Holman Fort Lauderdale/Pines BMW Dealer

[tbird]

As some of you may have read, my family and I have had some pretty negative experiences with FLL BMW. Their sales team has not given us fair prices the last two times we were in there (they barely even carry any 1's there), and pretty abyssmal trade-in values. Their service dept has wrecked our cars 5 times now (yes, 5 times, you read right, with one car being "totaled"), and we are still dealing with Wreck #5, going on 2 1/2 months now.

We all drive BMW's except my wife who has a partial BMW, known as Mini (not a slam, I love Minis). Her Mini went in for service, the engine light was on. After three different attempts over two weeks to fix the problem, they finally fixed the ECU. BUT, then they call my wife and ask her "Did you have a scratch on your car when you came in here?" Of course she didn't. I went to look at the car, it had a HUGE gouge down the side, destroying the right door and RR panel. They did their best to pin the blame on us, but thanks to having the "No damages" service sign-in sheet, they had to acquiesce and admit fault. That was 2 months ago.

Since that time, they have debated on how to fix the car, forgotten about us, done shoddy work to fix the problem, and then kept "playing the game" with us on how it really wasnt their fault but the fault of the valet parking guys on site.

THEN, when they "fix" the car, the door is improperly painted, and the brand new factory panel they welded on has a ripple in the metal. They would have had to have seen it, but they just installed it anyways, hoping I wouldn't notice. The Body Shop manager even tried to pretend he didn't see it, but that wasn't going to fly with me. He finally acknowledged it and said he would fix it.

Oh yea, you guessed it. He didn't replace the brand new defective panel with a NEW new panel. He called in Dent Wizard. He also said 2 weeks. That was a month ago. Did they replace the defective panel, or stick with it? You can bet I am asking for the internal invoice.

2 1/2 months, and still as of yesterday, no car. So, with my brother in tow (he's helping me control my frustration), we went to see the General Manager of FLL BMW. I will grant that at least he was the most amiable of the bunch of managers we have dealt with so far (Service Manager, Asst Service Manager, and Body Shop Manager, let alone 2 service reps).

He asked for me to give him a chance to review the situation. Obviously, since the other managers kept him in the dark on this, he needs a chance to become familiar with all of it. That is certainly fair, and so he said he would get back to me this Friday.

So, this Friday we see the final decision. Do they 1) come clean, fix the car, and pay for the Diminition of Value, or 2) give a super deal on a replacement new car that will be the same monthly payment as what we pay now, or 3) the mess continues and we have to go the legal route?

Normally, going the legal route is 50/50, but with this being Wreck #5, it shows a clear pattern. Plus, they also wrecked a car that belonged to the local independent repair shop where I take my commuter Focus, and that counts as well. With an established pattern of damage and neglect, and with corroborating witnesses, I have definitely a better-than-50/50 chance.

BUT, we will see.

Of course, if anyone else has been screwed over by FLL BMW, feel free to respond or to PM me.

Updates to come......................

[escobar929]

wow, man that unbelievable and ridiculous at the same time

a car was totaled? WOW

i had my car scratched at Pines but i was put in contact w/ Joe Spaciano who is one of the overall managers for both service dept. My car was sent to their body shop in hollywood where the whole side rocker was painted. I could not be happier w/ the result and it seemed like a talked to the right guy, cause everyone at the body shop seems to fear Joe.

if you have any problems, let me know. i still have Joe's contact info

thats beyond ridiculous, i think even though they handled my situation correctly, i doubt i would go back again for service.

If you need a CA to talk to, talk to Les Cutler over at Pines. He gave me a pretty solid price on my 1er and he's an honest, good guy. He helped me the most when my car was scratched and no manager would return my call

[tbird]

I am dealing with the General Manager "Michael George" now. Joe Spaciano answers to him. I just went to the very top top guy, we will see if he is feared or not, and if he understands or not.

