Marcus-SanDiego
03-22-2011, 11:36 AM
This place used to be so good -- when Shane Nguyen (now owner of Euro Auto Spot (http://www.euroautospot.com/)) was a mechanic there.
I bought my first BMW here (11 years ago). At that time, I didn't know much about the San Diego dealership scene. After years of being in the BMW community, though, I quickly learned that BMW of San Diego has a reputation for bending customers over on the price (especially newbies who don't know better). After getting raped on price for my first 5 series, I've never bought another car from them. Never will, either. These guys want top dollar on all of their cars. Forget it. There are plenty of dealers around California that are willing to negotiate from invoice up. BMW of San Diego negotiates from retail down (and not very far down). Word to the wise: never negotiate from retail down. If that's your style, you have some more to learn about the car-buying process.
To be fair, by the way, I won't buy any of my BMWs from San Diego dealerships. For whatever reason, these dealers think they're the only dealerships within 1000 miles. Wake up, San Diego BMW dealerships. Many of us are shopping throughout California (and neighboring states) to find excellent deals.
Anyhow, getting back to the review, I just don't have a lot of nice things to say about BMW of San Diego. On occasion I'll drop by for a paint stick or a small-dollar item, but that's about it.
Last time I dropped in, about a year ago, I inquired about the price of an alignment. The guy at the service desk quoted me $199. LOL. I have aftermarket wheels (BBS LM) and the service guy suggested that they were the only ones who could do my alignment. Needless to say, I called Clarence Brown. They did the alignment for $135.
Dang, I almost forgot. I once called BMW of San Diego because my service engine soon light came on. The car had 2900 miles on it. The girl who takes appointments asked if the gas cap was all the way on. Having owned so many of these cars, I understood why she was asking. If you don't get the cap on all the way, the SES light pops on. I told her that the cap was all the way on. Something else must be wrong. The girl refused to give me an appointment. She said that it is probably the gas cap. She said to drive the car for about five days, when the light would finally turn off. Are you serious?? A phone girl can diagnose my problem over the phone? And she isn't even a technician? Hahaha. What a clown. We ended up taking the car to another dealer in town (car is under warranty). By the way, it was not the gas cap. Sheesh.
Buyer beware when it comes to BMW of San Diego. This is the last dealership in San Diego that I'd take my car to. And I would not even think of buying a car here.
Which reminds me: if you're out there looking at reviews, on Google in particular, beware. It looks as though the local dealers (all of them) hired a marketing company to write a bunch of BS reviews. If not for those BS reviews, the dealers' ratings would be even lower. Take a look at some of those Google reviews. See where some of them are coming from. You'll notice that some of the reviewers are reviewing 8-9 businesses a day -- all across the United States. Someone should expose those bogus reviews for what they are: useless. See my post on this here (http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?1850-Google-Review-System-%28Scam%29-San-Diego-BMW-Dealerships).
Anyhow, if you're in San Diego, and you're looking for a good shop to work on your BMW, head over to Euro Auto Spot (http://www.euroautospot.com/), which is located in the Miramar area of San Diego. You'll be glad you did.
I bought my first BMW here (11 years ago). At that time, I didn't know much about the San Diego dealership scene. After years of being in the BMW community, though, I quickly learned that BMW of San Diego has a reputation for bending customers over on the price (especially newbies who don't know better). After getting raped on price for my first 5 series, I've never bought another car from them. Never will, either. These guys want top dollar on all of their cars. Forget it. There are plenty of dealers around California that are willing to negotiate from invoice up. BMW of San Diego negotiates from retail down (and not very far down). Word to the wise: never negotiate from retail down. If that's your style, you have some more to learn about the car-buying process.
To be fair, by the way, I won't buy any of my BMWs from San Diego dealerships. For whatever reason, these dealers think they're the only dealerships within 1000 miles. Wake up, San Diego BMW dealerships. Many of us are shopping throughout California (and neighboring states) to find excellent deals.
Anyhow, getting back to the review, I just don't have a lot of nice things to say about BMW of San Diego. On occasion I'll drop by for a paint stick or a small-dollar item, but that's about it.
Last time I dropped in, about a year ago, I inquired about the price of an alignment. The guy at the service desk quoted me $199. LOL. I have aftermarket wheels (BBS LM) and the service guy suggested that they were the only ones who could do my alignment. Needless to say, I called Clarence Brown. They did the alignment for $135.
Dang, I almost forgot. I once called BMW of San Diego because my service engine soon light came on. The car had 2900 miles on it. The girl who takes appointments asked if the gas cap was all the way on. Having owned so many of these cars, I understood why she was asking. If you don't get the cap on all the way, the SES light pops on. I told her that the cap was all the way on. Something else must be wrong. The girl refused to give me an appointment. She said that it is probably the gas cap. She said to drive the car for about five days, when the light would finally turn off. Are you serious?? A phone girl can diagnose my problem over the phone? And she isn't even a technician? Hahaha. What a clown. We ended up taking the car to another dealer in town (car is under warranty). By the way, it was not the gas cap. Sheesh.
Buyer beware when it comes to BMW of San Diego. This is the last dealership in San Diego that I'd take my car to. And I would not even think of buying a car here.
Which reminds me: if you're out there looking at reviews, on Google in particular, beware. It looks as though the local dealers (all of them) hired a marketing company to write a bunch of BS reviews. If not for those BS reviews, the dealers' ratings would be even lower. Take a look at some of those Google reviews. See where some of them are coming from. You'll notice that some of the reviewers are reviewing 8-9 businesses a day -- all across the United States. Someone should expose those bogus reviews for what they are: useless. See my post on this here (http://www.zhpmafia.com/forums/showthread.php?1850-Google-Review-System-%28Scam%29-San-Diego-BMW-Dealerships).
Anyhow, if you're in San Diego, and you're looking for a good shop to work on your BMW, head over to Euro Auto Spot (http://www.euroautospot.com/), which is located in the Miramar area of San Diego. You'll be glad you did.