Santa Monica BMW

Re; BMW 325Ci 2005, 35k miles. My daughter had a Re; BMW 325Ci 2005, 35k miles. My daughter had a check engine light problem so she took it to the dealer where she bought the car new. She go Re; BMW 325Ci 2005, 35k miles. My daughter had a check engine light problem so she took it to the dealer where she bought the car new. She got a quote for needed repairs totaling $6,200! for a number of problems. Paid $145.00 diagnostic fee for this information. Then took it to an independent service outfit (William Leaf automotive) who informed her that only about $550 of the work was needed. Do not patronize this dealer. Rip off; selling uneccesary repairs. Incidentally, the original buying experience was not too good. More

I was originally looking at leasing a 335is when I walked into the BMW dealership in Santa Monica. I was directed to Richard Schneider in sales, who immediately came off as a man who only had time for me if into the BMW dealership in Santa Monica. I was directed to Richard Schneider in sales, who immediately came off as a man who only had time for me if I was interested in purchasing on the spot. He was cocky, smug and pushy. We took the car they had on the lot for a drive and he could tell that I really liked the performance. Once we arrived back at the dealership, he worked very hard to meet his needs of convincing me that the particular car he had on the lot was right for me rather than trying to determine my needs and figure out if we could find the right car in the area. Every time I asked him to search inventory or look at options for a different style car of that type, he acted like it was a major pain. Ultimately, because I loved the car so much, I convinced myself I would be happy with it and made an offer. Richard agreed to this offer over email and then relented when I showed up at the dealership to sign. It was easily one of the most unprofessional experiences of my life and I have been in sales for more than 10 years. Richard and the entire dealership give salespeople everywhere a bad name and I would never give them business or encourage anyone else to do so. Zig Ziglar would have a heart attack if he set foot in this disgraceful establishment. By the way, Richard did end up offering what I considered to be a pretty good deal. The details are $629/mo for 36 months with $5k down and 10k miles per year. If you are interested in leasing this vehicle, make sure you demand this deal or better! Aaron J. Burwick More

Poor workmanship. No return phone call. The worst Poor workmanship. No return phone call. The worst customer service I have ever experienced. I will never buy another BMW after this experience. I Poor workmanship. No return phone call. The worst customer service I have ever experienced. I will never buy another BMW after this experience. I have another dealership trying to fix what they damaged. I hope for BMW's sake this dealership changes ownership. More

