Pacific BMW PDI Joy Ridden 1M Coupe Was Mine!

[FairfaxM3]

Front page on Jalopnik.com--again. How do you like them apples Pacific BMW?!?!

http://jalopnik.com/5837417/im-the-s...ership-joyride

[Technic]

A free extended warranty would have been a reasonable request, and that's it. The joy riders were fired, the dealer contacted the owner. So the extended warranty would have been a great request which should have been accepted immediately by the dealer. But once the lawyers were involved everything went to crap.

The $10K over invoice does not have anything to do with the joy ride, it has everything to do with the agreed markup between the dealer and the buyer. For me these are two different and separate things.

Would the markup have been different/less if the buyer had known about the joy ride before the agreement? Maybe, maybe not... all depends on how bad the buyer wanted this car. And I guess that the $10000 payment over MSRP meant that he wanted it real bad.

What would I have done if this was my car? Impossible to me to say as I will never pay one single cent over MSRP for any car. Never have done it, never will...

Good luck.

[BimmerE82]

I feel for you buddy...I'd be pissed off too! Hope everything works out for you! Is that video still on You Tube?

[discoboy1]

I d take the 2 k they offered + extended warranty for free

[Optherion]

Hate to be the bear of bad news, but you signed a contract for the sale price. Unless by some act of pure luck or grace of God they soften their hearts to refund your money, I wouldn't hold your breath. However, you should approach them with getting the extended warranty thrown in. I saw that video and I didnt even think it was that bad? My GT-R came with 30 miles on it from the factory. They drive it as hard as possible to test the car on the track before going to a dealer. There's nothing wrong with your car.

[BMWPower06]

wow this is terrible! I really hope you get everything you deserve. I would be furious if this were my car!!

[lesha]

There is probably nothing wrong with your car and nothing will be wrong with your car, whatever they were doing did not look that bad and I bet this sort of thing happens all the time, but in most cases it doesn't end up being recorded and posted on the web,,,but good luck with getting some $ back

[positiveions]

dont' care about this arrsses at Pacific. they can keep their business... they are bunch of clowns.
I am not saying this based on your experience OP. I am saying this based what I have experienced.

[Vdub_lover]

just imagine what happens to our cars when they first come in when its a new model, the OP was lucky to have evidence and some of us who buy cars with some miles on it, who knows how the miles were driven.... thats what sad, and thats why Euro delivery is where its at!

[JulieDriving]

If someone did that to their car and the dealer had evidence of it,

their warranty would have been VOIDED.

That's the issue here.

The owner is within all his rights to ask for compensation.

Good luck OP.

[taibanl]

Sorry to piggyback on OP...

My car was a custom build. I was deployed when it arrived at my BMW center. It was there for about a month before I had it delivered to my brother. When it showed up it already had 17 miles on it. Should I be concerned?

[N2Nalgas]

Wow crazy read. Hope you get something reasonable out of this man.

Curious to hear what another dealers thoughts would be on this topic. Anyone here a GM at a dealer or some sort of manager at a dealer?

[oman135]

You have the right to ask for compensation!
Good Luck!

[persian54]

I don't say what happened at Pacific BMW is 'right'

But it is common practice to sell cars after they have been test driven.

Now, those cars aren't limited production vehicles...

I test drove a couple of M3s before I bought my own (which, fortunately, only had 6 miles on it, which is standard).

I'm not saying don't fight back etc etc, do what it is you wish.

But IMO asking for 10k AND extended warranty/maintenance is too much.

Getting the extended warranty/maintenance refunded should be perfect.
YOU decided to pay 10k over sticker, so expecting that back is crazy....

But with the warranty/maintenance program, that alone is 7k, and it covers your car in case something goes wrong due to some high rev driving.
Though I highly highly doubt anything well go wrong with the car due to the tech taking it out.

Many people supercharge their M3s with only a couple hundred miles on them.
Maybe people install Jb4s etc on their N54s right off the bat etc.
etc etc etc

[tyler9595]

Man, that sucks. I completely understand how you would feel violated. The dealer price-gouged you for a car that was improperly handled.

I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt...Would the dealership have necessarily known about this incident before they sold you the car? They only found out after the video was posted, right? And, then they fired the employees immediately? That's a pretty good start...

In my very humble opinion, I think there's a lot of overreaction on this thread. I paid my dealer something like $600 to drive my car 200 miles from an out-of-state dealership to my local dealership. I fully expected that the person doing the driving was probably a douche who flogged it the whole way. That's what a warranty is for.

If it were me, I would ask for the difference between what you paid and what the FMV would have been for a car that was driven hard around the block a few times...and maybe throw in an extended warranty. That seems very reasonable, to me.

And...then I would tell everyone I know what happened. The dealership deserves it, if it's the truth.

