BMW dealer wrecks M5 and won't pay for damage

So far my buying experience has been pleasant, mind you I just placed an order. I just showed up, no appointment and I was treated well. The CA actually knew more about the car than I did which was refreshing for a change. Pricing was fair, quick and without back and forth. I did screw up a bit by negotiating down from MSRP instead of negotiating up from the invoice but overall I got the price I am happy with and I still think they made a fair profit. The only thing that pissed me off so far was the $150 doc fee which used to be $50. That's $100 I'll never see again....

Originally Posted by GTakacs

So far my buying experience has been pleasant, mind you I just placed an order. I just showed up, no appointment and I was treated well. The CA actually knew more about the car than I did which was refreshing for a change. Pricing was fair, quick and without back and forth. I did screw up a bit by negotiating down from MSRP instead of negotiating up from the invoice but overall I got the price I am happy with and I still think they made a fair profit. The only thing that pissed me off so far was the $150 doc fee which used to be $50. That's $100 I'll never see again....

I've wondered what they were charging for the doc fee now. You may already know the Texas legislature removed any cap on doc fees. Dealers can now charge whatever they want, with the caveat they have to submit proposed increases to their licensing agency justifying the increase.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

I've wondered what they were charging for the doc fee now. You may already know the Texas legislature removed any cap on doc fees. Dealers can now charge whatever they want, with the caveat they have to submit proposed increases to their licensing agency justifying the increase.

The weird thing is that they must have a ton of old blank sales contract documents laying around that they're unwilling to dump/replace as they're still using the ones that say "Documentation Fee is not a mandatory fee and it must not exceed $50". But you are correct, now they can charge whatever they want. But if it's over $125 they have to have it approved by the Texas Consumer Credit Commissioner. Interestingly my friend just bought a VW from Hiley VW in Arlington, TX (a place I would not set foot in ever in my life again) and, surprise, their doc fee was $125.

My dealer claims that they "only" charge $150 a other dealers charge up to $250 in the area. Oh well, live and learn.

Read the whole story and saw the photo on BMW Blog. Some test drive. That car was out for a joy ride and that kind of damage wasn't from any curb. What a bunch of liars.
Hope he sues the crap out of that disgraceful excuse of a dealership and of course they should provide him with a brand new M5.

Originally Posted by hpowders

Read the whole story and saw the photo on BMW Blog. Some test drive. That car was out for a joy ride and that kind of damage wasn't from any curb. What a bunch of liars.
Hope he sues the crap out of that disgraceful excuse of a dealership and of course they should provide him with a brand new M5.

hp, I'm not sure how serious you're being, but all you can really tell from the photos is that the body panels have been removed to assess the amount of damage.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

hp, I'm not sure how serious you're being, but all you can really tell from the photos is that the body panels have been removed to assess the amount of damage.

Maybe you have a better eye for this sort of thing than I do. I though it looked pretty bad. They are claiming around $30,000 to restore it.

If that was my vehicle in that photo, I would bite down quickly on a cyanide capsule.

Originally Posted by hpowders

Maybe you have a better eye for this sort of thing than I do. I though it looked pretty bad. They are claiming around $30,000 to restore it.

Are you talking about the one photo of the car with the fenders, bumper and hood removed? I haven't seen any others. Wonder why the OP hasn't posted any pics of what it looked like before they stripped it down?

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Are you talking about the one photo of the car with the fenders, bumper and hood removed? I haven't seen any others. Wonder why the OP hasn't posted any pics of what it looked like before they stripped it down?

I'm talking about the photo on BMW Blog. I guess that's the one.

Originally Posted by hpowders

I'm talking about the photo on BMW Blog.

This one?

edit: second photo added. Sorry I forgot it earlier. As I've said I have never questioned whether there was an accident or damage to the car. It's kind of interesting how the first picture posted and the main one being used is the much more dramatic photo of the car stripped down, even though you can't make any real judgments from it, where as the one that is much less dramatic, but shows actual damage is getting second billing.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

This one?

