Thought I would share my experience and see if others will do likewise:
It took me 3 goes just to buy my 330i
1st time - they offered by below the book price for my 530d
2nd time they offered me about £500 above book so we got onto the finance stage ....
I told them what I wanted to pay - which was based on getting the interest rate I have on the 530d for HP on a lease purchase deal. They came back with stupid offers for PCP's and Lease Purchase which were up to £200 a month MORE than the figure I told them I was looking for
- bizarre.
3rd time - on a tip from someone on e60.net - I phoned Lombard up - they said they didn't normally do finance for individuals, but since the amount was over £30k they agreed to give it a go. Straight away they offered me the finance I wanted and gave me some tips about managing the dealer - great fun
. So this time I planned ahead got my figures from Lombard then got a cost from Drive The Deal for the car I wanted.
Off to the dealer I go (again) with my figures. Straight away - the business manager offered to match Lombards finance offer (despite the fact that an hour before he had told me to my face that 'no-one will offer anything like that')
Then to the purchase price. The salesman went on drive the deal's website to check what I was saying and said 'of course we can't match that' to which I replied 'I knew you would say that'.
So I put it to him like this:
'the difference between the 'drive the deal price' and the one you sell to me at is the premium I am prepared to pay for the the luxury of being able to just come in and swap the cars when the new one is ready, without the hastle of selling my car privately of sorting out cheques and the like with BMW finance'
His reply - 'how much is that worth to you'
I say 'max £1000'
He trots of to his boss and comes back a second later and agrees to match the figure plus £1000 - should have asked for more really.
That got me about a 10% discount though - which I was happy with.
All in good fun I suppose - but the battle I had to go through to get a fair deal was just outrageous. At one point they were telling me that for the monthly payment I wanted I could only get 325i
I can't think of any other situation where you are buying such an expensive item and the vendors first thoughts are - how much can we take this person for.