Bad SoCal dealer (Monrovia BMW) Good SoCal dealer (New Century BMW)

[spdy330]

From 1990 till 2000 I had a mobile car stereo & alarm business where I catered to new and used car dealerships. Two of my dealerships were Pacific BMW and Assael BMW. 11 years later when I decided to make my first M3 purchase. I started checking around at different BMW dealerships to get my best price. What I found is that a lot of people I used to work with were still selling BMW’s at various locations. After checking around with various dealerships both local and online I found that Byron at Monrovia BMW had given me the best price. He beat everyone by a whole $10.00 and I did not have to drive 65 miles one way to pick it up. I thought since Byron and I had 10 years of work history that he would take care of me.

So here the story goes:

Bad Dealer: BMW of Monrovia

On March 20th, 2011 I had spoken to Byron at Monrovia BMW about my interest for an E90 M3. Byron told me that the last month to place an order on these cars is May 2011. He stated that in May you will no longer be able to order M3’s and will be limited to whatever the dealers have on hand. So on March 24th, 2011 I went to Monrovia BMW and spent a few hours with Byron with all the pre-approval paperwork, etc. While at the dealer they had an AW E90 M3 in the showroom with most of the features that I wanted. He kept trying to get me to purchase that car at first. I told him if I was not planning on keeping the car for a long time I would jump on it however this is something I want to keep for many years so I want it the way I want it. Byron stopped pushing me on the showroom car for the moment. Byron was to get me my production number the next day on March 25th, 2011 however that never happened. Another day goes by then another. Finally on April 1st, 2011 I get a phone call from Byron telling me that he has both good news and bad news. The bad news is that BMW is no longer taking orders on M3’s so I cannot order my car anywhere. The good news is that they have my car in the showroom and I can come and get it today. 8 days of my life waiting just for the dealer to pull this stunt on me. I told Byron that I do not want the showroom car and that I wanted my $1000.00 deposit back. Byron tells me that I am will to pass up on an M3 just because it does not have all the features that I wanted. I told him yes. Byron said I can come in and they will cut me a check and refund my money. I told Byron that I am in Newport Beach working today and will be there in a few hours. Byron tells me that I need my receipt in order to get my money back. That receipt was somewhere at home. I drive for 2 hours in Friday traffic to get home to look for my receipt. Once I found it I made a few phone calls to other dealers to find out that Byron is lying and that you can still order M3’s. I then made my way to Monrovia taking another 1 hour to get there. Once I got to the dealership Byron was with a customer so he had me wait another 45 minutes. I am nearly into 4 hours of my time just to get my money back. Finally Byron comes to me and apologizes and says that they cannot give me my money back as my check has not yet cleared their bank. My check cleared my bank days before so it would have cleared theirs the next day. So in short I left without my money. I was really not a happy customer now. Finally about 10 days later and me bugging their accounting department they mailed my check back. BMW of Monrovia lost a guaranteed sale because they got greedy and wanted to sell me the car in the showroom now rather than wait 3 months to sell it then. What an IDIOT if you ask me. I will NEVER do business with Monrovia BMW and especially Byron. I also have saved on my PC a voice mail that Byron left me stating that BMW does not care about ordering cars as there are more people interested in buying cars now that are on the lot. Below is the voice mail message that was left to me stating this. It was an hour later Byron actually got ahold of me saying that they can no longer order my car and that I can come and get the one they have in the showroom. I would normally not post something like this however this was a big ticket item that they tried to bait and switch just to get a sell now rather than later. I am a believer that the customer know what they want. In the message you will hear him say that he was there late the night before. I tried calling him that evening and I was told he has already gone home for the day.

Good Dealer: New Century BMW

My story continues. Before I left to go back to BMW of Monrovia to get my money back I contacted one of my other old work related friends. I told Tai at New Century what had happened and he said I will get your car. Tai tells me not to worry and to go get my money back from the other dealer and come to him after I am done. Before I even arrived at BMW of Monrovia I had a production number in my email box with my name on it. Tai took my order over the phone, had a production number within 30 minutes and did what he said he was going to do. I had a great sales experience with all the guys at New Century BMW. My salesman Tai followed through with everything he said he would do. The GM Gary who was also a long time business friend followed through with everything he said he would do as well. Since this dealer experience had been so good I decided I would purchase my Performance Exhaust from them and have it installed before taking delivery of my vehicle. Working out a price on this went pretty smooth as well. The parts manager Martin was excellent to work with as well. Martin and Gary got together to discuss the cost on this accessory and Tai added it to my order. When I went to pick up the vehicle Tai made this transaction so smooth. I must have been out of the dealer in less than 1.5 hours. I am very pleased that Tai took care of me as well as he did. Tai is a man you can trust and he follows through and gets the customer what they want. To end this I want to gives special thanks in order to Tai, Gary and Martin for making my vehicle exactly the way I wanted it.

