[SPQR M3]

I recently purchased a 2009 E92 325i from an interstate dealer. I live in Adelaide and I found the car on the internet at a non-BMW prestige car dealership in Melbourne.

Due to work commitments, I wasn't able to get over to Melbourne to see the car myself, but it had all the options I was after - right colour, low mileage, complete service history. I was relying heavily on the dealer's honesty in their description of the car. At the time, he told me that there were a couple of small scratches and would require some touch-up work to correct them. These were located on the bootlid and driver's door edge. He assured me that before delivery, they would be taken care of and the car would be delivered to me on a truck in showroom condition. After negotiating a reasonable deal, which included delivery to Adelaide and a 5 year aftermarket warranty, I signed a contract, subject to a full mechanical inspection.

The inspection went perfectly - there were no faults or red flags raised. I was then satisfied that the car was acceptable so I paid the deposit and arranged the finance.

A week later, the car arrived in very poor condition. The carpets were grubby, there were grease and dirt marks all over the interior, especially around the door trim, and just generally, the car was filthy. There were crushed potato chips on the passenger side floor. The interior of the car is the cream beige colour so any dirt marks show up prominently. In addition, the car was delivered with virtually no fuel in the tank - the distance to empty indicator read zero - fortunately the car made it the 1.5km or so to the nearest servo.

After registering the car I had it detailed and the carpets steam cleaned and shampooed. Eventually it was brought up to an acceptable condition and in the cold light of day I saw that the "touch up" work consisted of black texta (the car is sapphire black).

Whilst I am happy with the car overall - mechanically its fantastic and drives beautifully - I am disappointed with the presentation of the car upon delivery.I wrote an email to the dealership asking to be compensated for the cost of detailing ($200). They refused. My argument to them is that I would never have accepted delivery of the car in that state had I picked it up in person at the dealership.

Obviously I ran the risk of something like this buying a car sight unseen. But I still feel that the overall cosmetic condition of the car was bad enough that I complain about it.

Am I being too precious here or should I pursue it further?

[DR-JEKL]

Meh just write it off, and get a specialist to repair it!

At the end of the day as perspective you took a gamble and it could have been much worse!!!!

[Kiwi Peter]

Could have been much worse, Truck drivers and car movers all wear dirty old boots they climb over dirty trucks all day, then there is all the road grime etc you were lucky.
Just be happy there was no other damage.

[Testercles]

I send cars interstate all the time and have never had any complaints. I guess it's just a case of being really specific on the contract so that it's all written down cause then they'd make more of an effort to make sure it's clean. If it's only subject to a mechanical inspection I guess they saw an out as far as detailing goes. Really poor form on their part but unfortunately there's not much that can be done about it after the fact.

[dr335e93]

Originally Posted by SPQR M3

I recently purchased a 2009 E92 325i from an interstate dealer. I live in Adelaide and I found the car on the internet at a non-BMW prestige car dealership in Melbourne.

Due to work commitments, I wasn't able to get over to Melbourne to see the car myself, but it had all the options I was after - right colour, low mileage, complete service history. I was relying heavily on the dealer's honesty in their description of the car. At the time, he told me that there were a couple of small scratches and would require some touch-up work to correct them. These were located on the bootlid and driver's door edge. He assured me that before delivery, they would be taken care of and the car would be delivered to me on a truck in showroom condition. After negotiating a reasonable deal, which included delivery to Adelaide and a 5 year aftermarket warranty, I signed a contract, subject to a full mechanical inspection.

The inspection went perfectly - there were no faults or red flags raised. I was then satisfied that the car was acceptable so I paid the deposit and arranged the finance.

A week later, the car arrived in very poor condition. The carpets were grubby, there were grease and dirt marks all over the interior, especially around the door trim, and just generally, the car was filthy. There were crushed potato chips on the passenger side floor. The interior of the car is the cream beige colour so any dirt marks show up prominently. In addition, the car was delivered with virtually no fuel in the tank - the distance to empty indicator read zero - fortunately the car made it the 1.5km or so to the nearest servo.

After registering the car I had it detailed and the carpets steam cleaned and shampooed. Eventually it was brought up to an acceptable condition and in the cold light of day I saw that the "touch up" work consisted of black texta (the car is sapphire black).

Whilst I am happy with the car overall - mechanically its fantastic and drives beautifully - I am disappointed with the presentation of the car upon delivery.I wrote an email to the dealership asking to be compensated for the cost of detailing ($200). They refused. My argument to them is that I would never have accepted delivery of the car in that state had I picked it up in person at the dealership.

Obviously I ran the risk of something like this buying a car sight unseen. But I still feel that the overall cosmetic condition of the car was bad enough that I complain about it.

Am I being too precious here or should I pursue it further?

Name and shame mate.
Save the rest of us some hassle.

[_ink]

Originally Posted by dr335e93

Name and shame mate.
Save the rest of us some hassle.

Power of the interwebs!

[Kiwi Peter]

We had a Porsche 930T slant nose dropped off yesterday from QLD. It came in a closed multi deck truck just like a V8 supercar deal. No damage in perfect condition, but its not cheap, you get what you pay for.

[Scotty89]

I agree with the above, name and shame them is the only option. At least then others who are googling the dealer will get a taste of their service before hand.

I've never bought from a dealer, but even the local BMW dealership has horrid customer service when you go in to buy parts. Snobs won't even sell me overpriced parts that they simply import and onsell.

Edit: If they've got a shop page that comes up on google, put in a review on the google as well and everyone will see their poor rating.