Sales rep recommendations? (bay area)

Hey! I need a new car, and I would like to buy a gently used 5-series, and want to find a sales person who can earn his or her keep by making the process easy.

I thought I would very carefully buy a private party car, but I am realizing the vast majority of these cars are leased and go back to the dealer, the next largest segment are salvage and problem cars, and finally the theoretical 50k mileage car from the original owner.

So I am thinking at CPO cars. And the reps I have spoken to just seem to be on the wrong planet. Not dishonest, just flakey. And yet I feel like a dick calling sales manager and asking for someone else.

That said: Anyone have a sales consultant in the SF Bay Area (sf, east bay, north bay, upper peninsula) they would recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Hanzie

I kind of went through the same thing you are but eventually had to endure the silliness of these salesmen. Ultimately when it comes down to putting together a deal, I asked the salesman to invite his manager out for a face to face. I figured instead of dealing with a back and forth, let me deal with the decision maker and get a deal done direct.

so in my instance, I only endured the salesman for the test drive and requisite small talk for about 30 minutes. The dealt directly with the manager thereafter. I decided to go this route when I found the vehicle that I wanted to buy. Prior to this I'd gone to three dealerships - Hansel up in Santa Rosa, Sonnen in Marin and Autowest in Roseville. Sonnen had the best salesperson (except I forgot HER name already) but she was on her game fairly well.

Good luck though - even though I avoided financing when I purchased my vehicle, it was still a arduous process. After your test drives, you can pretty much avoid the salesman though if you ask to work directly with the manager or GM.

Try Zari S @Mountain View BMW. She's pretty low on the pushy bit, lets you take your time taking cars out on test drives and just give her your bottomline price to work with. After negotiating, still managed to get some all weather mats thrown in as part of the deal. Good luck!

Thank you both. Unfortunately Mtview is a bit afield but she sounds my speed.

I ended up asking around of a few friends with BMWs. None liked their reps, but one knew a guy socially who is a rep and a good guy. I haven't gone in yet, but on our short call he was great, quite different from the other folks I had talked to. Partly due to the social connection, I presume, and partly due to the fact that he deals mostly with repeat buyers. I will share more later.

Who did you end up using and how was your experience overall?