[AW330i]

Well, had the dealership not screwed up I would have flooded the AW pics thread with pics of my new baby... But when my car came in some idiot at the dealership took out his drill and put two holes in my front bumper to mount the front liscense plate, after I had told them on several occasions that I did not want a front liscense plate and that if they put holes in the car I would not be taking delivery and they would have to order me another car that was identical.

Well big surprise they screwed up!!! So now they are scrambling around trying to fix the problem... They took the car to their body shop and had them fill the holes and repaint just the middle section of the bumper, and said that I could come inspect the work and that if i could tell that it had been painted they would order me another car. So my friend and I went back to the dealership to inspect the job, the paint was aweful you could see the dents in the bumper were the holes had been and there were spots were primer was showing through and to make matters worse the line between were the bumper was painted and where it was original paint showed the the color to be off by several shades... I was so pissed off i was having alot of trouble keeping control of my mouth, I mean I waited all of this time to get my car in and just on a whim some guy comes up and sets me back another two months. Well as I am sure you could guess I told the dealership that i would not take delivery of the car and that they would have to order me another one. So now i have another white e90 with all of the same options coming sometime in september. I am not a happy camper and all of this waiting is getting really old but for the meantime i will just sit back and wait for stuff to come out for the e90 and take some time to plan out exactly what it is that i want to do...

[YYdoodle]

AW330i that sux! Sorry to hear about that. I just don't understand why dealers can't get simple instructions/requests like this right. Can't they just order you an entirely new factory painted bumper? Seems like that'd be easier than ordering a whole new car and waiting 2 months.

[scottz5]

WTF that is horrible. Why dont you have them order you a new bumper and have them take it to a real shop. Forget that I would want it perfect too, I feel really bad for you. If they did not mess up the paint you could have just got some bumper plugs. The wait sucks and to do it all over again OMG. How are they going to sell that car now? My dealer and CA are great! You can see the sign she put on my car. She also took the frame out of the car as soon as it got off the truck and put it in her desk. Thats what I call going the extra mile. Jackie at Circle BMW, NJ is great!

[scottz5]

ditto have them order the bumper!

[roburado]

I'm with AW. Wait for new car.

[YYdoodle]

Originally Posted by roburado

I'm with AW. Wait for new car.

Why wait for a whole new car for 2 months when there's a brand new one sitting there for him. If they give him a new factory painted undrilled bumper there's absolutely no difference between this car and the new one he has to wait 2 months for. If new bumper is an option I don't see the point of waiting 2 more painful months.

[silverado]

Originally Posted by Terps

AW330i that sux! Sorry to hear about that. I just don't understand why dealers can't get simple instructions/requests like this right. Can't they just order you an entirely new factory painted bumper? Seems like that'd be easier than ordering a whole new car and waiting 2 months.

I think it's almost impossible to prevent such things from hapenning. They would have to be running their ship as a factory assembly line for such orders about individual cars to reach all the right people at the right shift that happen to handle the car when it shows up.

Is the front plate required in Texas? If it is, I'm surprised they can humor your request for a new vehicle. If it were optional, then that's a different story.

A new bumper installed at a top-notch shop could be a good middle ground solution.

[YYdoodle]

Originally Posted by silverado

A new bumper installed at a top-notch shop could be a good middle ground solution.

Or just have them install it at the dealer. Changing bumpers isn't rocket science I'm sure they'll do just fine at the dealer

[roburado]

Originally Posted by Terps

Why wait for a whole new car for 2 months when there's a brand new one sitting there for him. If they give him a new factory painted undrilled bumper there's absolutely no difference between this car and the new one he has to wait 2 months for. If new bumper is an option I don't see the point of waiting 2 more painful months.

You're assuming the following:
1)the people who put the new bumper on the car will do a good job. I won't make that assumption.
2) the people who put on the new bumper won't cause some damage to the car (that they won't notice, but AW330i will), making things worse. I won't make that assumption either. I'd wait for a new car.

[YYdoodle]

Originally Posted by roburado

You're assuming the following:
1)the people who put the new bumper on the car will do a good job. I won't make that assumption.
2) the people who put on the new bumper won't cause some damage to the car (that they won't notice, but AW330i will), making things worse. I won't make that assumption either. I'd wait for a new car.

Personally I think it's not very likely that they damage some other part of the car fitting a bumper on, it's just a bumper... its installation is no more involved than screwing some parts of it to the body and fitting the air ducts and underbody paneling properly (I've done E46 bumper in the past) and if they do some damage to the new bumper while installing well he'll see it then.

