Link to the deal?

How are they supposed to expect someone to drive a car unless you have a test drive. It's the funnest part.

 

Link to the deal?

How are they supposed to expect someone to drive a car unless you have a test drive. It's the funnest part.

It's only for Bosch employees I'm afraid. You need a user name and password to access the deals, plus proof of working for Bosch.

 

Looks like I'm going to just have to go to a dealer and not play my hand until I've had a test drive!

Basically.

 

You've had 3 cars from the dealer & they're not prepared to give you a test drive? I'd find another dealer!

 

You've had 3 cars from the dealer & they're not prepared to give you a test drive? I'd find another dealer!

I will. It's little things like that, that make me never want to use them again.

 

Amazing, I was given the keys and told to go thrash it for an hour. This was within 10 minutes of walking in to the dealership.

No BS at all. In fact the line was "if you don't like it there is no point wasting time talking about a deal". Most sensible statement ever.

 

I've never thought of using work discounts, I'm going to see what I can get from Motor Infinity

Also super annoyed that I can get 10% off servicing through Sytner and I serviced last week :S

 

My dealer certainly wanted to talk money before a test drive which really made no sense. However given that the car was not available to drive for about a week after my enquiry we spent that week talking money. Possibly a negative result for them as it made me much more determined to make sure they gave me the very best deal possible. Meant that went I did get to test drive the car all the dealings were done so it was a very simple process of signing up the order. Had I not liked the car then it would have been a lot of wasted time talking about a deal.

 

My dealer certainly wanted to talk money before a test drive which really made no sense. However given that the car was not available to drive for about a week after my enquiry we spent that week talking money. Possibly a negative result for them as it made me much more determined to make sure they gave me the very best deal possible. Meant that went I did get to test drive the car all the dealings were done so it was a very simple process of signing up the order. Had I not liked the car then it would have been a lot of wasted time talking about a deal.

I'd of told them "I'll think about it" after the test drive 😂

 

I had the chat about money before I could test drive a car at my local merchant dealer, couldn't be bothered with it, knew I could afford the car and just wanted to drive it, I left and there loss.

Local BMW dealer did the toss the keys and take a drive for an hour or 2 with an X3M40d, 330d, M135i the a 24 hour test drive with it. When it came to the money chat, showed them my best quote from car wow, told them have a chat and beat it and I'd buy the car. Email the next morning beating it by £1,100 and we did the deal. That simple, wish more dealers were like that, but I have bought 3 cars from them now.

 

I had the chat about money before I could test drive a car at my local merchant dealer, couldn't be bothered with it, knew I could afford the car and just wanted to drive it, I left and there loss.

Local BMW dealer did the toss the keys and take a drive for an hour or 2 with an X3M40d, 330d, M135i the a 24 hour test drive with it. When it came to the money chat, showed them my best quote from car wow, told them have a chat and beat it and I'd buy the car. Email the next morning beating it by £1,100 and we did the deal. That simple, wish more dealers were like that, but I have bought 3 cars from them now.

In my experience there are some sales guys or girls willing to be reasonable and negotiate a price but there are others who will flat out refuse to do any sort of deal. I guess it depends on when you catch them in terms of targets they need to hit.

 

I've had similar experience in the past with other brands. They always want to talk about doing a deal even before the test drive; key example was a VW dealer in Glasgow Southside about 3 years ago.
I was interested in the Golf R at the time, in both Estate and Hatchback form.
I booked it online, and arrived at said dealership, and then was asked by their salesmen will I be doing a deal today?
I replied it depends how the car drives, and then he replies "we don't give out test drives willy nilly" (still remember that lol) and that he would only offer a test drive if I'm willing to talk numbers and put a deposit down beforehand. Needless to say I walked out.
I'm never going to consider a car unless I know how it is to drive and live with, I had never had that experience before when I express my interest, and then someone doesn't want to accommodate what I thought was a straight forward protocol in the buying process.
We have had several VWs in the past 5 years (Polo, Golf, Passat and Passat CC), and I don't think I'd ever be buying from that dealership from that experience. I still however eye up the Golf GTI Performance from time to time as a new daily lol, but most likely will be swapping my 2016 M135i for a newer 140 when the time comes.

