Holtz BMW Rochester, NY

[Soon2be1]

Before I was sent to Iraq in July I was trying to get around to a dealership test drive the 135i. I was home on leave and decided to go with a friend to the dealership. As we were outside for a good 12-15 minutes someone never came out. So of course I proceed inside to get a sales member. This is a very beautiful shop (of course its BMW!!!) SO I go in and talk to a lady and she said someone will be with me soon.

A little about me real quick. I just turned 25 this October and yes I look young. I would consider myself to be an enthusiast and knowledgeable of automobiles. I dress well and am clean cut. This is in no way an ad for me but so you can paint a picture.

So when the salesman finally comes around to talk to me I am drooling over the M3 and may have had a slight, you know, chub! So with that he asked what could he do for me and I told him I was interested in the 135i. So he said he would grab some keys and we could take a look. So he met us out there and of course I started to drool again! I am a very straight forward person about everything. So I told him I was not looking to buy the car today and that I am deploying within a week. I asked him if he knew anything about the military sales. And he didn’t.

The entire time we were with him he seemed annoyed. Was reluctant about answering questions and just frankly did care. We were outside with him for maybe 5 minutes and he said he would grab a brochure and be right back. He kindly left the car open for us but took the keys.

As he returned I started to express my concerns of spending $40k on a vehicle and would like to schedule a test drive or go for one. He said he wasn’t allowed to do test drives with the 1 series as they are new. Uhhh.... It had 54 miles on it...

So with that he explained he didn’t know who I would buy the car from as far with the military price but if I did the dealership would not make any money and they basically just hold it or receive it for me.

So with all that nonsense I left PISSED!!!!

So know closing out my deployment I have found the "company", if you will who sets up the discount and has been nothing but a pleasure to work with.

That was my experience with that dealership so just FYI.

Thanks,

Brandon

[GMT II]

First of all thank you for your service. We seem to have quite a few military 1ers and its great.

Secondly, I am younger than you and frankly just rolled out of bed when I signed the paperwork but was treated like an absolute gentleman by my CA and in fact the entire sales staff of the dealership every time I was there. I test drove pretty much every model they had despite them knowing that I only wanted a 1.

Congrats on your purchase and good for you on getting the (well deserved) military pricing. Shame on Holtz BMW for treating a customer as an annoyance.

[EDUC8ED]

Brandon..search through my posts. Youll see about my experience with them....I would look elsewhere. Look up dbtheo on here, he works with Ganley BMW in Cleveland where I got my 1 from. He is a stand up guy and got me a much better deal. Hit me on pm and we can chat.

I feel your pain!

[Swadeness]

I feel your frustration! I have had a couple of bad experiences at two of the three BMW dealerships I've been to. I don't see the need to mention the name of the dealerships but here is a short rundown of my experiences.

- I visited one of the local dealership here and spent a half hour there with not one employee greeting me. While in the showroom I overheard a couple of the sales guys bragging to a young couple who had just bought a car. "It's such a great day today, its only 1 O'clock and we've already sold seven cars." I guess I was a little annoyed at their arrogant/pompous ramblings and decided I would just go find the 1's on the lot and look at them myself. Well I roamed around the lot for about twenty minutes and never got as much of a "let me know if you need anything". I did try and find someone myself but as I approached the guy he hurriedly placed his "sold" sign on a car and pretty much ran away from me. I guess it wasn't an actual run more of a speed-walk, head down, "please don't ask me anything" kind of escape. So after all this and nearly getting ran over by one of the service guys in the parking lot, I got the impression that they had made their quota for the day and didn't need my business.

- While on vacation in Vegas, I decided to swing by the BMW dealership to take a look at the 1's they had on the lot. They had a beautiful jet black convertible with the lemon interior and an AW with a manual (definitely a rarity to find either one of those on the lot)! I was stoked because I've wanted to get to see the lemon interior hands on and really wanted to get to test drive a manual 135! Unfortunately it was a Sun. so I decided to come back on Mon. So the next day I was on the lot 5-10 minutes or so when a sales guy cam up and introduced himself. I told him I was on vacation from Florida and was interested in the 135. I told him I would be special ordering my car and would be using PCD therefore it did not matter who I ordered the car from as long as the deal was right. He said he understood and mentioned something about PCD being a great program. But, when I mentioned I wanted to have the opportunity to drive the manual because it was a rarity to find one on a lot everything changed. His response was "You say you're on vacation?.......well.......I get a lot of people that come by here who are on vacation, and I don't like to take my cars out just to drive them.....I hope you understand". I was shocked! His lame attempts to try and rationalize it and make it sound like some business policy could not hide the fact that he came across as a complete A** H&%#. I did manage to salvage the visit by taking a close up look at the lemon interior (it is sweet!). I even gave him the opportunity to redeem himself when I again mentioned the fact that with PCD it did not matter which dealer I purchased from . But he pretty much had 0 interest in letting me test drive the car or selling me a car.

Anyways, those were my negative experiences I have had so far. Hopefully that is not the norm but we will see. Congrats on getting the great deal with military sales. I am also in the AF and will most likely do the military sales route, I guess I have to decide how much do I want to save VS. how long do I wait till I deploy again. Stay safe over there, and get back so you can enjoy your 1.

Later
Wade

[Soon2be1]

Thank you for the responses.

I am not going to be able to get a 1 just yet. As the dealis great andI do highly recommend it to anyone that can take advantage of it the only downer being you have to be over seas. I am heading home right now actually and still have two cars at home I need to sell first. But I am sure I will be deployed again in the middle of next year ( This is my 5th 6 month deployment in 7 years) So I can afford to be patient.

So with that I will wait andcontinue to admire everyone elses 1's until I can order mine.

Oh yeah she will be Montego Blue Sport and thats all I want!!

Once again Thank you!

[Oregon]

Hey Brandon,

A salute goes out to you , bud, hang in there, you'll have your 1. More importantly, you stay safe over there, brother.