Mercedes C class vs. BMW 3 series

[MattyMatt]

Anyone here ever use an auto broker to negotiate a new car sale/lease? I hear it saves time and they get you a really good price.

Wondering if it's worth it

I’m a great negotiator/haggler, so no, and you can always beat the price by at least $300 because the broker places get $300 min for it. Trucar, Costco, etc services folks always think they’re getting the greatest deal, but they’re not. I guess if you’re not good at it or don’t like haggling, then go for it, but for me, I only care about the lowest price possible, and that’s it, and I’m willing to go 500 miles from home to get it (I did last time, flew in, drove home, saved me a couple grand, well worth it)...

 

[phdinsports]

I used to love a Maxima as well, but the switch to the CVT transmission did it in for me. Nissan seems to be back on track switching back to a ZF 9 speed tranny in the trucks and SUVs now, so hoping the cars follow suit...

Never been into the Subbies too much myself because the interior is just meh and always has been, plus, I used to own a Mitsu Evo, and it responds to aftermarket mods incredibly better than the STI( I had one of the fastest stock turbo ones in the country when I built it). The Evo has been discontinued, I thought about an STI, but just can't do it, another reason why I wish Mazda would bring the Mazdaspeed banner back...

Your expertise of cars far exceeds my knowledge of cars. And your all about saving money when buying a car, as am I. I'm curious as to why you don't approve of domestic cars? You have the skills to build a car, and domestic parts are so cheap compared to foreign parts, I'm just picking your brain as you got me thinking about what to purchase next.

 

[fightgood]

I’m a great negotiator/haggler, so no, and you can always beat the price by at least $300 because the broker places get $300 min for it. Trucar, Costco, etc services folks always think they’re getting the greatest deal, but they’re not. I guess if you’re not good at it or don’t like haggling, then go for it, but for me, I only care about the lowest price possible, and that’s it, and I’m willing to go 500 miles from home to get it (I did last time, flew in, drove home, saved me a couple grand, well worth it)...

Thanks man. Do you have an opinion on whether you should put a down payment on a 36 month lease? The dealership gave me several monthly payment options depending on the amount I put down.

I asked how much room they had to work the numbers and they said they already gave me the best monthly payment they could on their first quote. I never leased before so I'm not sure if its different than buying when it comes to haggling

 

[MattyMatt]

I don't lease, but when I looked into it for the helluvit not too long ago, it was actually appealing for the first time ever. The money factor was basically equal to a 0% interest rate, which is what you want...

Also, I wouldn't put money down on a lease, especially if you think there's a good chance you aren't going to buy it at lease end...

Keep in mind, the selling price of the vehicle is negotiable in a lease just as if you were buying it, so when they start talking money down, I would just say how about we take it off the price of the car instead, it's doable...

I don't know what brand you're interested in buying, but some have more wiggle room than others. Good luck, and I think you're off to the right start so far by walking away, cars are easily impulse bought, and that's where they really getcha...

Also, if you know the exact car you want, I'd do all of my negotiating by email, and maybe pick up the phone to solidify the deal once I got what I wanted. Reach out to every dealer within reason of travel to get the car, and expect some to not even respond, some to not budge at all, and some to give you a decent deal that you can start to work with, then once you have it, get the top 3 dealers to try and beat one another out. You may get lucky and one do it right off the bat, but at least you already have a baseline to go off of it sounds (I doubt that was the best deal by far, either...)

Good luck, I'm tempted to get a new whip myself soon, but medical bills (teeth), and wanting to add another rental to the portfolio have me limited on the idea atm...

It is an exciting time when you purchase a car you want though for sure, so I hope you find what you're looking for at a price acceptable to you...

 

[festeringZit]

Last weekend I was in San Antonio reffing an AAU tournament, and the low oil light came on in my BMW. Normally I bring it to the dealer for this type of thing,
but was out of town and in a time crunch, so I brought it to Jiffy Lube.

Big mistake.

I'm driving home on Sunday and the low oil light comes on again, so I'm thinking maybe there is a bad sensor or something. Then about an hour later I get a
message about drive train failure. I'm close to home, so I drive it home and park it. I call the dealer and ask if I can drive the car to the dealer with that
message, and they said I should be ok.

