[adsierra]

I purchased a 45e in March and I'm having what seems to be an unusual delivery experience at my local BMW center. I am curious for other perspectives!

• 3/23/23 – I signed paperwork for the vehicle. As of this day, I own, insure and pay for the vehicle.
• 3/25/23 – The vehicle arrives at the dealership.
• 3/27/23 – The dealership surprises me with a "storage form," absolving the dealership of any liability should something happen to the vehicle while it's on their lot. I was later told that I should have been presented this form before signing and they made a mistake.
• 3/31/23 – The dealership gets the Certificate of Origin from BMWNA. Up until this date, the dealership claimed they were just waiting for plates from the DMV, but they were actually waiting for the Certificate of Origin. I only found this out because my insurance agent reached out asking if I still planned to insure the vehicle.
• 4/5/23 – I received temporary plates and temporary registration from the DMV. The dealership has been unresponsive, my car continues to sit on their lot and I can't pick it up because (I assume) it isn't prepped.

Am I being unreasonable in feeling that this timeline has been unreasonable and riddled with dishonesty? I own, insure and am liable for the vehicle, so I'm growing more and more uncomfortable by the day. I'm on the verge of calling the General Manager but trying my very best to stay patient. Can anyone share a similar experience or suggest a path forward?

[RetSurfer]

I'm not sure I would sign anything until I inspected the car...

[AbleDanger]

Originally Posted by adsierra

I purchased a 45e in March and I'm having what seems to be an unusual delivery experience at my local BMW center. I am curious for other perspectives!

• 3/23/23 – I signed paperwork for the vehicle. As of this day, I own, insure and pay for the vehicle.
• 3/25/23 – The vehicle arrives at the dealership.
• 3/27/23 – The dealership surprises me with a "storage form," absolving the dealership of any liability should something happen to the vehicle while it's on their lot. I was later told that I should have been presented this form before signing and they made a mistake.
• 3/31/23 – The dealership gets the Certificate of Origin from BMWNA. Up until this date, the dealership claimed they were just waiting for plates from the DMV, but they were actually waiting for the Certificate of Origin. I only found this out because my insurance agent reached out asking if I still planned to insure the vehicle.
• 4/5/23 – I received temporary plates and temporary registration from the DMV. The dealership has been unresponsive, my car continues to sit on their lot and I can't pick it up because (I assume) it isn't prepped.

Am I being unreasonable in feeling that this timeline has been unreasonable and riddled with dishonesty? I own, insure and am liable for the vehicle, so I'm growing more and more uncomfortable by the day. I'm on the verge of calling the General Manager but trying my very best to stay patient. Can anyone share a similar experience or suggest a path forward?

I think you've been more than patient. I'd reach out to the Sales Mgr, and barring a satisfactory response from them, escalate to the GM. If they continue to jerk you around, mention 'lawyers' to them and see if that gets them to give you your car.

[adsierra]

Originally Posted by AbleDanger

I think you've been more than patient. I'd reach out to the Sales Mgr, and barring a satisfactory response from them, escalate to the GM. If they continue to jerk you around, mention 'lawyers' to them and see if that gets them to give you your car.

I left the Sales Manager a voicemail last week, he never returned my call. I left the GM a voicemail earlier this afternoon, but have not heard back from him either. I am close to calling BMWNA Customer Relations...

[GerryC]

Originally Posted by adsierra

Am I being unreasonable in feeling that this timeline has been unreasonable and riddled with dishonesty? I own, insure and am liable for the vehicle, so I'm growing more and more uncomfortable by the day. I'm on the verge of calling the General Manager but trying my very best to stay patient. Can anyone share a similar experience or suggest a path forward?

Call the GM. If he doesn't give you a satisfactory answer, call BMW NA Customer Relations at 1-800-831-1117.

The nice people in customer relations can be very helpful in dealing with dealer issues. They can't solve all problems, but they can get the dealer's attention as customer feedback is very important to BMW NA. They have ways to address bad dealer behavior.

[adsierra]

Originally Posted by GerryC

Call the GM. If he doesn't give you a satisfactory answer, call BMW NA Customer Relations at 1-800-831-1117.

The nice people in customer relations can be very helpful in dealing with dealer issues. They can't solve all problems, but they can get the dealer's attention as customer feedback is very important to BMW NA. They have ways to address bad dealer behavior.

Customer Relations said there isn't very much they can do besides a reach-out requesting that the dealer respond to me in the timeframe they promised. I'm at a loss here unfortunately.

[GerryC]

Something is very wrong here. You should have the car or a very clear explanation of the problem, what it will take to resolve it, and an estimate of when it will be resolved. There's no excuse to be vague.

