Friend recently purchased a new 330i. Flew to get it and everything looked good. Took delivery, got home, and realized that someone had hit something at some point during the delivery process and there was a large dent in the fender and scrape on the bumper like someone missed a turn into the detail bay.
He called the dealer and they “checked the cameras” before coming back to say it was out of view of the camera and they’d take care of everything. The repair came out fine (over $2K worth of damage) and they’ve already paid for it.
He’s almost certain the dealer knew about it and hoped he wouldn’t notice. In hindsight, he recalled them parking it in a corner when they brought it out (with the damaged corner of the car near a wall) and awkwardly standing near the door holding it open for him to get in. No way of knowing for sure though.
Thoughts on whether BMW would care and whether he’s entitled to anything for having relatively extensive body work done on a brand new car and having to drive a Nissan Sentra rental for a few days? I feel like the dealership essentially admitted responsibility when offering to cover repairs and a rental without question, but they would probably argue differently. He wouldn’t care if it was a lease, but he decided to purchase this one and possibly keep it a little longer.
Why would they? There’s nothing much here for BMW to be involved in, especially if the dealer has fixed things to spec.
Honestly, $2k isn’t much… mostly bumper cover work? Paint and blend… yes, it definitely sucks to have a new car dinged up but at least it’s not multiple panels, skin replacements, bondo work all over
Ask your friend to enjoy the ride… if he wants more, go talk to the dealership and see if they’ll do more (not sure what else there is).
The dealer took care of everything on good Faith. There was no evidence (based on what you stated) to suggest they were at fault for the damage, especially after your friend drive a long distance home with it.
I don’t think there’s anything else for the dealer to do. Your friend should enjoy the car and just turn it in and walk away.
Ha, classic car dealer move. They totally knew about it. Good thing they were somewhat honest and took care of it. They probably figured that if they were upfront about it, the customer wouldn’t have taken delivery and they could have potentially lost the sale. Instead they rolled the dice, and it worked!
If it’s financed they can ask about diminished value, but honestly the time to deal with this was before delivery and the dealer fixed it good faith. Your friend should just enjoy their new car.
I missed that part, if they did in fact purchase it, shame on the OP for not telling them about the way of the leasehackr(of course they probably wouldn’t believe you of you told them they could lease a 330 for $400/mo)
If I were the friend, I’d be pretty pissed. Having said that, I don’t think there’s anything else.
I’d probably still write a letter to BMW NA just to share the experience, but I wouldn’t expect them to do anything other than apologize (and point out that the dealer took care of it).
The dealer made it right and did not make a fuss with your friend over the damage. Lesson learned for your friend, next time check the car from top to bottom and don’t accept delivery if things are not to his standards. It could have been worse where the dealer just refused to fix and your friend would have to get it repaired on his own dime.
Whenever I pickup a car whether new or used, I take my time inspecting it because it is my hard earned money after all and no one is going to care about the car more than me.
Hope your friend enjoys his new ride! If the dealer is doing the repair work make sure that your friend throughly inspects the work before signing off. Also if the dealer is doing the work, your friend should be provided with some nice bmw loaner and not a sentra. He can take a nice long trip in the loaner while his car is in the shop
$2k isn’t even remotely near “extensive body work”. I got rear ended on the highway 6 months or so ago and the only noticeable damage was a small indentation in the bumper from a license plate screw. That was almost $2k in damages to fix.
Not sure if BMW differs from MB in this respect, but MB (or, at least, my nearest service station) tracks how many miles you put on a loaner and will charge you if you go over what’s stated in the loaner contract.
He definitely wouldn’t have taken delivery, so I’m sure not losing the sale was part of their motive. It looked exactly like what would happen if someone hit the frame of a door while turning. The repair turned out well, but it’s more the principle that they damaged it between his inspection and final delivery and seemingly made an effort to keep him away from that part of the car that was shady. I agree that he’s lucky they took care of it as they easily could have denied fault, but it isn’t quite a favor on their part either.
The dealer had him find an independent shop on his own and got him the Sentra from Enterprise. He’s coming from four Lexuses and an Infiniti (and Infiniti’s base model loaners made him miss Lexus) so the Sentra didn’t help his first impression of BMW. His Q60 was a lease I helped with (not a great value at the time, but he was set on it) but he’s now driving over 20K a year so that wasn’t an option this time around.
I was almost surprised it was only $2K. From pictures, it was a good size dent and a some paint damage to the fender. The front bumper had to be removed and resprayed too. I didn’t see it in person prior to the repair, but I’ve seen higher bills for less visible damage. I wouldn’t call it extensive on a car I already owned, but my standard on a brand new car for something that happened prior to delivery is different than for an existing car. If I wanted repaired damage, I’d just go with used.
I was leaning toward a letter at most. Probably won’t get anywhere, but he’s mostly relieved they didn’t deny responsibility and would take an apology as a bonus.
Depends on where they hit it I suppose. Had a 3k dent in the rear quarter on a bimmer. Reason it was so expensive was due to it being in the right rear quarter where the battery and a few modules were. All needed removed to heat the panel to pull it out + prep, paint, reinstall, etc…