Today I get a call from the dealer saying Jiffy Lube didn't put the o-ring back on right when they changed the oil filter, and there was oil splattered all
over the engine - and the engine is destroyed. They have a video showing how Jiffy Lube put the o-ring on wrong.

I call Jiffy Lube and they say that if BMW touches the car it voids their warranty, and they want me to tow the car to some Jiffy Lube center so they
can look at it. Fuck that I told them, they fucked up a basic oil change, if they want to look at the car, they can send an insurance adjuster out to the
BMW dealer at look at it there.

Later on I get a call from a district manager at Jiffy Lube, and he's going to drive up from San Antonio to Austin to look at the car.

What a fiasco.

BMW quoted me $850 to clean the engine and re-do the oil change, and $15K to replace the engine.

 

[fightgood]

Last weekend I was in San Antonio reffing an AAU tournament, and the low oil light came on in my BMW. Normally I bring it to the dealer for this type of thing,
but was out of town and in a time crunch, so I brought it to Jiffy Lube.

Big mistake.

I'm driving home on Sunday and the low oil light comes on again, so I'm thinking maybe there is a bad sensor or something. Then about an hour later I get a
message about drive train failure. I'm close to home, so I drive it home and park it. I call the dealer and ask if I can drive the car to the dealer with that
message, and they said I should be ok.

Today I get a call from the dealer saying Jiffy Lube didn't put the o-ring back on right when they changed the oil filter, and there was oil splattered all
over the engine - and the engine is destroyed. They have a video showing how Jiffy Lube put the o-ring on wrong.

I call Jiffy Lube and they say that if BMW touches the car it voids their warranty, and they want me to tow the car to some Jiffy Lube center so they
can look at it. Fuck that I told them, they fucked up a basic oil change, if they want to look at the car, they can send an insurance adjuster out to the
BMW dealer at look at it there.

Later on I get a call from a district manager at Jiffy Lube, and he's going to drive up from San Antonio to Austin to look at the car.

What a fiasco.

BMW quoted me $850 to clean the engine and re-do the oil change, and $15K to replace the engine.

That's a crazy story dude. I didn't know Jiffy Lube guarantees their work with a warranty. My guess is the district manager can override the voiding of the warranty if he wants to make things right. And he can't be too pleased one of his mechanics screwed up an engine

Hope they compensate you somehow

 

[Willie99]

MattyMatt, if you're comparing the Lexus unfavorably to the drive of the KIA or Hyundai, then I'm going to suggest you need to drive them all again

And of all luxury brands mentioned, I said I liked the BMW the least because of the sportier handling. I like a great handling luxury ride with pickup

I don't like the loose luxury handling of American cars, their not tight enough although they are smooth, I like something in between

I really believed this when I said it, but I bought a BMW. Looked at all the cars I said I'd look at, including the Telluride. The Telluride actually made the final cut list. The only vehicle selling at or above MSRP. Highly rated, and a 4 month wait to get the model I wanted.

Most of the less expensive vehicles didn't have the look or the luxury or the HP I was looking for, but they're all solid options

I went with the X7.

God willing, hoping to drive it for 5 to 6 years and 75 to 100 k miles.

The number two car on my list was actually the Genisis GV80 with the larger engine. If the 3rd row had more space, I would have purchased it. It's the Tiger Woods car

The buyout on my Lexus lease was 31k, the dealership is giving me 35k. I didn't see that coming, thought I'd be paying Lexus for excess miles. That speaks volumes for that brand, I just wanted something different.

 

[MattyMatt]

Good luck with the BMW. They’re great lease vehicles, and that’s about it.

Your X7 was built 15 minutes from my house, and I recommend everyone who buys one to take delivery at the BMW Performance Center. It is free, check out the videos, highly worth it...

With that said, you couldn’t pay me to own one, but I truly do hope it treats you well. I’ll be curious of the updates of time spent at the dealership for warranty work and the costly repairs afterwards, if any, afterwards...

 

[Willie99]

I won't have to worry about repairs for at least 4 years. If it's been a bad run, I'll trade it in.

 

[festeringZit]

Last weekend I was in San Antonio reffing an AAU tournament, and the low oil light came on in my BMW. Normally I bring it to the dealer for this type of thing,
but was out of town and in a time crunch, so I brought it to Jiffy Lube.