In my opinion, they're hiding something and hoping they can fix it quickly without admitting to anything.

[arRod1981]

I'm honestly quite surprised that you were able to sign for your vehicle before it arrived to the dealership. From what I've seen this is not allowed, and only able to be done if doing PCD pick up.

There has been a few people who had their vehicle arrive damaged to the dealership, and in once case BMW denied the sale because of the extent of damage and the person had to start all over. In this case, who would be responsible to pay for the damage if they signed early? Your insurance or BMW? Then to add on you're also making payments on a vehicle you can't drive as it's being repaired.

How did you signing before the vehicle arrived even come about?

[adsierra]

Originally Posted by arRod1981

I'm honestly quite surprised that you were able to sign for your vehicle before it arrived to the dealership. From what I've seen this is not allowed, and only able to be done if doing PCD pick up.

There has been a few people who had their vehicle arrive damaged to the dealership, and in once case BMW denied the sale because of the extent of damage and the person had to start all over. In this case, who would be responsible to pay for the damage if they signed early? Your insurance or BMW? Then to add on you're also making payments on a vehicle you can't drive as it's being repaired.

How did you signing before the vehicle arrived even come about?

Signing the vehicle proactively came about so as to "expedite the registration process." The dealer was not honest here about the true delay being the Certificate of Origin, and it feels more and more like they wanted to close the sale before the end of March. And again, they took 4 extra days before strong-arming me into waiving their liability while the car sits on their lot.

In hindsight, the dealership should not have requested I sign for the vehicle until it hit the lot and they had the Certificate of Origin from BMW NA. Registration took 24 hours once they submitted to the state.

My sales guy finally got back to me at the end of the day today– I'm picking the vehicle up tomorrow evening. No correspondence whatsoever from any level of management that I reached out to, and they walked back their offer to deliver the vehicle to me (I'd prefer to go to the Center myself at this point, anyway). Fingers crossed for a smooth delivery.

[tooloud10]

Seems like we’re missing something important here, but in any case, you say you want the car that you own, so go get the car that you own.

[adsierra]

I finally have my vehicle, and things went fairly smoothly at the dealership. I went over it with a fine-tooth comb and it's in absolutely perfect condition.

My takeaway after going to the BMW Center for the third time is that they are understaffed and undertrained. 3 out of 4 staff members that I interacted with (across finance, sales, product specialists, etc.) had a tenure of 2 months or less (and as little time as two weeks).

End of the day, they sold me a car and were no longer liable for the car, so I was no longer the priority to their staff (relative to, of course, selling more cars).

I've been very thorough and detailed explaining my experience in previous posts– feel free to ask me any questions should it still feel that anything is "missing."

Undoubtedly a disappointing customer and delivery experience, but I'm more than thrilled to have my 45e.

[TurtleBoy]

Congratulations on finally getting it. Good luck, enjoy and be safe.

[Condorll]

Your state and/or dealer might have different rules but in PA you insure the vehicle effective on the date you take phsyical possession. Also you can refuse to accept the vehicle while still on the dealers lot. The second you drive of dealer's lot (property) you own it. As far as dealer prep goes, my dealer had my X5 ready for pickup the day after it was delivered to them. Something smells about your delay, I would inspect that vehicle very carefully and test drive it on the dealers lot.

[tooloud10]

Originally Posted by adsierra

I've been very thorough and detailed explaining my experience in previous posts– feel free to ask me any questions should it still feel that anything is "missing."

The parts I thought were missing were:

1) Why would anyone involved believe it made sense to complete the purchase for a vehicle that wasn't available for delivery?

2) Once the vehicle was physically delivered to the dealer, what was preventing you from picking it up?

[adsierra]

Originally Posted by tooloud10

The parts I thought were missing were:

1) Why would anyone involved believe it made sense to complete the purchase for a vehicle that wasn't available for delivery?

2) Once the vehicle was physically delivered to the dealer, what was preventing you from picking it up?

Thank you, these are good questions!

1) I take some accountability here. I put too much trust in the BMW Center to run the process as smoothly as they initially promised.

I adhered to their suggestion to "sign proactively to get the registration process started as quickly as possible," and trusted them that this would only take a few days as they promised.

I also purchased across state lines, so there was some added intricacy here. It is accurate that a Bill of Sale is required to submit to the state for registration/plates. Even if the car was on the lot the day I signed, I would have had to wait a day or two before being able to drive it home.

That said, the dealership would not allow me to go to the DMV for plates myself (they insisted on handling everything "in house"), they surprised me with the document waiving their liability 4 days after I signed, and they were dishonest about the state causing the delay when in reality they were waiting on the Certificate of Origin for over a week. All of this is where things truly went awry from my perspective.