PLEASE READ THE BELOW FOR AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SANTA MONICA BMW EXPERIENCE. At the beginning, my experience (with sales person Tach) was really quite good - and then turned awful. I was shown around by MONICA BMW EXPERIENCE. At the beginning, my experience (with sales person Tach) was really quite good - and then turned awful. I was shown around by Tach, who gave me wonderful, clear information, and took me on a fun test drive of the BMW 335i convertible. I decided to lease the car. I felt like Tach was my new, awesome friend. Sound good so far? Wait... We sat down in Tach's cubicle and started talking about lease price. The very highly publicized national lease offer for this car is $559 per month with $4,500 or so drive-off. Tach had explained earlier that while that price is technically true, it's for a bare-bones car which actually does not exist. He has never seen such a bare-bones car, and never expects to. He supposes it could be ordered from the manufacturer, but who knows how long it would take... no one he knows has ever tried. Fine. That makes sense, I guess. This ain't 'car friends', it's 'car business'. Let's proceed. Tach did some basic calculations, scratched some notes on a pad, then said: Ok, so here's what I can do for you on that lease. $914 a month. Right out of the gate, Tach (my new friend) tried to use bogus, self-serving math to bilk me. Thanks, Tach. You're all class. After about 5 minutes of me explaining why his math was bogus and self-serving, I said I'd pay $699 a month with $5,000 drive-off. Tach started saying things like: I can't go to my manager with that. He'll get ticked off and think I'm an idiot. I explained to Tach that I don't care the teensiest little bit if his manager gets angry, or thinks less of him. So Tach shrugged and marched off to his manager's office, like he was being sent off to his death. I had to force myself not to laugh at the shameless theatrics. Tach came back after 5 minutes, and said (I swear, I can't make this up): I'm going to give you the clean version of what my manager said. The real version was pretty rough. He can do $740 a month, but that's a huge stretch. We're practically losing money. Take it or leave it. He's still a little upset. I smiled, and said: Tach, please go back right now and tell your manager that I reject his offer. Tell him I am more upset than he is. Also tell him he has five minutes to accept my original offer. If he comes back with anything less (even one penny!), I will simply walk out the door without another word, and I'll lease my car from someone who isn't angered by simple negotiations. Five minutes later, Tach came back with a big smile on his face. He said: Miracles happen! We have a deal! Really? How surprising. This is why people hate car dealers. Anyway, let's proceed. I'll go through the rest of the story quickly. They ran my credit. The day before, I paid $45 total ($15 each) to each of the three major credit agencies (Equifax, Transunion and that third one which eludes me). My credit scores were 745, 736 and 712. Not great, but not terrible. Good enough for any lease. BMW Santa Monica ran my credit and got the following results: 665, 635, 645. Wow. That was unexpected. I asked Tach how that could happen. Did I just waste $45? I asked if there was a special 'auto-skewed' FICO score that the car dealer requests which would somehow be different that my actual FICO score (which the rest of the world uses). Tach said: No, there's only one score. Yours are wrong. I asked Tach: Why does it say on your reports 'auto-specific'? I pointed out the line on the paper. It was right there in black and white. Tach said: That just means a car dealer requested it. It's the only score you have. Your FICO scores that you got yesterday are wrong. And so, the price immediately went up by $50 a month ($1,800 over the life of lease). After a few heated words, I walked out the door. Tach followed me. I explained that I know for a fact that car dealers use a special 'auto-skewed' FICO score, which is very often different (i.e. lower) than your actual, verified FICO score. That's fine. Any honest car dealer will fess up to that. But Tach lied to my face. Either that or he was clueless about it. He didn't strike me as clueless. I called Tach the next day to ask a question about the car, and see if they had re-evaluated their position. Tach told me that his manager (maybe he was angry after all!) decided that my credit was so bad that they couldn't lease me the car AT ALL without a co-signer. There was a note of victory in voice. Wait for it... here's the clincher. My next stop was the Mercedes dealer (W.I. Simonson) a few blocks away. I leased a brand new E350 convertible, with a sticker price a little higher than the BMW 335i. The walk-off price was identical, and my monthly payments are $589 per month, which is more than $100 a month LESS than what BMW wanted. SERIOUSLY. And the guy at Mercedes didn't talk to his manager once! He made me the best offer he could, and stuck by it. When he ran my credit, he explained that yes, it was lower due to the auto-skewed report they run, but he'll make sure I get an A1 rating anyway. No problem whatsover. Thank you for your business. I left the Santa Monica Mercedes dealer with an incredible new car that I love, at a good price. And I felt respected. That, in a nutshell, is the difference between working with straight-forward, honest dealers and the shady tricksters at BMW Santa Monica. At BMW Santa Monica, first I was charmed and glad-handed, then upsold, pressured, lied to, and emotionally bullied by an unseen manager. Finally, I was black-balled because apparently I'm an untenable credit risk. Five blocks away at W.I. Simonson Mercedes dealership, I was treated like royalty, and they did everything they could to HELP me overcome credit issues instead of doing everything possible to penalize me for them (and further fill their pockets). More

