135is order availability?

[builthatch]

one dealer said it depends on allotment if they can get an order for a 135is processed. does that make any sense?

another dealer said they don't understand what that means but they are a big store so they might not be affected by that.

i am running it by a third store but the contact i would use is on vacation until 11/19.

what the hell man, i mean, they are charging for everything when you build these things, why would they make you bend over even more and play these games with whether or not the car is available? it's a limited production based on the one year run, i understand that, but it's able to be built/ordered and the car is a 1-series with a few things that are essentially add-ons/options.

[Guardian]

Originally Posted by builthatch

one dealer said it depends on allotment if they can get an order for a 135is processed. does that make any sense?

another dealer said they don't understand what that means but they are a big store so they might not be affected by that.

i am running it by a third store but the contact i would use is on vacation until 11/19.

what the hell man, i mean, they are charging for everything when you build these things, why would they make you bend over even more and play these games with whether or not the car is available? it's a limited production based on the one year run, i understand that, but it's able to be built/ordered and the car is a 1-series with a few things that are essentiall add-ons/options.

Not sure why you would have any issues ordering a 135is, as I talked to three different dealers before I ordered mine, and none of them hesitated when it came to ordering the car, I just had to find a dealer that would give me the best price on the car and best offer on my trade.

The first dealer told me that they would not even get them in stock, they would only be available by order, and that was a decent sized dealership. Second dealer said the same as the first as far as only getting them by order. Third actually had one on the lot, but didn't have the options I wanted, so had to order. All wanted a deposit up front before they would place the order, but I expected that, and have done that with other vehicle from other manufacturers, so nothing new there.

Not sure why your dealers are having an issue...

[Elwood74]

Before purchase I got the whole 'limited' talk. Upon order, I find out that any 1er allotment can be changed to 'is'. If they can get you a 135i, they can get you a 135is.

Why the run around? Because they can.

[HeelToe]

Search on autotrader. There are quite a few available around the country. One way airfare ticket is only a couple hundred. If its on the lot unsold the dealer is more incented to offer a good price than if they have to order custom.

[Guardian]

builthatch,

Not sure which color and options you are looking for, but I just noticed that BMW of Tenafly has a loaded 135is in alpine white showing in their inventory...I don't know anything about that dealer, but at least that may give you a place to start. Hope that helps.

[builthatch]

thanks all.

i looked on autotrader just to see what's out there but 135is returned 0 results within the all miles distance setting.

maybe i did it wrong, i'll try again. autotrader definitely has a 135is selection vs. cars.com which doesn't. 135is or 135 is as an additional search term doesn't work on cars.com. i guess they aren't interested in that model, hehe.

i want titanium silver with red leather. i figure for the money they are charging for the is, i should get exactly what i want with the configuration.

it's a long story, but i have these few dealers to deal with because i use a broker. always have and hopefully will for a long time until he retires. my new STI had some terminal issues and Subaru was cooperative and made me whole, 100% satisfied with the result. i wish i could explain more but i signed an NDA as part of the deal. anyway, my broker makes life really easy and gives me such good value for my trades. he also does stuff like got me into a truck temporarily which he will give me back exactly what i paid when i get my next car. the tax paid on that purchase will be rolled into the next car, therefore offsetting the next car's tax liability by that much. sounds confusing but it's not. we've been using this guy for a long time.

anyway, so that's my story. i'm just glad to have settled on something. i was in this exact position earlier in the year before i settled on the STI, and now just a short time later it's the same deal. i was weighing out CPO 911 c2s/c4s, CPO Cayman S, CPO M3 and the new Golf R. this 135is seems like such a winner. sitting in one yesterday sealed the deal. well, it wasn't an is but a 135i with the m package stuff. anyway, i'll figure this out, i just need to stay on them with my broker's assistance. i normally wouldn't have gotten involved this much but i was trying to take charge of things a bit to expedite stuff and then i got these silly and differing responses from the dealers about this car. it'll sort itself out. i was just ranting a bit because it was surprised to see such differing answers about something seemingly so black and white.

thanks again!

