worst dearlship in the area. I will not ever go there for anything personally but it just happend that we required their service on Saturday and it again was a disappointement for us.

My friend from New York who is also a ///M owner was here and we were in the market for used M5 so we call BMW of Arlington, first of all it seemed they only had one person dealing with used, so we kept getting a run around, finally we were asked to leave our name and number and so we did.

This is the shocking part, we get a call back from a sales person named PAUL, he asked us what he were looking for and I indicated a used M5, he said he had two and this is where he started getting very smart with me " how many do you want?" so I thought maybe he is just being funny so I said "I just want one", he says he has a black 02 with some miles, so I indicate that I'm interested in coming to look at it and test drive it. So again he gets smart with me "these are not toys for people to play with and we don't let just anybody take them out", after saying this I really could not believe it.....I asked him what exactly he meant by that, and he repeated himself again with full confident that he was not saying anything wrong....I asked for his name and his manager's name, he again in a smart way said "here is his name and even direct number".

He put such a bad taste already in our mouth that even if its the car we are looking for we wouldn't buy it. This is not what I expect from a sales person from a BMW dealership, we are not some 18 year old kids here trying to come and "play" with these cars, we were two adults very interested in buying an M5 but got so discouraged from having to deal with such an unprofessinal sales person.

I will not ever go there for ANY type of service.

That is unfortunate that happened to you, but on the same note, they need to be somewhat selective of who they let test drive a car (and I am not referring to age). Imagine if they let anyone drive the car for the hell of it, the eventual buyer could end up buying a ragged out POS. I've heard of people completely ragging out demos-drifting them, etc (before I get "called out"-I admit I am guilty of not driving like a grandma when I test drive a car, but I don't dump the clutch or throw the car into sweepers either).

In some cases, it just isn't possible-I was looking at new CLK320s a few years ago, and because of demand/ limited production, no CLKs were available for test drive as each one the came in was spoken for. The only one I could've test drove was the only Starmark/CPO CLK430 on the lot. And even then, that would've been a case of seriously looking at that car. I know I definitely wouldn't want someone driving my car.

Like I said, it's not necessarily an age thing (as I have been snubbed going into a dealership after work with a suit on), but they need to be careful too. Imagine if you were going to sell your M3 and you got calls from people, as fanatical as you are about your car, I am sure you wouldn't want every Tom, Dick and Harry to take your car out for a test drive. You'd probably want to be careful of who the potential buyer is and how serious that person was. The salesman definitely could've been a bit more tactful in his responses-sounded like he went a bit overboard and was a dick. Every dealership I am sure has their share of snobs.

By the way, Arman-

If you and your friend are serious about an M5, check out Towson BMW-I was there on Friday afternoon and saw that they had quite a few M5s. Didn't know which ones were CPO and which ones were 2003 inventory.

So you're saying its ok for them to say that over the phone without actually meeting you? I understand that they shouldn't let just anyone test drive one, BUT that is AFTER they have actually seen you in person...

Originally posted by ///Arman
So you're saying its ok for them to say that over the phone without actually meeting you? I understand that they shouldn't let just anyone test drive one, BUT that is AFTER they have actually seen you in person...

Not saying that it is, Arman...like I said, sounds like this guy was kind of a dick and took it too far with the "screening" process. Some salespeople (regardless of the dealership) are overboard even if you do meet them in person. I've been to a dealership in Beverly Hills to just look for the hell of it, and I've gotten pleasant treatment. And there are some local po-dunk dealers where I have gotten the snotty attitude. :dunno

In any case, good luck with the M5 hunt!

there are some local po-dunk dealers where I have gotten the snotty attitude.

Is that the time Andy drove you in his prelude?? :laugh

I think that guy named Paul is Asian IIRC. That M5 has been there for a pretty long time. I remember seeing it about 3 weeks ago. The price is $60,995 if it is the same one. Arman, HBL Tysons also has a couple of M5's as of last week when my co-worker picked up his C32 Amg there.