I hope this write up wakes people up about the way BMW of Monrovia operates and at the same time brings more business to New Century BMW. If you decide to purchase a BMW go see Tai in Fleet sales and tell him that Eric sent you.

Below are a few photos of my car which I picked up on June 21st, 2011.

[FVM3]

congrats

[bsiciliano]

Congrats and thank you for the input

[elm3]

Congrats.

[J Lau]

Tai is awesome!!!
My friends and I have gotten multiple cars from him. This guy is super efficient. I like the fact that when you speak with him, he doesn't rush you to make the decision like other pushy salespersons.

Everytime I request pictures of the car if I couldnt personally visit the dealership. He would send me pictures in seconds. And the next thing i know the car is ready to be picked up. He is the best sales manager you will ever meet in this time zone.

So far, all his customers that I have spoken with give positive reviews and are satisfied with his service and his after sales care.

Great write up buddy. Hope you enjoy your new m3!!!
I'll probably visit Tai soon too.
You should show him this thread, i think he'd be happy to see you support and your appreciation of his effort. Lol.


J Lau

[FStop7]

If you don't mind me asking - If you already knew the GM and a CA at New Century then why did you even bother going to a different dealership in the first place?

A friend of mine just bought a 7 series from New Century and he seemed pretty happy with his deal, but I'm just saying this story sounds kind of sketchy to me.

[haig]

Agree 100%

BMW of Monrovia = thumbs down
New Century BMW = thumbs up

[Nelrock]

Congrats on getting the car "you" wanted.

I had a similar buying experience only my 1st dealer tried to sell me a poorly repaired car. Then when I told them I would rather reorder than pay full price for a twice repaired car, they said they couldn't offer me the same finance rate...as...the one I was given was no longer offered and reordering is technically a new order.
I was pissed they let me drive 2 hours knowing the car looked like that. I was pissed about the interest rate. So I left. Told them to get me the same rate or I wasn't gonna reorder.
On a whim, on the way home, I kicked off the interstate into Jackie Cooper BMW, outside Oklahoma City. Walked in, explained what happened to the first CA I ran into. He was shocked. I said, get me the same deal, and I'll order with you. He leaves to consult with an SA, they both come back and say...deal.
I had my production number the next day. The car arrived in about 5 weeks. The other dealer...almost 3 months. This one...pristine condition.

Anyhow...sorry to ramble. Congrats again!

[geneatals]

glad everything worked out and you finally got the M3 you wanted...we're almost twins

question, last pic looks like that paint is chipping on that m performance exhaust..is that so or is it just a reflection?

[spdy330]

There is nothing sketchy about this story. It is obvious you did not read the whole thing.

1. I mentioned that I had association with Pacific and Assael BMW for 10 years.

2. I mentioned that when looking for my new M3 I found that a lot of guys I used to work with are still selling BMW’s. I have been away from the car business for the past 11 years.

3. I also mentioned that I had to pick one out of the group of people I knew to make the purchase.

4. I also mentioned that I thought Byron who I worked with for 10 years was going to take care of me.

5. I also mentioned when I got screwed from Byron I went to Tai who I also knew for those same 10 years.

6. I also mentioned that Tai followed through with everything he said he was going to do.

The hard thing was that I called all the people I knew and Byron gave me the best price so I went with him. When he screwed me in the end I called another dealer and spoke with another old work related friend who matched the price and did what he said he was going to do. When you still have many people in the industry 11 years later it is hard to know which one to go to. You end up and pick the one that seemed legit. So I pick the wrong guy and went to the right guy. So where is my story sketchy?

Originally Posted by FStop7

If you don't mind me asking - If you already knew the GM and a CA at New Century then why did you even bother going to a different dealership in the first place?

A friend of mine just bought a 7 series from New Century and he seemed pretty happy with his deal, but I'm just saying this story sounds kind of sketchy to me.

[spdy330]

You are correct it is peeling off. That was when the car had something like 250 miles on it. It is more so now at 420 miles. Some say it is paint chipping off on these forums but I am thinking it is some type of protective coating that will just burn iff in time. I am going to see what it looked like in another 1000 or so miles. It looks like it would be easy to remove sooner if I wanted to.

Originally Posted by geneatals

glad everything worked out and you finally got the M3 you wanted...we're almost twins

question, last pic looks like that paint is chipping on that m performance exhaust..is that so or is it just a reflection?

[varsity]

I'm glad you shared this with the forum. Thanks. The white car looks great.

You might consider sending a letter to the general manager or owner of Monrovia specifically articulating your claim. Most probably they'll kick a $200 service/parts gift cert your way. Worst-case scenario, you'll feel good after having written the nastygram.