[HeelToe]

Don't search for the 'is'. You have to search for the 135i and then manually pour through the cars to find the 'is's. They are there. You just have to work to find them. I did find a couple gray is's but no silver.

Agree with you on getting exactly what you want. I ordered mine and then when mine was on the boat an exact one like mine showed up in inventory at a dealer on Ohio. Since I already had mine on order and had a grand of deposit down I just waited for my ordered car.

[fam]

Originally Posted by Elwood74

Before purchase I got the whole 'limited' talk. Upon order, I find out that any 1er allotment can be changed to 'is'. If they can get you a 135i, they can get you a 135is.

Why the run around? Because they can.

I heard the same thing from the dealers I talked to. They just looked at their first available 135i allotment when estimating my 135is order time.

[builthatch]

thanks guys.

so i'm getting more clarification on this. it's linked buildable units which are allotted to dealers. these can be traded like cars so a dealership who isn't allotted enough units can trade with dealers who have them.

so it's not that big of a deal unless your dealer has nothing to trade to the other dealer. good thing is the buildable unit, as a unit, is on paper, so ideally they could trade unit for unit both on paper and never have to transport a car.

now price. i won't steer us off topic but i just wanted to say the quote with my broker's number attached is 1k under MSRP. i have a trade to my broker for which i get a premium AND have the tax benefit to offset the BMW tax liability so i think that is a fair price. i'm still going to get another quote though.

anyway, i know that's off topic. thanks for your insights everyone!

[fam]

Originally Posted by builthatch

now price. i won't steer us off topic but i just wanted to say the quote with my broker's number attached is 1k under MSRP. i have a trade to my broker for which i get a premium AND have the tax benefit to offset the BMW tax liability so i think that is a fair price. i'm still going to get another quote though.

I ended up getting $3k off MSRP before discounts for BMWFS loyalty ($750) and USAA ($1k, need to be insured with them), so I ended up about 1k over invoice before the additional stuff and Including those discounts it was under invoice. I know at least a couple others have done as well or better.

So definitely get more quotes--not sure how much a broker could add to the cost or what kind of premium might exist on the trade, but don't let the newness/"limited" perception of the is prevent you from getting a good deal...

[mb135is]

1. This is NOT a limited car and any dealership spouting that is full of crap and would not see one dime of my money.

2. 1K off MSRP is too high of a price for this car in my opinion - start at invoice (- 7% off msrp) and go from there.

3. You're not going to find many IS models on autotrader - they just started getting here a couple of months ago. SOME dealerships are ordering them and putting them on their lots, but not many are doing this.

[HeelToe]

Originally Posted by mb135is

1. This is NOT a limited car and any dealership spouting that is full of crap and would not see one dime of my money.

2. 1K off MSRP is too high of a price for this car in my opinion - start at invoice (- 7% off msrp) and go from there.

3. You're not going to find many IS models on autotrader - they just started getting here a couple of months ago. SOME dealerships are ordering them and putting them on their lots, but not many are doing this.

Fyi. Just found at least 12 is's on autotrader. I searched new 135 between 45 and 55k. There are probably a few more out there but some of the listings don't have details. The first ones were in dealers as far back as 2 months back.

[mb135is]

Originally Posted by HeelToe

Fyi. Just found at least 12 is's on autotrader. I searched new 135 between 45 and 55k. There are probably a few more out there but some of the listings don't have details. The first ones were in dealers as far back as 2 months back.

Good to know - all dealership cars, yes?

[HeelToe]

Yep.

[mb135is]

I've found a couple on youtube from dealerships as well.

[Braap]

Why is everyone SO adamently against dealers trying to make money selling cars? I mean really, think about it. If you owned a coffee shop and it cost you $1 to make a coffee, how would you feel if people felt you were 'skrewing' them if they paid more than $.80 for the cup?

I get that everyone wants a deal, but seriously consider the fact that it's a BUSINESS. Just like everything else you purchase in your daily lives.

