BMW of Spokane

I accidentally clicked on the "check availability" button while scrolling (for the umpteenth time) pics of a car I'm lusting after. To my surprise, I got an email from Robbie at BMW of Spokane within 15min of my accidental click - and he shared a video walk-around of the car I'd been looking at. He then gave me a call a few minutes after that, asking if I had any questions he could help with. That is some pretty fantastic, low-pressure customer engagement! Even though I wasn't ready to buy anything (yet!), Robbie was kind enough to talk about the car a bit and let me know he's happy to help if/when I want to move forward. All told, this was one of the more pleasant car dealer interactions I've had!

This seems to be one of the worst dealerships I have ever dealt with it. You'd think for a luxury car dealership they might not be such crooks. When we bought our 2017 BMW it was literally one if the worst experiences I've had. Found the car online, got pre-approved through my CU, made an appointment to test drive the car. After the test drive, came back and said I will take it. They knew I was pre-approved, and conveniently stalled out the paperwork to only be done after my bank was closed, so they of course, had to finance me there. I refused and said I would come back the next day with a cashiers check, which I did. When arriving there, they had not detailed the car, as they promised, along with it had 22 miles until empty on fuel. They said "we owe you a tank of gas, just come back in anytime and we will fill it for you" Once I went to the F&I guy with my cashiers check for the exact amount we agreed on, he got irritated and ripped up his paperwork, saying he didnt know I was bringing in a cashiers check, you know, because they were trying to hit me with all the upsales. Then, of course, they started having computer/software issues, and was unable to finalize the paperwork that evening, so now on 2 evenings, total of 6 hours sitting in that place. Also, again, 2nd night in a row going home without the vehicle. They once again apologized, and said "we will fill your tank for you." I let them know this is the 2nd time they've said that, 2 different people, and they looked shocked. 3rd day, they called me and said it was all ready. I went there on my lunch break, car still had 22 miles to empty, not detailed still, and they once again had new paperwork, NOT totaling the price we agreed on. They tried to play dumb and say all the numbers were good, so maybe I need to come back with another check, or just try and finance through them. I noticed a $1,900 discrepancy with the numbers, something wasnt adding up. When pointing that out to them, they acted like I was dumb, and tried to rattle off these numbers as if they made sense. Once I pulled out my phone calculator, because they weren't believing these were simple numbers I think anyone could do in their head, they then saw there was a mysterious $1,900 added in with no explanation. So here we go again, paperwork gets shredded, and start over. This took me another 3 hours, and then again, promised a full tank of gas if I brought the car back to them at anytime. I have never taken my car back since. Maybe my bad for not taking them up on their 3 free tanks of gas they promised me, but I doubt they would have remembered, since they kept offering them to me as if each time was the first time. I now need a service and new battery. I called for pricing, of course the oil change and service "can only be done by BMW techs" and costs at least double what anywhere else does. When asking how much to change my battery, as it needs to be, and I've been researching doing it myself. For me to do it, I need to buy a $300 battery, and $80 OBD-II Scan tool to register the battery. They quoted me $800, and said that BMW is the only place that is capable of changing a battery, because it has to be registered to the car, with special tools and only special people that can use those tools. Weird, because the You Tubes, Googles, and mechanic friends all say different........... Either way, the Service guy quickly transferred me to their parts department, seemingly irritated when I let him know that. To where, I got a voicemail, and LVM asking if I could buy the OEM battery and scan tool from them, and still pending a callback. I would expect this from a used car lot in a sketchy area, but not from a dealership like BMW of Spokane where you could drop 3x your annual salary on one of their cars.

Walked away with a BMW that fits my budget and style because Alan took the time to work out all the details that fit my lifestyle. His patients was prominent in understanding my wants and needs for a reliable, luxury car. He worked numbers offered a variety of vehicles til we found the one. Made the sale personable and rather than walking away like a customer/buyer, I left being apart of the BMW family. Thank you again Alan!