[LuvMyE92]

I am still waiting on my local dealer to get an allocation for my M550ix in Aventurin Red Metallic, but it could be a while. So I started looking for cars that were in stock, every dealer east of California. I used cars.com (if you know a better tool, please let me know). The BMW website is useless beyond a couple of hundred miles for a search.

Around 60% of the cars were pre-sold.

Of the remainders, a couple were unacceptable colors, half were missing "must have" option of nappa, and one if you can believe it, had zero options, not even premium (my other "must have"). The remaining few had too many options, killing the budget. There are a few where I am still waiting to hear back from the dealer on availability.

One dealer wanted $5K over MSRP, on top of his already inflated add-ons (nitrogen, wheel locks, ceramic coating, etc.) of nearly $2K. I did get them to knock off the $5K, but their attitude has really ticked me off, so that's a no-go.

It's tough out there. You have to either settle for something that doesn't check all of the boxes, pay way too much, or both.

Fortunately I have a very nice car to drive now, so it's not like I'm in a position where I have to buy something. But you know... it is frustrating.