[josephvman]

I think way too big a deal has been made about this. If you guys honestly think that running the revs up for a few seconds could somehow damage this car, why would you buy one? With the cylinder linings, metal coatings, and oils cars have today, break-in period isn't nearly as critical as it was ten years ago.

If I were the OP I'd see if you can get the dealer to throw in the extended warranty and service extension, and then just enjoy your car. If the car ever had a major failure you always have the video to fall back on, but at this point there is absolutely no concrete damage that you've suffered as an owner, other than the self-inflicted $10k beating that you've given yourself.

[Wingman335]

The "flogging" depicted in the video may not have been harmful to the car. But the issue is that it wasn't the owner who did that.

It's similar in spirit to how you get a minor scratch on your car. If some random person came and scratched the car, I would be furious. If I accidentally put the scratch on the car, I would be bummed, but hey- at least it was me. I wouldn't be as furious as someone else.

So I understand what OP feels. I would be upset too, largely because he paid for it, so it should be him who should flog the car- not someone from the dealership.

[phx08]

I agree with the general consensus here. Take it in a calm manner, however be adamant. It is utterly ridiculous that you spent your hard earned money (who cares that you paid $10K over MSRP, you had the resources to do so and felt comfortable doing it....so you did it.) and you received a car that was excessively abused. With that said, also make a reasonable offer for compensation. A full refund and i keep the car would obviously not fly here. However, the markup price that you were paying in order to do what you want with the car should be refunded as well as the extra warranty that you paid for (you can actually use that to your advantage, you care about the goods you purchased and you went ahead and bought services in order to protect those goods)

Usually with a trail you will have to prove "but for". You want to attain piece of mind with your new car, BUT for their actions (negligence) you are unable to to do so. Its objective, but i'm sure you and your lawyer will go into much more details about this.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[adobeee]

This thread has blown up!

[t612]

I would suggest filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau whether you have an attorney or not.

http://www.bbb.org/us/Consumer-Complaints/

I went through the BBB to file complaints against Wells Fargo for bad business practices and Chevrolet regarding my '01 Corvette's unresolved fuel pump issue. The complaints were quickly responded to by both companies; something that didn't happen when I went at them alone. Wells Fargo resolved the problem within a week of the complaint. Chevy fixed the fuel pump issue by sending me to another dealership, extended my warranty to 100k miles with $0 deductible, and refunded me money for various costs.

My wife is a corporate attorney. This doesn't make me an expert, but I have seen some patterns with respect to the realities of litigation. Depending on how reasonable or stubborn the other party is, the winner is usually the one with the deeper pocket. Unless your attorney is paid on contingency, the dealership knows you're only going to go as far as you can reasonable justify the cost.

The BBB is free.

Good luck.

[Crisp]

Originally Posted by fusion01

He was quoted as buying a NEW CAR. Not one drilled up it's own butt-hole when a running-in period is required. He's very entitled to sue for damages. Whether he has a motorplan or not, the condition of sale is for a new vehicle. I am sure this sort of clause is not included, where staff can joy-ride, of course not. Any just because some take it on the track afterwards (and AFTER the run-in period) doesn't make it then ok. He might not have wanted to - it should be HIS choice, not that of another(s). Fact is it WAS on video, it WAS documented, and there IS proof. Sure it might happen to others, but that has nothing to do with this bloke, his car and his situation. He has every right to sue for damages and pay cost price. Charging 10k above sticker price after this disgrace is shocking.

I'm not quoting you directly, just those that share your opinion for "new car, it shouldn't have been driven hard".

I think all of your visions of what a "new car" means is not what the reality is.
A new car means it wasn't owned by anyone else, not "never been driven/ zero miles". That's very rare and I don't even know if it exists.

Do you guys know that these cars are put on a dyno and fully tested before they are released to us? These miles and the miles driven during transport are usually not recorded, but they are there and the cars ARE taken to redline. It's a huge liability to produce a car and not fully test it before giving it to the owner.

Now please don't confuse this with me supporting those idiots and their joy ride (notice I didn't say PDI) in a customers car. I'm just saying there is nothing to worry about as far as reliability goes.

So, to sum it up: the owner deserves an extended warranty and maintenance. The $10k over MSRP has nothing to do with the car being driven hard since it really doesn't have an impact on the car, it's just unprofessional and no one wants to see that type of crap with their new and rare car.

[James T. Kirk]

I am a business man who has a number of hard-core attorneys who work on my behalf. One thing I've learned in all of my dealings with them is that YOU must set the goals for which you bring on legal action. Do not ask your attorneys what you should do. They will invariably advise you on a protracted course of action.

As some others have advised, the publicity angle may be your strongest leverage as the joy-riding tech did not do anything explicitly illegal.

Make a reasonable ask of the dealership, come up with a settlement, and move on. Battle this too long, and you'll grow to hate your BMW.

This awful experience is more a matter of principle and not really an issue of the mechanical integrity of your 1M. Rest assured your 1M is just fine and get to the business of enjoying it.