Like I said, replacing a bumper is simple so personally I'd take a new bumper over waiting 2 months, but we all have different opinions on things so it's all good and what makes forums good

[silverado]

Originally Posted by Terps

Or just have them install it at the dealer. Changing bumpers isn't rocket science I'm sure they'll do just fine at the dealer

The dealer's body work guys/contractors seemed to be jokers from in the first post, that's why I suggested using some professionals.

[F32Fleet]

Replace the bumper and be done with it.

That's what we get for having no bumper strip on our cars. Atleast w/the E46 could could swap out the front strip with one that had the support for a front plate. No need to drill holes.

[JVFan]

Off topic AW...but why do you need heated seats in Houston?

[JBOO]

To ensure it doesn't happen again, remind your dealer to properly tag the front with a BMW Individual option identifier. If they are unsure, show them this picture.



BTW, more pics of this white beauty can be found in the Alpine White thread.

[AW330i]

Hey Guys,

Thanks for your support. Yesterday when i went to the dealership to speak with my sales guy he said that they had sent the car to have the front bumper painted to factory specs. and they had placed the order for another car for me... He said that when my original car comes back from paint he would call me to take a look at it and that i could make my final decission from there... But honestly i dont think i will take the car even if the paint looks flawless. I dont want a car that has been dramatically depreciated from day 1 nor do I want to settle for a car that i have worked so hard for and know every day that it is damaged. This car was supposed to be a birthday present, I have been waiting since may and I think I would rather wait two more painstaking months and have everything perfect than settle and not be as proud of my baby as I could be. In the meantime I will just sit and drool over everyone elses e90... btw i am going to print that picture of the sign over the front bumper and bring it to the dealership to show my salesguy so that he can make one for my car the second time around...

[NaTuReB0Y]

My car got drilled too! I have two black screws to plug the holes. Better than having the plates.

[ogrady]

Damn sorry to see that happened to you. I think what some ppl are suggesting is that you get a whole new bumper, not take a patched/repainted bumper. I tend to agree with the others that if you get a whole new factory painted bumper your car will be just like it came from the factory (no depreciation, no damage, just as original). But if you think you're getting something better by waiting for another one from the factory then you'll sleep better at night Just keep in mind that some people here have had their cars damaged during shipping and have also had to wait for repairs to their bumpers so it's not guaranteed that factory delivered cars are necessarily in "unrepaired" pristine factory form.

[Broken1]

Just to put a spanner in the works. What's going to happen if say you re-order the car and the next one gets the bumper scratched at the vpc? I think if they fix the bumper perfectly, I would take the car. You have to be reasonable!

[AW330i]

Well if they damage another car ill ask for a third car and damn near die , I dont want to be reasonable when it comes to my new car. I want my life to be perfect and i want to drive a BMW in pristine condition and hold my head up high!

[CC 330i]

I asked my dealer not to drill the front plate on my car. It was being traded down from another dealer, so I didn't order the car. When I arrived to pick up the car, my dealer said the other dealer had already drilled it.

(They had, because the dealer it came from, "Peter Pan BMW" is notorious for putting all plates and plate frames and stickers from the dealership on the car).

So I took the car anyway, and just took off the front plate. There are 2 holes, and I will probably buy some plugs for them, and be done with it. I am debating whether or not to put the front plate on when the plates come. It looks bad, but it's not horrifying.

Since it is required to have a front plate in CA (as it is in Texas, by the way) I figured that sooner or later I am going to get fined for not having it. I hate being pulled over, and sometimes not having a front plate is the reason for being pulled over when they would normally not bother. (I have a cousin who is a cop and he told me that sometimes 2 offenses put you over the top). So it might mean getting a speeding ticket when I wouldn't have normally.

My point? I think that AW330i is maybe being a bit over the top about the front plate, which the dealers are actually required by law to install. Some of you may dispute this point, but at very least it is included in the dealer prep checklist, and techs just do it out of habit.

They often don't drill the plate as a courtesy to the buyer if he/she requests it, but the majority of people don't know or care that that they have a choice.

While I agree that he shouldn't settle for a bad paint job, I don't know about insisting on a whole new car. Whole new bumper maybe, if he had an agreement with the dealer not to drill the plate, but not a whole new car. There's a good chance the front bumper is going to sustain some damage sooner or later, and I would feel pretty silly if I waited 6-8 more weeks for a whole new car and then someone backed into my bumper the next day...

[agarbati]

See my last post on this thread - http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ht=front+plate

[F32Fleet]

Originally Posted by AW330i

Well if they damage another car ill ask for a third car and damn near die , I dont want to be reasonable when it comes to my new car. I want my life to be perfect and i want to drive a BMW in pristine condition and hold my head up high!

You're profile says houston tx, so I'm assuming u have to have the front plate regardless. no?