Courtesy delivery question - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

Boxer · 26th October 2001, 05:31

I'm a long time lurker -- just about a year or just a touch longer than I've been on the M5 waiting list -- but this is a first post for me...

So the first thing I should say is thanks for all the great educational value I have received by reading here...MSRP, courtesy delivery, clutch issues, extended service/warranty, V1 installs, managing your dealer, ship tracking, etc. etc....the list is long indeed. Thanks!

Now to my question: having learned of out of state purchase and courtesy delivery locally, that's what I have done. My question is logisitical with respect to "the money." How do people generally arrange to manage the interlock between getting the out-of-town dealer the payment and getting the car from the local dealer??

In my case the "local" dealer is ~120 miles away. The out-of-town dealer I am buying from tells me today that he wants me to send him funds before he will tell the local dealership to release the car to me. That might be ok but I would prefer to inspect the car before I hand over the dough. Of course I'd prefer not to have to make multiple 240 mile trips (go and inspect -> go home and transfer money -> go back and retrieve beast). Multiple trips would be a faff not to mention infinitely frustrating!!

How do people that have done courtesy delivery solve this kind of thing?? Hoping that some of you might have good simple answers that don't involve escrow companies or lots of elapsed time.

Thanks in advance for any advice. Oh and my WW37 build car arrived at the dealer yesterday so figuring this out suddenly became terribly important to me...imagine that!

Bart Carter · 26th October 2001, 07:00

Why not ask if the local dealer can accept the payment for the selling dealer?

atomic80 · 26th October 2001, 07:50

Looks like we've got another Lemans on the board here! Welcome aboard boxer.

This is exactly the kind of issues I hoped to avoid by going with my local dealership as far as buying the M5 goes. I didn't want to have to deal with out of state issues nor did I want to have to hassle myself with the funds exchanging process.

One thing I could do for you is to maybe pick you up and take you to this "out of town" dealership...I'd be more than happy to help a fellow "prospective" M5'er. I'm in the Bellevue area if that helps any....email me at jgtang@seanet.com and we could discuss that.

Jason

Boxer · 26th October 2001, 09:08

Bart:

That's what I was originally expecting based on what the out-of-town folks had told me. However, the local guys don't want to (read: won't) touch the other guys' money and thus be responsible for it for even a moment; hence the last minute surprise for me to handle today [sigh].

Jason:

Thanks for the offer! If I really get stuck doing the yo-yo thing, I'll be sure to keep that in mind.

JFB · 26th October 2001, 16:34

Boxer

Welcome aboard.

I bought mine in August through a dealer in IL and wanted a courtesy delivery to a dealer in TX. The dealership in IL would not agree to accommodate me.

See this thread.

chunpng · 26th October 2001, 19:33

Hi Mark,

Assuming you pay cash, one possibility is to work with your bank on a wire transfer. If your local bank also has a branch where the local (120 miles?) dealer is at, you can go there and authorize the wire transfer to the selling dealer's bank. Of course all these after you are happy with your test drive/inspection etc. All you need ahead of time is the selling dealer's bank, account #, and routing number.

Wire transfer can be instantaneous. The selling dealer can get confirmation of funds receipt from their bank with a phone call. Then call your local dealer to release the car. The trick is that you have to pick up your car on a weekday. It may be hard to find 2 banks both working on a Saturday.

Never on Sunday!

CP

JFB · 26th October 2001, 19:54

I don't think the cash-handling procedures were at the root of my selling dealer's reluctance to coordinate a courtesy delivery. I think it was more a matter of not wanting to share part of the profit on the sale with the receiving dealership.

Boxer · 26th October 2001, 23:49

oops -- sorry fumble-fingers double post

Boxer · 27th October 2001, 00:05

CP:

Hmm time to talk to my bank...there are definitely branches near the target...that might be a plan since it seems the local dealer isn't going to finish prepping the car until Monday so I may well be making the trip on a weekday now.

Jim:

My problem is not getting these dealers to agree to do a courtesy delivery: that's already agreed. Just trying to fine tune the logistics here. But you are right, it took a little persuasion on my part to get the out-of-town dealer to agree in the first place and leverage from previous relationships with the local dealer to get them to play so it wasn't a slam dunk at all.