[jcdelong]

I am new to e90post and new to BMW ownership too. I just bought my first, an 08 323i about a week and a half ago. Let me first just say that even though I've driven many, many Bimmers in the past, now that I actually own one I can safely say that they are indeed 'the ultimate driving machine'! I'm absolutely head over heels in love with it! Anyways, my only hiccup so far is this.......It's about the Bluetooth/Assist option and a mistaken sales guy.......

The car I bought was a dealer demo (steptronic, premium pkg, met. paint). Being unaware of what comes standard and what is optional, I asked the sales guy about the Bluetooth system during my first test drive. I had pressed the 'voice' button on the steering wheel, the radio muted and then the 'voice' said "please speak". The sales guy then said that this car does indeed have the BT already installed. I thought, "great! its an option that I really want". I went back a couple days later to seal the deal and took it for one more drive. After returning to the dealer from test drive #2 with a sh** eating grin on my face and my mind made up I asked if we could try out the BT. The sales guy tried to pair his phone to the car but with no success. He said there is a pass key needed to do it. Now, I thought this was strange and asked him some more about it seeing as BT pass keys are usually just 0000. He showed me his phone had picked up the BT signal from the car, I then tried with my phone and it picked up 'a' BT signal too but the car wasn't doing anything. No pairing, no nothing. Again, he assured me that the car had the system and it would work when I picked it up. So, a few days later when I took delivery, sales guy said they couldn't find the pass key and I would need to come back. He booked me in for a service appt the next day. It was at that point when the service guys, confused about the situation, looked up the build codes on my car. As it turned out my car doesn't have the BT system, it is only pre-wired for it. The BT signal we had picked up during test drive #2 had obviously come from other cars in the dealer lot.

Since then I have been reading everything I can find about adding BT to my car and I can say that I'm now well versed on the subject (mostly thanks to this forum). I'm gonna go back to the dealer on Monday to see what they say. This is clearly a mistake by the sales guy and I guess my question is "should the dealer be responsible for the cost of retro fitting my car with the TCU kit? Especially seeing as the sales guy repeatedly assured me that my car already had it."

I'd appreciate any thoughts you all might have on the matter

Cheers
J

[methodtim]

Welcome to the forum and congrats on the purchase.

To answer your question, I think the dealership is going to deny all responsibility. It is your responsibility to verify all the features of the car before driving it off the lot. Once you drive it away, it's a bit too late to complain that it didn't come with a feature you thought it did. It does suck that you got a clueless sales guy, and you might be able to use that leverage to get a discount on the retrofit work, but I don't think you'll get it for free.

Enjoy the car regardless.

[jcdelong]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I figure that the dealer is gonna say that but I'm still gonna play hardball with 'em and see what happens. At the very least, 'sales guy' is probably getting a kick to the nuts!!! LOL

Any-who, this forum is great, glad I found it!

J

[Houman21]

I don't know what the Laws are in Canada but in California there is no 'cooling off' period. A little known fact is that you can sign all the contracts the dealer gives you but you are not bound to the contract until you drive off the lot. Meaning you can sign the contract - go to the bathroom and change your mind, even though the dealer has your signature you can walk home without ever taking responsibility for the vehicle.

Welcome to the Forum!