On the other hand my local BMW dealership was completely the opposite and were very accommodating and did not push at all - friendly and polite with no pressure sales.
Would like to also add I didn't buy my M135i from a main dealer in the end, but if the price/spec was right I certainly would of lol.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

In my experience there are some sales guys or girls willing to be reasonable and negotiate a price but there are others who will flat out refuse to do any sort of deal. I guess it depends on when you catch them in terms of targets they need to hit.

100% true

When I bought my two cars this summer, my local dealer was more than happy to match the best X3 deal and even offered to refund our deposit after we take delivery of the car.

However, with the M140i they were unable to match the best deal even if the car was being discontinued.

 

I wonder what BMW UK would say if you contacted them about the refusal especially after buying cars from the dealer previously.

 

I wonder what BMW UK would say if you contacted them about the refusal especially after buying cars from the dealer previously.

I guess BMW UK might not be too pleased. Trouble is OP's local dealership knew they could never match his deal so would never get a sale so whats in it for them to give him a test drive. BMW Park Lane are the only retail outlet actually owned by BMW UK surely they have the means to arrange a test drive for the OP through someone local? Problem cant be unique to him for these special deals that Park Lane put together.

 

I wonder what BMW UK would say if you contacted them about the refusal especially after buying cars from the dealer previously.

I guess BMW UK might not be too pleased. Trouble is OP's local dealership knew they could never match his deal so would never get a sale so whats in it for them to give him a test drive. BMW Park Lane are the only retail outlet actually owned by BMW UK surely they have the means to arrange a test drive for the OP through someone local? Problem cant be unique to him for these special deals that Park Lane put together.

But Bmw supply the cars to the dealership and if they give an interested buyer a poor experience they may walk away and buy from a different manufacturer. It's not just about the op's experience but about the whole concept of customer service.

 

I wonder what BMW UK would say if you contacted them about the refusal especially after buying cars from the dealer previously.

Going from past experience they wouldn't give a **** and would just tell me to try another dealer.

 

I wonder what BMW UK would say if you contacted them about the refusal especially after buying cars from the dealer previously.

I guess BMW UK might not be too pleased. Trouble is OP's local dealership knew they could never match his deal so would never get a sale so whats in it for them to give him a test drive. BMW Park Lane are the only retail outlet actually owned by BMW UK surely they have the means to arrange a test drive for the OP through someone local? Problem cant be unique to him for these special deals that Park Lane put together.

I doubt park lane would help me. When I contacted them about the deal they told me it's a no frills service. What they mean by that is you build your car on the configurator, send them the reference number, they then give you a price. If you go ahead with the order you pay a deposit over the phone then pick your car up when it's ready, they said you don't get the "dealer experience" which I don't mind as long as I'm getting a good price.

 

I guess the 'no frills service' is the reason its cheap then. So, as you said from the outset then, you are left with only one option. A visit to another dealership to get a test drive in full knowledge you will never buy the car from them, but keep that to yourself!

 

I doubt park lane would help me. When I contacted them about the deal they told me it's a no frills service. What they mean by that is you build your car on the configurator, send them the reference number, they then give you a price. If you go ahead with the order you pay a deposit over the phone then pick your car up when it's ready, they said you don't get the "dealer experience" which I don't mind as long as I'm getting a good price.

I bought my M140i through BMW Forces(Park Lane). This service is exclusively for factory orders. Most of their offers are by far the best so there was no need to waste time haggling and neither did Park Lane make much effort sweet talking me into buying the car. I placed my order and had the car delivered to me in a massive four car transport that you would expect to see Ferraris, and Paganis delivered in.

I loved not having to spend a 5-6h round trip to pick up a car at a different end of the country. Home delivery was awesome and I would be happy to have cars delivered to me the same way.