[snowboarder]

I love those kinds of stories. For some reason people are skeptical
about posting names here. They should do it all the time.
I can't stand old school sleazy car salesmen. Avoid like a plague.
Don't understand how they are still surviving, I guess there are
still a lot of random buyers, but I would think those buy Hondas, not BMW's...
Anyway thanks for the warning man, won't touch Monrovia, ever.
I followed Will Shaw who makes car buying experience fun.
Hard to believe, I know. My wife said that to him last time we saw him.
A young guy, straight forward, no BS. I wish he stayed at one place
He moved back to Long Beach again now and I will follow him,
even though some other Long Beach guys are annoying as hell, kept
calling my every day to sell me a car, when I finally called back to
tell them to leave me alone, they couldn't even say my name properly...
Anyway I believe it's about a relationship with a person.
I'm on car #4 in 3 years from Will and I'm sure it will continue
Never walk into any dealership, those old school sharks will attack you.
They think I'm a complete moron and will swallow any price they will
offer. That makes me mad, but sad in the same time, guys like
Will Shaw are really hard to find and often overwhelmed by those
old sleazy bastards.

Andrew

[spdy330]

Thanks, believe me I am already on top of it with sharing this post to the GM at Monrovia. I am going to wait a few days until I get more people of interest and then I will send them the link. They tried to screw me on a $70k+ car so I will make it known that they were full of BS! As far as a service voucher I would not take it anyway. I would be afraid they would mess up my car in someway.

Originally Posted by varsity

I'm glad you shared this with the forum. Thanks. The white car looks great.

You might consider sending a letter to the general manager or owner of Monrovia specifically articulating your claim. Most probably they'll kick a $200 service/parts gift cert your way. Worst-case scenario, you'll feel good after having written the nastygram.

[manofb]

Agreed about New Century being great. I just leased my second Bimmer from New C and they not only have great prices but also excellent customer service. I always use their Internet Sales Manager, Henry Suh.

[Leonardo629]

I have had an entirely different experience at Monrovia with George. George is really knowledgeable about everything, and he only pushes an ordered car unless I'm lucky enough to find a car on the lot. I don't know who the heck Byron is, and I'm pretty sure he does not represent the entire staff at Monrovia. I don't know if George being the fleet manager has anything to do with the service he was able to provide for the last 5 years.

[2045]

awesome car & awesome story. i service all my Bimmers at NC. Sidney is my service writer. seems like they have a pretty good QC. although they're out of my way but because of the ''people'' i'm happy to go back every time i can.

[H Bomb]

glad you posted that, what a tool. i never do that to my customers. if it is something we don't have on the lot and can't locate for them then we order it how they want. if the cust is not happy then we did not do our job. i even tell my GM to F off sometimes when he tries to get me to push stuff we have in stock on someone. i tell him no sorry i won't do that to my customer. all you are gonna do is piss them off and they are gonna go somewhere else and i won't have my good rep attached to that

[SenorFunkyPants]

Reminds me a bit of when I was trying to buy my M3...booked a test drive through the BMW website with my local dealer who had been servicing my E46 M3s (Sytners of Coventry) and the salesman there rings me and to cut a long story short says I can't have a test drive unless I put a down a non refundable deposit! I was so annoyed I rang BMWUK to complain but they didn't seem to care less. Needless to say I didn't buy my car from them and I no longer use them for service.

[spdy330]

Yeah I can't speak for everyone at the dealer as I only worked with one person. Byron was at Monrovia back when it was Assael BMW. I remember him being there in 1990 and he is still there today. Must be either a good salesman or a good liar.

Originally Posted by Leonardo629

I have had an entirely different experience at Monrovia with George. George is really knowledgeable about everything, and he only pushes an ordered car unless I'm lucky enough to find a car on the lot. I don't know who the heck Byron is, and I'm pretty sure he does not represent the entire staff at Monrovia. I don't know if George being the fleet manager has anything to do with the service he was able to provide for the last 5 years.

[geneatals]

hmmm, the OP bumps this thread then delete's the actual "bump" post. What's the point of bumping your thread anyway OP. Granted you want to share your story, but then why delete the "bump"?

[spdy330]

I bump all my posts and then remove that bump and bump it again so I do not have many bumps on my posts from me. You have a good eye geneatals.

I do this with my tshirt for sale posts too. That way I do not have a million bumps from me. What is wrong with that? I want to expose this dealer as much as I can by keeping this on top.

Originally Posted by geneatals

hmmm, the OP bumps this thread then delete's the actual "bump" post. What's the point of bumping your thread anyway OP. Granted you want to share your story, but then why delete the "bump"?