[Robocheme]

Are the dealers limited in the number of x3s they can sell per month? The reason I ask is that I'd like to understand why they would turn down a reasonable offer? The only thing that I can think of is that they are limited to a fixed number of X3s and they would be confident that they can sell all of them at a higher price than my offer.

Thanks,

Cliff

[Want the thrill]

Dealers are only given a certain amount of allocations per month for X3's to be built. It's based on the size and selling volume of the dealer. The dealer I used only got 2 slots per month for X3's and the sales manager said it made him nuts because he knew they could sell far more than that.

[jk]

find a high volume dealer if you want to negotiate a better deal. or go through a bimmerfest.com sponsor.

[highmodulus]

Or make a more realistic offer on a high demand vehicle. Even the sponsors are going to look to make "market" profits on an in demand vehicle. Same thing with the new 3 series- there won't be deals until the sharp demand drops a bit.

[bren]

Originally Posted by highmodulus

Or make a more realistic offer on a high demand vehicle.

Bingo. Something tells me the "reasonableness" was one-sided.

I've never heard of a dealer that wouldn't gladly sell a car from future allocation for a ready buyer.

[jk]

500-700 over invoice should do it.

[Robocheme]

Originally Posted by jk

find a high volume dealer if you want to negotiate a better deal. or go through a bimmerfest.com sponsor.

How do you find a high volume dealer? I live in the SF Bay Area and there are probably eight dealers within an hour's drive. I have no idea which one sells the most.

[Tangsta]

Originally Posted by Robocheme

How do you find a high volume dealer? I live in the SF Bay Area and there are probably eight dealers within an hour's drive. I have no idea which one sells the most.

In Calgary, both of our dealers are getting 2 per month each.

They're both owned by the same group, so neither was willing to cut me the deal i was looking for... There's way too much money in this city, so I wouldn't doubt that there's plenty of people willing to pay more than me.

So knowing exactly what car/options I was looking for, and what I was willing to pay (based on invoice, and the discount others have gotten), I emailed the internet sales advisors (sometimes sales managers) at 8 dealerships within a day's drive. I made sure to tell them that I was willing to put a deposit immediately if I got the right price.

In the end, I got phone calls from every dealer, and only one was willing to meet my price, so I think I did pretty well.

Might be worth a try for you too... just have to be reasonable with your offer.

[bren]

Originally Posted by Robocheme

How do you find a high volume dealer? I live in the SF Bay Area and there are probably eight dealers within an hour's drive. I have no idea which one sells the most.

Email all of them - see what you get back. Simple.

[tinasx3]

Originally Posted by Robocheme

How do you find a high volume dealer? I live in the SF Bay Area and there are probably eight dealers within an hour's drive. I have no idea which one sells the most.

I second all the suggestions above but be specific in your request by asking when the order can be fulfilled. It was 8 weeks before I took delivery of my car and this included a shutdown period over Christmas holiday.

If timing is not an issue, you might try to put in your requests for proposals around the latter half of the month as the desperation to meet monthly sales goals gets more urgent. Internet directors get a high volume of email proposals that they have to wade through so it can be hard to wait for responses.

I live in Northern California and had a very good experience with my SA so I can give you her name, if you're interested. I actually put in my proposal using carwoo.com since there are quite a few nor cal bmw dealers in the carwoo.com network. I didn't have the time at work to follow up with so many dealers individually and make counteroffers etc so using carwoo helped me a bit in that aspect. I only received 3 bids but the best offer came in from this SA.

Good luck!

[broken_link]

Originally Posted by Robocheme

How do you find a high volume dealer? I live in the SF Bay Area and there are probably eight dealers within an hour's drive. I have no idea which one sells the most.

As best as I could tell, all Bay Area BMW dealers are on allocation for this vehicle. I recently factory ordered a 2012 X3 35i from BMW of Monterrey. (The car is built, and I'm expecting delivery at the end of the month.)

I sent a barrage of emails out to every BMW dealership from Visalia to Chico to Santa Rosa to San Luis Obispo, stating that I was interested in factory ordering a vehicle at a fixed fee over dealer cost. Casting a broad net yielded results, as almost every dealership contacted me within 24 hours. Most were willing to take a fixed fee over dealer cost on a factory order if they had allocation. I went with Monterrey because they offered a comparable dealer fee, but they didn't have the additional MACO cost that local Bay Area dealerships have. (~$400 fee for dealerships in the SF/Oakland/SJC region)

If you want to stay local, my wife had good luck with Concord. I would also recommend Stevens Creek, as the SA there was willing to accommodate my request but didn't have allocation. Peter Pan wouldn't deal, and furthermore the SA had an arrogant attitude towards my wife and me that put me off, so no love lost. Mountain View seemed like they were willing to deal as well, though by that time I had already cut a deal with Monterrey.

Good luck.

Sean

[jk]

Originally Posted by Robocheme

How do you find a high volume dealer? I live in the SF Bay Area and there are probably eight dealers within an hour's drive. I have no idea which one sells the most.

there are 2 dealers within a reasonable distance for me. i went to their websites and saw that one had about 3 times the inventory of the other. i later learned that the higher volume dealer was also a bmw center of excellence, fwiw. i also went to dealerrater.com to read reviews of each dealer. then, i read the reviews of the ca's at the higher volume place. since all the reviews were positive, i decided to contact the ca who had the most reviews by far. i figured he did the most deals and would be the most efficient in getting a deal done. i had done my research, knew the numbers, walked in at the time i had arranged to meet with him, and was done in under 2 hours. it would have been quicker but i wanted to check out a couple of options in person. my vehicle was in production within 1-2 weeks of placing my order.

[Robocheme]

Thanks for the good advice, everyone. Now I hope people share what "reasonable" offers were accepted on 2013 28i. I fear that they won't be close to 500-800$ over invoice.