Yeah. So you are claiming it's not as bad as it looks? They are claiming $30k to restore it.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

That may be, but have you read all of the OP's posts in his thread? I have.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Are you talking about the one photo of the car with the fenders, bumper and hood removed? I haven't seen any others. Wonder why the OP hasn't posted any pics of what it looked like before they stripped it down?

You claim to have read all the posts in the original thread, however you some how missed the pictures he posted and claim to have only seen the one photo you linked a few posts ago? Which is it? Did you read the whole thread or did you miss some posts? If you are going to call someone out on the facts of what they are saying, please keep your facts in line first.

Personally I am in the camp of no matter what happened the dealer should have been upfront about it and if the gm and the owner are as upstanding as you claim they would have been a lot more forth coming about the details early on rather than trying to cover it up. Honesty goes a long way. I think what has gotten more people fired up is the shady dealings more than the crash. Either outcome was going to be bad, why not take the loss and move on rather than the huge PR nightmare? Which story looks better? Dealer crashes my M5 on an unauthorized test drive but promises to make the car whole or total and replace it, or the one we have now?

Edit: I do post on m5board under the name dkoren just to be fully open.

Originally Posted by DaKoren

You claim to have read all the posts in the original thread, however you some how missed the pictures he posted and claim to have only seen the one photo you linked a few posts ago? Which is it? Did you read the whole thread or did you miss some posts? If you are going to call someone out on the facts of what they are saying, please keep your facts in line first.

Personally I am in the camp of no matter what happened the dealer should have been upfront about it and if the gm and the owner are as upstanding as you claim they would have been a lot more forth coming about the details early on rather than trying to cover it up. Honesty goes a long way. I think what has gotten more people fired up is the shady dealings more than the crash. Either outcome was going to be bad, why not take the loss and move on rather than the huge PR nightmare? Which story looks better? Dealer crashes my M5 on an unauthorized test drive but promises to make the car whole or total and replace it, or the one we have now?

Edit: I do post on m5board under the name dkoren just to be fully open.

At the time I posted that I had read all of the OP's posts, which is what I claimed. Did I miss something? Has he posted additional photos?

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60...ml#post1892563

Bottom of page 28 incase the link is broken.

That's a big one to miss it spawned several pages of responses, a few days ago... Yet your claim is from yesterday.

Edit: correction your claim was 45 minutes ago, still yesterday though.

Originally Posted by DaKoren

http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60...ml#post1892563

Bottom of page 28 incase the link is broken.

That's a big one to miss it spawned several pages of responses, a few days ago... Yet your claim is from yesterday.

Yes, I did see that one additional photo. I never said the accident didn't happen. I questioned whether it happened as the OP portrayed it. The only one who knows exactly what happened is the driver.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Are you talking about the one photo of the car with the fenders, bumper and hood removed? I haven't seen any others. Wonder why the OP hasn't posted any pics of what it looked like before they stripped it down?

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Yes, I did see that one additional photo. I never said the accident didn't happen. I questioned whether it happened as the OP portrayed it. The only one who knows exactly what happened is the driver.

So which is it? Did you see one or did you see both? I'm not questioning your knowledge of if it happened but rather your posts trying to downplay it and intentionally hiding facts, or worse blindly supporting a friend with no regards to trying to find out what the OP was saying.

Is the story overblown? Only the OP and the dealer truly know, and I suspect they have different opinions on that as well. However the whole thing as I said would have been far different if the dealer didn't try to hide or downplay what happened. This is the same thing it seems you are trying to do here.

Originally Posted by DaKoren

So which is it? Did you see one or did you see both? I'm not questioning your knowledge of if it happened but rather your posts trying to downplay it and intentionally hiding facts, or worse blindly supporting a friend with no regards to trying to find out what the OP was saying.

Is the story overblown? Only the OP and the dealer truly know, and I suspect they have different opinions on that as well. However the whole thing as I said would have been far different if the dealer didn't try to hide or downplay what happened. This is the same thing it seems you are trying to do here.

That's my exact point. You don't know if the OP reported the facts accurately. No one does. My only argument has been that the treatment the OP claims is a complete contradiction to what I know personally about the dealership's management.