 

I've had similar experience in the past with other brands. They always want to talk about doing a deal even before the test drive; key example was a VW dealer in Glasgow Southside about 3 years ago.
I was interested in the Golf R at the time, in both Estate and Hatchback form.
I booked it online, and arrived at said dealership, and then was asked by their salesmen will I be doing a deal today?
I replied it depends how the car drives, and then he replies "we don't give out test drives willy nilly" (still remember that lol) and that he would only offer a test drive if I'm willing to talk numbers and put a deposit down beforehand. Needless to say I walked out.
I'm never going to consider a car unless I know how it is to drive and live with, I had never had that experience before when I express my interest, and then someone doesn't want to accommodate what I thought was a straight forward protocol in the buying process.
We have had several VWs in the past 5 years (Polo, Golf, Passat and Passat CC), and I don't think I'd ever be buying from that dealership from that experience. I still however eye up the Golf GTI Performance from time to time as a new daily lol, but most likely will be swapping my 2016 M135i for a newer 140 when the time comes.

On the other hand my local BMW dealership was completely the opposite and were very accommodating and did not push at all - friendly and polite with no pressure sales.
Would like to also add I didn't buy my M135i from a main dealer in the end, but if the price/spec was right I certainly would of lol.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like Arnold Sharks to me, I'm guessing he had a shiner suit on too!!!,

 

I doubt park lane would help me. When I contacted them about the deal they told me it's a no frills service. What they mean by that is you build your car on the configurator, send them the reference number, they then give you a price. If you go ahead with the order you pay a deposit over the phone then pick your car up when it's ready, they said you don't get the "dealer experience" which I don't mind as long as I'm getting a good price.

I bought my M140i through BMW Forces(Park Lane). This service is exclusively for factory orders. Most of their offers are by far the best so there was no need to waste time haggling and neither did Park Lane make much effort sweet talking me into buying the car. I placed my order and had the car delivered to me in a massive four car transport that you would expect to see Ferraris, and Paganis delivered in.

I loved not having to spend a 5-6h round trip to pick up a car at a different end of the country. Home delivery was awesome and I would be happy to have cars delivered to me the same way.

I didn't realise they did home delivery. That's great to be fair as I thought it would be a train to London then drive back. I'm assuming it's not super clean? Not that it matters, I love a good detail.

 

I wonder what BMW UK would say if you contacted them about the refusal especially after buying cars from the dealer previously.

I guess BMW UK might not be too pleased. Trouble is OP's local dealership knew they could never match his deal so would never get a sale so whats in it for them to give him a test drive. BMW Park Lane are the only retail outlet actually owned by BMW UK surely they have the means to arrange a test drive for the OP through someone local? Problem cant be unique to him for these special deals that Park Lane put together.

I doubt park lane would help me. When I contacted them about the deal they told me it's a no frills service. What they mean by that is you build your car on the configurator, send them the reference number, they then give you a price. If you go ahead with the order you pay a deposit over the phone then pick your car up when it's ready, they said you don't get the "dealer experience" which I don't mind as long as I'm getting a good price.

Looking at your location, is Sytner your local dealer?

They can be a right funny bunch. I test drove my M140i and they couldn't have been more accommodating; chucked me the keys and said have fun for a few hours. Getting a longer drive to see what it was like on the school run etc was harder (previously I had a vRS which was massive, so I was worried about buying a smaller car). It all fell apart when it came to talking figures though...there was quite a lot of pressure to buy at their ridiculous price and I got the line 'the car is costing us to sell to you at this price' they also added gap and paint protection in automatically which is now a no-no under FCA guidance. I kept telling them my target budget and I was told no way would I buy one at that price.

Quick email to TRL and a factory order within £10 per month if my target was sorted. I had a follow up call with Sytner and was told that they'd have matched the TRL figures :banghead:

My local VW deale tried to talk figures before if driven the R and GTi TCR. Why? I might not like the damn thing....which in both of those cases, I didn't.

 

It is irrelevant doing a test drive at Park Lane BMW. I'm not even sure they offer them. I believe they work on the basis (especially on used cars) that they hold some of the best cars in dealer networks at competitive prices so you by with trust and any issues are sorted, no squabbles.

 

few years ago we booked an appointment to see an approved used Mini, when we arrived and waiting for 45 minutes, the sales guy said sorry but the car is not here, shall we go through the money part of the deal?! I said how can we discuss the deal as we haven't even seen the car in question! his response, the car is like all the other cars we have in the dealership?! he lost the sale and we bought an Audi A1 instead!

BMW UK won't care as they don't control the dealers, just try somewhere else!