[Yobyot]

I think I've discovered why I got 15% off MSRP on my MY19 M40i. And it's not due to my negotiating skills.

Suppose you're a BMW dealer and you want upcoming model year cars to be more competitive in your market. You might triage allocation slots by letting them go into production in the near future against selling them to a customer. Worst case, you configure the build with what you expect to sell long before it goes 150, take the car into inventory and pay floor plan on it.

Best case, you get someone like me before it's too late to change the build who wants a custom build. You can save on floor plan and book the sale months earlier. That might help with future allocation and also makes the month it was sold in better than it would have otherwise been.

That's one possible explanation for what we see here. My car was ordered by the dealer on July 4 -- two weeks before I bought it on July 22. This squares with my surprise on that Sunday, when I was shopping by phone, this dealer responded to my spreadsheet build with a vehicle inquiry report that was already 112. Other dealers had input the build I asked for bids on, but none were at 112. See the attached image, which is what the salesperson gave me today when I asked for confirmation of a week 33 build. The dealer let this allocation go to 112 three days before I bought it.

What this means is that the dealers have more information about supply and demand than we do. (Surprise!) And they'll use it anyway they can. In this case, to minimize finance charges for a vehicle, make their monthly BMW-assigned quota (note the "quota" field on the report) and/or get an incremental sale from a custom build.

It can also explain why I (and the woman who likes to play games) got such "great" deals while other dealers, who might be happier to take inventory onto their books, aren't offering as much discount.

My takeaway from this: ask the dealer to input the build, give you the output and if it's 112, bargain harder than ever.