October 18

Mileage: 35,601

Everyone must be in a buying mood. I've received several emails in the past few days asking the same question: How do I get the best deal?

If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be a corporate whore doing marketing.

Here's my advice. Please remember while reading this that I'm a better trapeze artist than negotiator.

I know the dealerships here in Silicon Valley are selling below MSRP, and as you may have read on my site I only paid MSRP at the height of the .COM boom. Ergo, if you're being quoted MSRP on anything other than a Z4, you're being overcharged.

I'd compare what the online stores are charging, e.g., carsdirect.com, edmunds.com, autonation.com et al, AND the real dealerships in the region. Edmunds lists invoice prices, but you don't know what arrangement BMW has with the dealerships in addition to this.

If, as one person described, you're willing to pay more just to support your local economy or to cement your relationship with the dealership that will be servicing your car. I'd subtract $2,000 off the lowest bid and bargain up -or- ask for the invoice price plus the retail cost of the factory-installed options, i.e., not the alarm.

You might also consider the Euro Delivery program. A woman I work with did this recently, saved a couple thoudsand, and had a great time.

October 2002 page views: 3,091

Had an enlightening drive with a master auto tech...Mike from Stevens Creek BMW. The problem with the vibration at 83 mph was a bent rear wheel, which I'm going to try to have fixed in Campbell. Mike was everything you could ask for, although it's true I almost killed us both cutting across four lanes of traffic to make the Pagemill exit on 280 at 90 mph. He didn't scream or anything, although he did gun my engine in second. Such a pretty purrrrr.

Rusting rear headrests replaced. Clicking sound on turns was probably due to a suspension spacer used for shipping the cars that Weatherford left in (sloppy, sloppy).

Neil Simon is the customer service rep to ask for at Stevens Creek. Followed up on the repair, didn't charge me a cent, and knew full well that I paid $300 less for my maintenance contract extension at Peter Pan (they don't mark up the contract, which is overpriced as is).

Stevens Creek gets five 5s when BMW comes a callin'. Excellent, excellent work.