So bad it was funny. Took new 550i in to have door So bad it was funny. Took new 550i in to have door closing issue fixed, goofy directions from GPS, squeaky steering wheel fixed and fall off in So bad it was funny. Took new 550i in to have door closing issue fixed, goofy directions from GPS, squeaky steering wheel fixed and fall off in mileage investigated. They had the car for a day and did exactly nothing. Called corporate back east and they called dealer. Went in to pick car up the next day they still had done absolutely nothing. All problems still there and easily verified if anyone bothered to look. Talked to service manager Charley who said foreman verified they could find no issues. When I pointed out issues could be easily verified (as in turning the steering wheel to make it squeak) Charley the service manager told me to take the car to another dealer and then put his thumbs in both ears and wagged his hands. Mystery is why they would behave in such a bizarre manner. I would think it would be easier to just do the work than piss off a customer. Maybe on drugs or? Love the car; really wonder about BMW dealer and corporate management. More

Worse BMW Service experience ever.. Staff is non-professional, replaced wrong parts and didn't stand behind their repairs.. Just a bunch of thugs.. Stay far far away..!!! They replaced wrong non-professional, replaced wrong parts and didn't stand behind their repairs.. Just a bunch of thugs.. Stay far far away..!!! They replaced wrong parts on my car, convincing me to replace expensive parts, then it also broke down and they refused service to fix. It's just horrible experience. More

I purchased a 2008 M roaster from the used department at Santa Monica BMW. The customer service at Santa Monica BMW was excellent. Mario from the used department returned all of my phone call and provided Santa Monica BMW. The customer service at Santa Monica BMW was excellent. Mario from the used department returned all of my phone call and provided the necessary info required in a very timely fashion. I flew into LAX and he picked me up in his own personal vehicle. When i arrived at the dealership the vehicle was spotless with a full tank of gas. Mario had the service department install a wind deflector and arranged a company to come into the show room for three hours to apply a 3M clear bra. The quality of work from Gary in part on the install was perfect. Staff was friendly and easy to talk to. I highly recommend Mario and his crew at Santa Monica BMW (used). More

these guys are nuts. i go to their show room to buy a new car. i leave them my name and number and ask them to call me when they get some answers to my questions. never hear back. so i call the sales guy. he car. i leave them my name and number and ask them to call me when they get some answers to my questions. never hear back. so i call the sales guy. he is cold, snotty and busy. says he will call me back. never does. so i call the sales manager. leave a message. he never calls back. so i call the general manager. leave a message. he never calls back. are these guys so successful that they can be this rude and unprofessional? if i was the owner i would fire these incompetent and rude and ineffective employees More

This review is for the Certified pre-owned office of this dealership. I was initially skeptical about making a purchase here due to the reviews, but they had the best vehicle within a 500 mile radius when I dealership. I was initially skeptical about making a purchase here due to the reviews, but they had the best vehicle within a 500 mile radius when I did a search on bmwusa. Worked with Mario over several emails since I live in AZ. He was very prompt in responding to all my emails. He even sent the service history of the vehicle and gave me a good price. This is a no-haggle, no nonsense place and is evident when you actually work with Mario. I flew into LAX and arrived at their office at 10:30AM. Mario took me out for a testdrive and explained everything about the car. He was very proactive in calling up all the necessary folks to get my paperwork going ASAP. Deigo detailed my car and we got the financing taken care of by Henry. By 12:30 they sent me on my way with a tank of gas. I am now a very proud owner of a 528i and look forward to buying from them again. More

Difficult to quantify their awfulness...the Service Advisors don't listen to what you say; they dismiss anything "from the internet" as bogus; and they act like they know better [which they don't or th Advisors don't listen to what you say; they dismiss anything "from the internet" as bogus; and they act like they know better [which they don't or they wouldn't be SAs, they'd be managers.] The actual service is pretty bad. The lot monkeys inflicted three separate scratches on my car during its last stay there, and rather than admit it they attempted to pass it off even though they surveyed the condition of the car when it arrived. They also botched a simple oil change by overfilling the motor. That's pretty much the simplest task there is, and they can't be trusted to do it correctly. I recommend you go ANYWHERE else before here. More