Big mistake.

I'm driving home on Sunday and the low oil light comes on again, so I'm thinking maybe there is a bad sensor or something. Then about an hour later I get a
message about drive train failure. I'm close to home, so I drive it home and park it. I call the dealer and ask if I can drive the car to the dealer with that
message, and they said I should be ok.

Today I get a call from the dealer saying Jiffy Lube didn't put the o-ring back on right when they changed the oil filter, and there was oil splattered all
over the engine - and the engine is destroyed. They have a video showing how Jiffy Lube put the o-ring on wrong.

I call Jiffy Lube and they say that if BMW touches the car it voids their warranty, and they want me to tow the car to some Jiffy Lube center so they
can look at it. Fuck that I told them, they fucked up a basic oil change, if they want to look at the car, they can send an insurance adjuster out to the
BMW dealer at look at it there.

Later on I get a call from a district manager at Jiffy Lube, and he's going to drive up from San Antonio to Austin to look at the car.

What a fiasco.

BMW quoted me $850 to clean the engine and re-do the oil change, and $15K to replace the engine.

Looks like Jiffy Lube is going to pay out. I'll find out more details on Monday. So I'm in the market for a new vehicle. Not sure if I will buy another BMW. Need to reread this thread for ideas.

 

[Willie99]

Happy jiffylube making good for you Zit. Wouldn't want to lawyer up

 

[Bourn]

 

[Bourn]

I was trying to upload a picture of my BMW and R1. Must be rusty on this site. Cant even see that its allowing me to edit my post above?

 

[Bourn]

FZ ive worked on last 2 of my BMW's. Done pretty much anything from tuning to suspension upgrades etc. Im an F-35 Mechanic at Lockheed now. Anyway, you can run those cars without an O-ring. It sounds like they just didn't get it tight enough. The oil filter on that car sits on top of the engine to the right. Pretty easy to access, but they were probably just a lazy shithead that may have gotten a snapchat vid about that time or something.

 

[wilbur]

I was trying to upload a picture of my BMW and R1. Must be rusty on this site. Cant even see that its allowing me to edit my post above?

Probably because you suck!!!!

Good to see you, bud!

Hope all is well.

 

[Bourn]

WOW you're still above ground?? haha you too bud!

 

[Michelangelo]

FZ ive worked on last 2 of my BMW's. Done pretty much anything from tuning to suspension upgrades etc. Im an F-35 Mechanic at Lockheed now. Anyway, you can run those cars without an O-ring. It sounds like they just didn't get it tight enough. The oil filter on that car sits on top of the engine to the right. Pretty easy to access, but they were probably just a lazy shithead that may have gotten a snapchat vid about that time or something.

I remember when you were going for that Lockheed job.

Real glad to see that it's working out.

 

[festeringZit]

FZ ive worked on last 2 of my BMW's. Done pretty much anything from tuning to suspension upgrades etc. Im an F-35 Mechanic at Lockheed now. Anyway, you can run those cars without an O-ring. It sounds like they just didn't get it tight enough. The oil filter on that car sits on top of the engine to the right. Pretty easy to access, but they were probably just a lazy shithead that may have gotten a snapchat vid about that time or something.

According to the BMW dealer, the o-ring was just not installed correctly. Net end of it is that they are cutting me a check for $15K+ though it's been a pain
in the ass, because even though they approved a rental car for me in the mean time, because of recent hail storms, there have been none available.

I'm car shopping.

 

[Illini]

According to the BMW dealer, the o-ring was just not installed correctly. Net end of it is that they are cutting me a check for $15K+ though it's been a pain
in the ass, because even though they approved a rental car for me in the mean time, because of recent hail storms, there have been none available.

I'm car shopping.

If you test drive a Tesla, my guess is that you'll buy one. The Model 3's aren't that expensive, considering how many years you'll get out of the car with zero maintenance or gas. They are truly impossibly great machines.

 

[festeringZit]

I ended up with a 2017 Mazda 6 Touring. Used car inventory is insanely low. But I test drove this car and really liked it. Plus, they gave me a good deal on extending the bumper-to-bumper warranty an extra 3 years, and the dealer is close to where I live, so I snagged it.