Question about how BMW rebates for leases work. Ordered a car from a broker and locked rebates, including a new grad $1000 rebate. Since it was an order, it took time to get to the dealer, at which point recent new grad time period expired (2y).
Broker tells me that Dealer now also has an issue with the documentation for proof of new grad not being good enough. Told me the dealer called BMW to get an exception and it was denied.
I then called BMW myself, and they told me they leave all that decision-making to the dealer. Called BMW again in case 1st agent was wrong, got the same answer.
I get that when the dealer submits a contract with a rebate that doesn’t qualify, it may get rejected. So how does one find out ahead of time if this is the case, i.e how does a customer (long time lessee) or dealer appeal, if BMW is saying that there’s no mechanism for the dealer to appeal for things like this in the first place? Is the dealer being straight that they called BMW corporate and got a decision from someone, when BMW tells me it’s not possible for a dealer to do that?
The broker might have been better at vetting the documents when I locked, but otherwise they have gone the extra mile to help me so I have no issues there. Really just want to get an exception to the rebate, or at least know that I tried. And if it’s just local dealer discretion, it seems like they could make an exception if they wanted to. Unless of course they just know it won’t get funded (which may be that case but why then tell me they called BMW?)
When you use college grad, the credit application must be approved as a college grad application. If the dealership did not do this initially, there’s nothing you can do.
As far as I’ve ever heard, it’s a BMWFS decision, not a dealership decision.
Generally, I advise people with college grad that they need to take delivery before they are outside of the time frame. It’s much simpler and leaves nothing up to discretion. I would tell any customer not to expect the rebate if the car isn’t going to arrive before the timeframe is up.
FS makes the decision, not the dealer. The broker your working with should have told you about this issue months ago since I’m sure they submitted you before ordering the car…
It’s a very technical thing, technically College Grad is an approval program, not just a rebate, so yes, technically you should be approved under the program at the time you place the order, but not everyone does everything correctly.
Thanks for all of the advice. Is there a mechanism for either the dealer or the prospective lessee to appeal /ask for exception(s)? What can I do now to try to salvage the discount?
