BMW AUC Reservation
Discussion
I know it's a bit lazy, and I could have just picked up the phone, but I Reserved a BMW Approved Used iX1 on Sunday. BMW dealers have been slashing prices of these things for a few weeks, and when the prices reached what I thought was a fairer level I decided it was time to jump in.
Reserve Online says "Reserved vehicles are removed from the site for 48 hours..." which I thought was ideal, I was busy fannying about at home and figured I'd speak to the dealer tomorrow for a bit of negotiation, so paid £100 to reserve the car I wanted. The system then asks me if I wanted to consider finance, which I was going to do, and then it allowed me to progress through a full credit check and application which was nice and as I was set on that car made everything nice and easy. I wasn't expecting it do that but nonetheless was an additional step I was ok to do.
Fast forward to Monday afternoon, no contact from the dealer but lots of emails from BMW UK confirming the order and the finance. Speak to the sales team, they tell me the car had already sold the day before and there was no record of me buying the car (as I technically couldn't). They offered me a couple of other examples, all lower spec or wrong colour choice, so I am now stuck with agreed finance for a car I can't buy.
Spoke with BMW this morning, they said this shouldn't happen but it is up to the dealer to remove the car from the website. I informed them the car was still on there this morning, but that's by-the-by. I am more bothered by a hard credit search on my file now. Am I being unreasonable here?
TLDR; Don't bother to Reserve online, it doesn't work.
Reserve Online says "Reserved vehicles are removed from the site for 48 hours..." which I thought was ideal, I was busy fannying about at home and figured I'd speak to the dealer tomorrow for a bit of negotiation, so paid £100 to reserve the car I wanted. The system then asks me if I wanted to consider finance, which I was going to do, and then it allowed me to progress through a full credit check and application which was nice and as I was set on that car made everything nice and easy. I wasn't expecting it do that but nonetheless was an additional step I was ok to do.
Fast forward to Monday afternoon, no contact from the dealer but lots of emails from BMW UK confirming the order and the finance. Speak to the sales team, they tell me the car had already sold the day before and there was no record of me buying the car (as I technically couldn't). They offered me a couple of other examples, all lower spec or wrong colour choice, so I am now stuck with agreed finance for a car I can't buy.
Spoke with BMW this morning, they said this shouldn't happen but it is up to the dealer to remove the car from the website. I informed them the car was still on there this morning, but that's by-the-by. I am more bothered by a hard credit search on my file now. Am I being unreasonable here?
TLDR; Don't bother to Reserve online, it doesn't work.
It doesn’t surprise me; lots of dealers have access to the same stock and they’re rubbish at updating the ads. It happened to a colleague trying to buy a new M140i; they found him the spec he wanted from a stock car, paid a deposit arranged finance only to be told the car had already been sold. They then tried to move his deal to an inferior car which didn’t go down very well.
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