Let's face it. After buying 8 cars from them, they can either make up for their mistake and appease the customer and lose a tiny bit of profit, OR they can figure "Geesh, screw this guy, we don't care. We are not giving an inch" and then that will be posted here, and they can see how much they lose in sales to their dealership. Let's face it, the Internet is the way to reach the people. No business can truly hide anymore, once the people share information. Especially we 1Addicts!

Giving up profit one time, or lose sales month after month? I know the correct answer, and I am hoping they do too. LOTS of potential loss of sales if more and more people post to Bimmerpost.com (in our respective areas) about if they had bad treatment at FLL BMW.

[escobar929]

thats cool, im sure if the fear Joe, that they will sh!t their pants w/ Michael

can you give more info on how they totaled that car?

[tbird]

They don't even know. They had finished the car, and a valet moved it and reported that it was damaged.

When Matt Bittman (then Asst Service Manager at FLL, now is at the Pines location) and I surveyed the car, he theorized that it was a truck that was backing up and dragged their hard bumper down the car. That seems feasible to me, but it could have been any sort of vehicle of course. But the groove was about 4 inches high, about 1 inch deep, and about 4 feet down the vehicle along door to rear quarter panel.

I have pics, but they are at home, and I am at work. If I get a chance, I will post a couple.

[tbird]

Oh, and just for more fun, on Wreck#2, they had my mother's 5 Series, an E60. When Hurricane Wilma came through, they as usual failed to communicate with us that they couldn't protect the car. They called at one point and said they could, but in the end, when they couldn't and had to leave it outside, they didn't call and say "Sorry, we just can't fit it in protection. Can you take it home and bring it back?".

Nope, they not only left it outside, but they put it IN A GARDEN TOOL SHED!! I kid you not, they backed it into a tool shed, one that was clearly not hurricane compliant.

Easy to guess what happened. The shed lifted up and repeatedly beat the car to death, over and over and over. All glass broken, entire car scratched and dented, the entire interior was a puddle. There was a mosquito pond in the IDrive monitor screen.

That was only Wreck#2 out of 5 times wrecked.

Unbelievable.

[escobar929]

HOLY SH!T!!!!!!

you gotta be fawking w/ me bro, no way!

Wilma hit that ft auderdale area pretty hard, cant imagine they are that stupid

at this point, think they just owe you a new car. i would raise hell to BMWNA, thats beyond retarded

[tbird]

I gave the option to the GM, and I made it pretty fair on numbers. We will see what happens.

If they don't do new car or something "significant", then yep, it would be time for BMWNA, for lawyers, and for an all out blitz on cutting off their sales. They sell 6000 cars a year, that would have to go down a few notches. As always, when the people can get on the Internet (especially we intelligent 1Addicts :-> ) and share information, the big companies have to sit up and take notice.

[Ash83]

Any update on this bro.. I hope you got what you want..

[tbird]

After three months, we finally came to an agreement.

We took the car back. They did a ton of extra work to make the door and panel perfect, they fully detailed the car, and then they gave us a good cash amount (amount equal to what the supposed Dimunition Of Value would be) as well for a settlement.

I had negotiated three different options of
-Extended Warranty
-Cash
-Strong discounts on new car

My wife, as typically women do, prefers mpg and options. The Mini Cooper doesn't come with lots of options anymore (unless you custom order). Her car has so much, it would have taken a lot to get a new one. There is no leather in any Mini Cooper on any lot, only the S model and up (Mini is doing it to keep the Cooper cost effective to help sales). So the best option for us was the cash and take the car back. We invested the money so that it will be worth more later on.

There will be no CarFax report on it as well. Since no insurance was involved, and since they claim that if a BMW shop does the work, they don't need to put it into CarFax, there is no report.

Of course, I will be checking this out in a couple months, just to be sure. But for now, the ordeal has ended, and my wife will now be able to be safe again, thank God!!

So, as I have mentioned in many threads, and I mention to all again, Braman is the place to go. If you are purchasing, let me know, and I will make sure you have a good experience.