Dealers in the NOVA/DC Area & Buying tips

5% over dealer invoice is fair...unless you can get it at invoice

The general consensus is that BMW of Sterling is the best dealer in the area. BMW of Fairfax is not bad, either.

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT GO TO VOB!!! Their sales team is quite decent, but they have a horrible service department. And they just promoted my service advisor from hell to service manager.

I bought my ///M at Passport BMW. I would recommend anyone to buy from there. Ask for Dave Myers and tell him Max referred you.

BMW of Sterling. their dealership is nuff said.... once you walk in.. its almost heaven

I told you Fritz, BMW of Sterling is the place to be if you can't buy from BMW of Charlottesville.
By the way, I got my M3 just below invoice so I think invoice on a 3 series is pretty fair. Just need to haggle for all the dealer installed options.

Nick

STAY way from BMW of Arlington... my girlfriend bought two BMWs from this last year (one for her and one for her sister). They paid way too much and were treated like crap after they got their money for the cars... stay away.... Sterling is supposed to be excellent.

took mine to VOB for service as well.. they shipped the car to an upholstry shop to install a faulty door seal and scratched the inside of the windshield in the process. i still can't figure out why they sent the car out to replace the rubber door seal.

VOB also scratched the front bumper cover while in their possession. couldn't believe it !

they eventually agreed to replace the windshield and repaired the bumper; the experience was awful. they're currently constructing a new showroom; i believe the old place will be for service only. maybe the new facility will help...

Sterling is excellent, the best and easiest buying experience to date. Gave me a free detailing after winter and gift certificate to parts department as a thank you, plus noone even came close to the deal I got!
:thumbup:

Ask for Carl, good guy!

I posted this in another thread once before, but...

I dealt with Jim Cottom at Sterling when I ordered my 325 and got 1600 over invoice. He was totally cool and returned all my calls.

I kind of had him pinned down on price due to the fact that I had the invoice prices for everything, and my employer has a no haggle pricing stucture worked out with BMWUSA. I also paid in cash, so I could likely have talked the price down a bit.

FYI, Sterling will charge you $200 for advertising costs, which seems to be standard practice in DC, NY and Florida, but still seems like a racket to me. Also, there will be a $198 filing fee that can't be avoided (it's printed on the paper work, not written in ).

I haven't had a service call yet, so I can't help there.

did i forget to mention that BMW of Sterling wont void your warranty for a stupid intake or something.... i took my car into service plenty of times during my warranty period and... as you can see from my sig picture... its far from stock.

Go with Sterling

Call Sterling and ask for Carl I got my 325Ci for 1200 over invoice...no joke..if you don't believe me I have the paperwork!!!


I got a silver 325Ci with PP, Heated Seats, Sport Package and Leather...

I will commend BMW of Sterling for their service absolutely!!! However when I was in the market for my ///M3, they tried to charge me $10K over sticker (March 2002). That was also the case with Fairfax and Arlington. BMW of Arlington wanted to charge me $10K over sticker of a new one for a used ///M3. Passport was the only one that was not going to gouge me, but did everything they can to find me my car. Best part, they found my car within a week.

Best thing I can tell you is to do your research. Call the different dealership and tell them what you are looking for. Call each contact that is listed here and reference each person recommending them and judge for yourself.

YES STAY AWAY FROM ARLINGTON!

They treated me like crap and I didn't even buy a car from them. I went to look at cars and no one would help. In fact when I went into the showroom, ALL not one or two but ALL of the sales people scrambled like cockroaches into their offices. They seriously profile their customers. I had to demand a test drive from them. Then I started to ask about price and the sames man before I could even get into it said "Well wait, let me just tell you one thing, WE DON'T NEGOTIATE. OUR price is msrp." I was like ok, FU BIATCH's and went to Passport in Maryland and got 3.5 percent over invoices. Let me tell you also BMW of Arlington's service department SUCKS.

timexp99 said:

STAY way from BMW of Arlington... my girlfriend bought two BMWs from this last year (one for her and one for her sister). They paid way too much and were treated like crap after they got their money for the cars... stay away.... Sterling is supposed to be excellent.

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I bought mine at BMW of Arlington from Richard Eidman, nicest guy he will take care you really well.....ive had nothing but good experiences at the service dept they have always taken care of me....I think my service guy is Warren....every other dealer ive been to they treated me like typical BMW $(@(*#U

huyner328 said:

BMW of Sterling. their dealership is nuff said.... once you walk in.. its almost heaven

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I didn't buy at BWM of Sterling, but I'd agree that is is heaven, which is exaclty why I wouln't thik of buying there. Somebody has to pay for the marble floors, leather furniture, baby grand piano, etc. In addition to the non-warranty service suckers like me, they've got to be making a load off of the sales customers, too to pay for all that.

But if you can get a deal, good on ya'....

AlpTanin330Ci said:

took mine to VOB for service as well.. they shipped the car to an upholstry shop to install a faulty door seal and scratched the inside of the windshield in the process. i still can't figure out why they sent the car out to replace the rubber door seal.

VOB also scratched the front bumper cover while in their possession. couldn't believe it !

they eventually agreed to replace the windshield and repaired the bumper; the experience was awful. they're currently constructing a new showroom; i believe the old place will be for service only. maybe the new facility will help...

Click to expand...

Purchased my car at VOB. Went in for routine oil change, if they have to keep your car over night, they give you a free rental. Only problem is, I brought my rental back the very next day (Friday) and Enterprise rent a car tried to charge me for having the car for the entire weekend. It took a month for them to take the charge off my credit card. Bast*rds! Other than that, I haven't had to bring my car in for anything, it only has about 17K miles on it.