Learning: Stay patient and go see your new vehicle in person before signing a single piece of paper to eliminate any sense of suspicion or doubt!

2) More or less implied above, what was stopping me from picking it up was that the dealership did not have the Certificate of Origin for the vehicle and as such could not submit for registration/plates. One could argue that it was unethical for them to encourage, let alone permit a customer to sign for a vehicle that they could not possibly deliver.

The result was a closed sale for them, and the customer paying for/insuring a vehicle sitting on their lot. BMW NA Customer Relations confirmed that this is not in violation of any policies per se, however it is "unheard of."

I acknowledge everyone's trepidation about the dealership covering something up with the delay, however now that I have the vehicle, I am confident that this came down to poor process and poor operation.

My X5 45e is pristine and I couldn't be happier with it! I really appreciate the advice along the way and I hope my recount here can help someone in the future.

Lastly, I've made a concerted effort to not specify the dealership in question– I remain undecided as to whether or not to file a formal complaint with BMW NA. Given multiple calls to multiple managers (up to the GM) went unreturned, a complaint with BMW NA would be the next logical step.

[GerryC]

Originally Posted by adsierra

Thank you, these are good questions!

2) More or less implied above, what was stopping me from picking it up was that the dealership did not have the Certificate of Origin for the vehicle and as such could not submit for registration/plates. One could argue that it was unethical for them to encourage, let alone permit a customer to sign for a vehicle that they could not possibly deliver.

I'm glad it all worked out to your satisfaction. Enjoy the car.

But I struggle understanding this. Everything in BMW's system is electronic. If the dealer needed a hard copy of the MSO (Manufacturer's Statement of Origin) all they need to do is print it. It may not be available immediately after the car is built, but it should have been available long before the car made it to the dealer's lot. Even if the network was down when they requested it, it should have been available within a day. A dealership doesn't operate for long with the system offline.

There was something else going on there. Just don't know if it's worth the effort to try and figure it out.

[adsierra]

Originally Posted by GerryC

I'm glad it all worked out to your satisfaction. Enjoy the car.

But I struggle understanding this. Everything in BMW's system is electronic. If the dealer needed a hard copy of the MSO (Manufacturer's Statement of Origin) all they need to do is print it. It may not be available immediately after the car is built, but it should have been available long before the car made it to the dealer's lot. Even if the network was down when they requested it, it should have been available within a day. A dealership doesn't operate for long with the system offline.

There was something else going on there. Just don't know if it's worth the effort to try and figure it out.

The first time I called BMW NA Customer Relations, I explained that the dealership claimed they were waiting on the MSO and I specifically asked if that is something that could reasonably cause delay. Their answer (the woman I spoke with used to work in the titling office at Financial Services) was that it is a “shared effort” between corporate offices in New Jersey and a BMW Center.

Further context: This was a custom order that was (impressively) built within three weeks of ordering (because as we all know the 50e production spun up on or around 4/1/23). It was the dealership’s last allocation for a 2023 45e and the last allocation I could find within 100 miles of where I live. Someone dropped the ball somewhere, but I’ll probably never know who or where!

[tooloud10]

Originally Posted by adsierra

Thank you, these are good questions!

Thanks for the update!

That said, the dealership would not allow me to go to the DMV for plates myself (they insisted on handling everything "in house"), they surprised me with the document waiving their liability 4 days after I signed, and they were dishonest about the state causing the delay when in reality they were waiting on the Certificate of Origin for over a week. All of this is where things truly went awry from my perspective.

I can speak to this point, and you had excellent reason to be concerned. I bought a new truck during peak-Covid and I begged the dealer to let me just handle all the paperwork on my own. They absolutely refused, and it resulted in a 7-month (!) delay in getting my registration/plates/title. I was furious and had to open an investigation through the state to get answers.

When I bought my 45e a few weeks ago, I fully expected to be told the same, and came prepared to walk away if anyone insisted on using their crappy third party (RegUSA) to obtain the documents. To my surprise, they didn't argue at all and seemed to know exactly why I had this attitude.

2) More or less implied above, what was stopping me from picking it up was that the dealership did not have the Certificate of Origin for the vehicle and as such could not submit for registration/plates. One could argue that it was unethical for them to encourage, let alone permit a customer to sign for a vehicle that they could not possibly deliver.

Agreed that they didn't handle this the right way and that the mistake(s) were on the part of the dealer.

My X5 45e is pristine and I couldn't be happier with it! I really appreciate the advice along the way and I hope my recount here can help someone in the future.

Glad you like it! I am loving mine as well.