HBL Tyson's guy was very nice. Let me sit in the GT3 they have on their showroom floor ($108,000) and the SL 55 AMG (similarly priced). I test drove the C2 and C4S they had. Much cheaper, around the $56K range. My co-worker scared the piss out of the salesman and me on the test drive with the C32...

We went onto 267-W and took the first exit ... it was a hard right turn. We came into the turn at like 110 ... he locked the brakes up and we started turning ... car started drifting to the concrete barrier. MB's traction program came on and saved it ...

Although, my co-worker ended up buying the car ... he wanted to drive it hard to see what it could do. He said, why spend "x" amount on a new amg if you aren't able to test drive it adequately....

Oh, the salesman's name is Tedhraim (sorry, butchering the spelling probably) -- but, tell him you were recommended by the asians that purchased the C32 amg. He should remember ...

Oh yeah, they won't let you test drive the GT3 ... but, you can still drool over it and visit the Aston Martin showroom as well ... and look at $250K cars in person! .... ;)

BMW of Arlington blows....i had to return there several times just to test drive a crappy used smurf blue M with over 20K miles on it..and even then the guy was acting like he was doing me a favor....
Then I went to HBL Porsche...looking at a C4 and the salesman was happy to let me take it out...but he said that he had someone else coming that afternoon to possibly buy...so I told them that I wouldn't do that to their next buyer...my call. I appreciated their friendly gesture though.
Criswell will let you drive anything...really nice...fuck you on your trade-in though.

Salespeople are even more useless on the telephone than they are in person in my experience. One reason I didn't even consider a new car or a used car from a dealer. They tend to treat used car purchasers like dirt.

To be fair, they probably get 1000 calls a day from kids wanting to know if they have a particular car in stock used. It's not even worth their time to talk to anyone on the phone about used cars because it's such a small percentage of their business.

It also depends a lot on how you come off on the phone. If the guy got the impression you were window shopping, he might have just blowing you off. Not that it's okay, but it happens.

Best thing to do is to just go down there and talk to someone. If they won't let you drive it, tell the salesman that he can come along and make sure nothing happens. There is no reason to rag out a car on a test drive. Make sure it works properly, yes, but don't beat it to hell.

I got similar crappy treatment at Auto Advantage. Never mind that the '97 Estoril Blue M3 I was looking at was overpriced, dirty, with a nicked wheel and they weren't at all willing to negotiate on price, but the salesman wouldn't let me rev it out to see if it was running properly, then tried to give me a high pressure sales pitch. Uh... yeah. I'm going to buy a car from there, uh .. never.:rolleyes:

John V

Originally posted by SoloII///M

I got similar crappy treatment at Auto Advantage. Never mind that the '97 Estoril Blue M3 I was looking at was overpriced, dirty, with a nicked wheel and they weren't at all willing to negotiate on price, but the salesman wouldn't let me rev it out to see if it was running properly, then tried to give me a high pressure sales pitch. Uh... yeah. I'm going to buy a car from there, uh .. never.:rolleyes:


Interesting to hear you say that, my Auto Advantage experience was good. I ended up buying my 95 ///M from there. You're right about the no budge pricing and the high pressure sales guys, though.

But...no time for details, there's a GT3 I have to go test drive...

when you deal with people all day long you tend to get a little frustrated...think if that was your job

Originally posted by Mark85
when you deal with people all day long you tend to get a little frustrated...think if that was your job

I'm not defending anyone about anything, but that's a lousy excuse for a salesman whose goal is to sell, sell, sell.

Heishman or BMW Arlington or whatever its called now is ghey as hell. My friends neighbor told me about his M3 droptop the day the lease ran out and said he would have sold it to me for what he could have bought it for....32k. So I called Heishman up and asked if there was anyway I could buy the car in as is condition at a lower price than they would charge after they wash it and say they tuned it up. Bascially they laughed at me.

(oops, damn shortness of quick reply...anyway) i called back later to ask when the car would be on the lot and they were rude again. Then the car finally came out on the lot @ 45k.

Don't even get me started on dealer horror stories. Make sure to complain to BMWNA also.