Indiana BMW Car Dealers

I think your best option is to call your salesperson (client advisor) and see what they'll sell you the car for. They can buy it back from BMWFS at an auction price and resell it to you cheaper than BMWFS will. You can save yourself a lot of money by doing this. Now, how do you get a price to negotiate with? There are a few boards here on edmunds town hall that will help you out. REAL WORLD TRADE IN VALUES - Type in the years, make, model, color, options, condition... and there are actualy car salesman that will give you a very good estimation as to what your E60 550i is worth. BMW 3 series - Prices Paid - I know this is a 3 series board, but there is a member named gbrozen who has a subscription to GALVES (the auction in the northeast) and can look up for you how much the last cars similar to yours crossed the auction block for. After you determine a price and negotiate with the dealer, bring the car into the service department for a Pre Purchase Inspection. If the car is going to need new tires (to qualify for CPO), then buy new tires so the dealership doesn't have to. If the car is going to need brakes or a service soon, see if the dealership will do it and this way BMW pays them for the warranty work (if they have to replace the brakes under CPO, then it costs them money). Good luck & keep us posted. Just so you don't think I'm pulling a rabbit out of my hat... We turned in an '07 X3 at the end of July. BMWs buyout was $26K & change. The dealer offered to sell me the truck for $21,600 + CPO + Tax. I turned them down, because I didn;t want a second car payment on a 3 years old 45K mile BMW.

Hey! I'm so glad I found this site. Reading this thread has been pretty helpful. I haven't made a deal on a car on my own ever (my ex always took the lead on this sort of stuff) and I could really use some help! Do you think this is a good offer? I have been in touch with four dealers and out of the two that have gotten back to me this is the lowest. I'm just afraid they smell my inexperience, kwim? 2011 X5 premium 36 months 12k miles per year Convenience pkg Cold weather pkg Technology pkg 3rd row seat MSRP $61,225 $1,239 due at signing (1st pmt plus mv fees) $879 per month (tax and bank fee are in the monthly payments) I have also been thinking about financing. I'm kind of scared to spend almost 30k on a lease and walk away with nothing at the end. I asked for some finance pricing today and the dealer is getting back to me. Does anyone have an opinion on this with regards to this specific car? Today I plan on researching what the car will be worth 5 years from now so I can try and figure out if financing would mean saving in the end. THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE!

... but, when it comes to trade-ins, auction values are all that matter.. Galves is just a published version of auction values.(as noted, it's a regional publication... mostly the Northeast). Most dealers use an on-line service, MMR.. Manheim Market Report.. Manheim is the biggest automobile auction company in the country. When you bring your trade in for appraisal, they pull up the numbers of recent sales (usually within the last week), and that's the real money they'll offer you for your car. If your car is an odd color, has a few extra miles, or is missing options normally found on that model, then they will start deducting. They don't care about KBB, Edmunds, NADA, or any other book or on-line value. (unless they are using it to inflate the value of one of their cars). As a consumer, knowing the MMR value for your car will let you know what you can really get for it. Most other numbers are pie in the sky. As far as this forum? We do a pretty good job weeding out the shills, though I'm certain we miss a few, now and then. Plus, salespeople are more than welcome to post, as long as they are on topic, and aren't posing as someone else (also, no solicitation, identification, etc, etc... okay, we don't make it easy for them). You can get great info from the Prices Paid forums, but you have to filter posts for real information, and disregard posts that don't include all the variables. That's no different than if your next door neighbor tells you he got a great deal. I joined Edmunds/CarSpace about 8 years ago, when I started shopping for my wife's BMW. It's all about getting info, and giving info back.. regards, kyfdx

I still don't buy it. You are still playing the dealer's and Galves' game. Knowing what some dealers pay for some lease returns does not paint the whole picture. Again, some are lease returns that go to the dealer (e.g. corporate leases). Some are trade ins. Some are loaners. There are too many non auction cars and too many other variables besides the auction rates. Again, I don't think it can hurt to know the auction rates, so again, in my view it is just one tool. And one that is not relevant in many areas of the country. I just think you need to do other research (e.g. this forum), bargain hard, and not believe a single word car dealers say. And look at Galves, KBB and TMV.

I don't buy that it is more accurate. Who sez? Dealers? Galves? This is what dealers claim when Galves supports them. When it doesn't they are not gonna care that you have read Galves. They will still come up with other ways to favor themselves. Apparently, dealers use the secret book to lowball trade ins. And they use it to boost price of used cars they got in either trade in or an auction. At best, having Galves is slightly useful if the dealer mentions it and then the buyer says "ah hah! you are lying." But if the buyer does not believe in the hype of Galves, then who cares what secret book the salesman has? Much more important than buying the secret book is reading this forum and finding out what other hard bargaining buyers are getting for they trade ins and what other buyers are giving up for used cars. Okay, so you are not in car sales. Galves sales?