[akad]

So, I went in to my dealer (socal) to pickup my new 2012 X3 28i, and his assistant pulled it in from the garage/structure to the enterance, and my CA informed me that the assistant had slightly scratched the vehicle while driving it to the front.

He proceded to show me the scratches: 3 or 4 angled scratches on edge of rear door and wheel plastic trim. Its hard to describe.. hope that made sense..

He said I had two options, either they would repair it: replace that small plastic trim around the wheel, and what he called, Sand-paint the scratches outside the door. The other option was that if the repair was not to my satisfaction, he would gladly order me a new one.......

From what I saw, only one of the scratches in the door seemed to be deep (like 1/2 a mm).

I tried to ask him to discount the price a bit, but he shot that suggestion down quickly.

What would you do in my situation? Is the car devalued at all after having that repair done to it? He mentioned that things like this happen in transport and even at the factory and are repaired without the customer even knowing it.

Here is a picture of my car, with the area circled (its unclear, but gives an idea of the location).



Thank you!

[litt]

It is pretty common for vehicles to get damaged during shipping. This is part of the reason they pass through the VPC before being shipped to the dealer (any issues get fixed at the VPC). As long as the amount of the fix is under a certain amount (iirc and someone correct me if I am wrong, it was around $3-4k, the dealer does not have to disclose it). There are a number of interesting videos on youtube showing BMWs being shipping from Germany on the boats and what they go through at times.

[E92LNGCGY]

Are you in a hurry for a new vehicle? If not I'd ask for a new one. Even though they can fix it you still know that the car was "repaired".

[momo28]

It's disappointing to go get your brand new vehicle and found out there are scratches. If it were me, depending on if I have other vehicles to drive, I would re-order another one. To be, it is how many times you go pick up a brand new vehicle in your lifetime, and some people's carelessness and your joy of a new vehicle is diminished.

[Nahoa]

Ask about impact on qualification or certified used should decide to sell or trade in.

[akad]

Originally Posted by Nahoa

Ask about impact on qualification or certified used should decide to sell or trade in.

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what you mean by this though?

[Beyu]

I think you should just take him up on the offer, car repair people can do wonders sometimes and he's right in that often times cars get damaged during transport then repaired before the client receives it.

Plus your CA already promised to order you a new car if the repair's not to your satisfaction so the only thing you lose out on is time.

[sard]

I am in the same situation as you. I ordered the car, built to order, went through all the wait and anticipation, received the car with a bubble in the paint on the passenger door.

Pretty upset to custom order the car exactly how I wanted it, go through the wait, and have it arrive with a blemish.

Long story short, they repainted that area. I'm not sure exactly what they did. The bastard customer service guy would always feed me this fucking bullshit, "this isn't my first rodeo, I assure you, whatever they do, will be perfect. You wont be able to tell anything happened." I kept asking, is it a small spot treatment? Do they repaint the entire door? He gave me the run around and was actually offended I was so concerned.

I didn't want to wait to order a new SUV after waiting so long. It was also for my wife who was due to deliver our baby any day.

When I received the car back, I told them not to wash it. I always tell them no car wash. I would rather wash it myself to avoid swirls and do it the way I want. I got the car back with bug splatter here and there. Not sure why when the paint repair shop isn't that far and should not have had any bugs at all. The car had a lot of white powder all over the entire car. I think some of it is still in some of the nooks and crannies to this day.

After I detailed the car and cleaned up all the mess. You cannot tell anything was ever done. Albeit, the defect was only about 4 mm in size anyways. Do I care about resale being hurt? Not really, the person buying the car will never know anything happened. Will I ever mention it? Fuck no.. Besides you cant tell anything was done.

Bottom line.. I did not want to wait to reorder. I'm an instant gratification type guy and do not regret my decision..They did not offer to reduce the price or compensate me except to give me a full tank of gas which I also declined. Being paranoid as I am with my choice of gas station and octane.

[April1]

It's a personal decision.

I will ask the dealer to repair it and still have the right to reject it if the repair is not to my liking.

Paralelly I will look at the availability of car of my choice with other dealers to broaden my options.

[Radioactive]

If you don't think somebody can tell if your car has been repaired even with no visible signs. Think again. Reseller and dealers use "paint depth gauges" and can easily find out if a car has been repainted, even in spot locations.

[sard]

A dealer, resaler, or consignment businesses are the last places I would sell a car.

I'm not justifying anything. It sucks what happened to me. I just did not want to wait for another order in my current situation.

[Radioactive]

Originally Posted by sard

A dealer, resaler, or consignment businesses are the last places I would sell a car.

I'm not justifying anything. It sucks what happened to me. I just did not want to wait for another order in my current situation.

I sold my last car through Auto Trader to a private party. The first thing they did was jump out of their car with a paint gauge!

[sard]

Originally Posted by Radioactive

I sold my last car through Auto Trader to a private party. The first thing they did was jump out of their car with a paint gauge!

Lol serious? I guess that's a smart thing to do.

[Nahoa]

Originally Posted by akad

Thanks for the reply. Not sure what you mean by this though?

Sorry, was too short. BMW has a limit on how manyoanels can be repaired and still be a certified used BMW. Amounts to a good chunk of change. Was three panels. Since minor cosmetic damage can result in a high quality repaint of a panel but still disqualify it fom certified, seemed important to me.

[akad]

Took delivery this morning! It looks great. Will post pictures soon