Let's be real.

[mb135is]

Originally Posted by Braap

Why is everyone SO adamently against dealers trying to make money selling cars? I mean really, think about it. If you owned a coffee shop and it cost you $1 to make a coffee, how would you feel if people felt you were 'skrewing' them if they paid more than $.80 for the cup?

I get that everyone wants a deal, but seriously consider the fact that it's a BUSINESS. Just like everything else you purchase in your daily lives.

Let's be real.

I'm not against it. I consider it a game and a competition. They play games with us; we play games with them. Fair play, in my opinion!

And if we're being real, BMW makes money @ invoice from their built in dealership hold-back, so I'm not crying for them at night based on people getting deals. They're doing just fine.

Plus if it's fair BUSINESS to make the most amount of money, then it's fair for the consumer to pay the least amount possible. Some dealerships understand that selling one car at a very fair price means selling cars in the future and also getting recommendations.

[PeterKBMW]

FYI it is pretty hard to get a 135is. If your dealership doesn't have an allocation for one then they have to trade for one, and the chances of having that happen is slim because no one wants to give them up. It took me a week to finally convince a dealer to trade with me for one. And no, you can't turn a 135i build into an "is", I tried, that's straight from BMW themselves.

[mb135is]

Originally Posted by PeterKBMW

FYI it is pretty hard to get a 135is. If your dealership doesn't have an allocation for one then they have to trade for one, and the chances of having that happen is slim because no one wants to give them up. It took me a week to finally convince a dealer to trade with me for one. And no, you can't turn a 135i build into an "is", I tried, that's straight from BMW themselves.

I guess that's their fake version of a limited production car that is the exact same thing as a135i with some extra parts.

All I know is I had three dealers working with 4 135i allocations that they told me could turn into an "is." One became mine.

[PeterKBMW]

I went through the same thing, but I actually had to search for a 135is allocation. If I could of switched it to an "is" build, I would have saved myself alot of headaches.

[mb135is]

That's weird. I wonder if different dealerships have different capabilities. The story I was told by the three who wanted my business was: "We have 4 1 series allocations available in the northeast, any of which we can turn into a 135is, all of which are slated for production."

When I went with dealership X, dealership Y contacted me saying, "I've been watching the 1 series allocations and haven't noticed dealership X build your car - do you want to purchase with us instead?" hahaha no thanks - lost your chance!

Wonder what's up with that.

[Oldracer]

Originally Posted by mb135is

That's weird. I wonder if different dealerships have different capabilities. The story I was told by the three who wanted my business was: "We have 4 1 series allocations available in the northeast, any of which we can turn into a 135is, all of which are slated for production."

When I went with dealership X, dealership Y contacted me saying, "I've been watching the 1 series allocations and haven't noticed dealership X build your car - do you want to purchase with us instead?" hahaha no thanks - lost your chance!

Wonder what's up with that.

There certainly is something weird going on with the 135is production.

After working with three dealers I ended up with three different answers to the availablity question. Dealer A said no problem but wouldn't deal seriously on price and was unable to committ to our desired ED schedule.

Dealer B wouldn't talk ED because "That model isn't available" and tried to talk me into a 3er.

Finally I found dealer C, struck a fair deal and early last week, placed an order. Three days later the order was kicked back by BMW NA. From their email: "Unfortunately, we are not able to process this order as the 135is Coupe and Convertible are not available through the European Delivery. Your order bank request has been deleted."

Two days ago I was told the reason is that "135is Production has ended".

I only know what I'm told but this seems to a developing scenario. I've been working on a 1er purchase for well over a month and this is not the only unpublished change in the program. I believe my dealer was just as surprised as I was and the only reason I know about any of this our mutual incredulity over not being able to consummate a simple order from published guidelines.

In order to preserve our ED schedule I gave up and changed the order to an M Sport 135i with the same equipment. That order apparently went through with no trouble. The new car won't be the optimal choice but then my wife won't be getting it in Crimson Red either. "Just wait until last year".........