We all know there are two sides to every story. But, apparently with the M5Board members I have committed a terrible sin by questioning whether the OP gave an accurate account of how the interaction happened. Surely emotion couldn't have played any role in how things transpired.

If that was the case why has the dealer not responded? I have to believe they are aware of this. If they had tried to make good it would be fairly easy to show offers in good faith or their original estimate showing more than 2500 in damages.

Originally Posted by DaKoren

If that was the case why has the dealer not responded? I have to believe they are aware of this. If they had tried to make good it would be fairly easy to show offers in good faith or their original estimate showing more than 2500 in damages.

It's kind of like not trying your case in the press. Is it really that hard to understand?


And now I'm finished with you.


And I'm finished posting in this thread, since by doing so I'm the main one on Bimmerfest giving this story any traction and that I do not want to do.

Of course emotion plays a part in it. We have a member of the community who has his car wrecked. Of course we are all upset. Wouldn't you be? Emotion is coming in on your side as well. You have a connection to the dealer and can't see how they could act like this. It's one persons word vs anothers Right now the guy with pictures of his trashed car has evidence, the other side of the story doesn't. Evidence goes a long way.

Wow, some heat around here.

It's nothing personal, folks.
There's lies, damn lies, and forum claims.


To clarify though, there are two pics of the car in question. The second shows what looks like a broken/collapsed shock tower.

Originally Posted by DaKoren

Of course emotion plays a part in it. We have a member of the community who has his car wrecked. Of course we are all upset. Wouldn't you be? Emotion is coming in on your side as well. You have a connection to the dealer and can't see how they could act like this. It's one persons word vs anothers Right now the guy with pictures of his trashed car has evidence, the other side of the story doesn't. Evidence goes a long way.

Thank you DaKoren for backing up a fellow member who is involved in an unfortunate incident. This dealer should have taken the high road to handle this mess. Dealer has so much to loose from BMW community.

No matter how you slice it, the dealer claim doesn't match up with $30,000 in estimated repairs/labor to restore it.

I think I will photograph/date my car from all angles when the car has arrived at the dealership before they touch it. I have to protect myself and do whatever it takes.

Scary and extremely disappointing stuff.

Actually, I consider myself lucky to be driving a boring, stock E90. The service dudes will only yawn.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

hp, I'm not sure how serious you're being, but all you can really tell from the photos is that the body panels have been removed to assess the amount of damage.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Are you talking about the one photo of the car with the fenders, bumper and hood removed? I haven't seen any others. Wonder why the OP hasn't posted any pics of what it looked like before they stripped it down?

Originally Posted by tturedraider

This one?

edit: second photo added. Sorry I forgot it earlier. As I've said I have never questioned whether there was an accident or damage to the car. It's kind of interesting how the first picture posted and the main one being used is the much more dramatic photo of the car stripped down, even though you can't make any real judgments from it, where as the one that is much less dramatic, but shows actual damage is getting second billing.

Originally Posted by tturedraider

At the time I posted that I had read all of the OP's posts, which is what I claimed. Did I miss something? Has he posted additional photos?

Originally Posted by tturedraider

Yes, I did see that one additional photo. I never said the accident didn't happen. I questioned whether it happened as the OP portrayed it. The only one who knows exactly what happened is the driver.

Are you the 1bimmerguy in M5board? I am a member there and I stumbled on to a link to this thread. I see a striking resemblance to your posts here and the posts by 1bimmerguy over there.

Originally Posted by MNC4674

Are you the 1bimmerguy in M5board? I am a member there and I stumbled on to a link to this thread. I see a striking resemblance to your posts here and the posts by 1bimmerguy over there.

Apparently. Perhaps part of an attempt by the dealer in question or their legal staff to elicit discovery out of the claimant and use it against him in whatever way they can. Notice that this member created a new username on the M5board with the only intent as to enter the thread there. He goes on to make claims about the plaintiff's military service as if that is relevant to issue and then taunts the plaintiff into sending him data about the crash site. Crazy stuff indeed.