Brecht BMW

Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
My initial experiences with this dealership were positive, so when both of my Mini's needed servicing, I scheduled the appointments back to back with Brecht's service shop. My new Mini had less than 4,000 miles and the water pump was going bad. I took it in for a 7:00 a.m. appointment, but they did not even look at it until 11:30 a.m. and never had the courtesy to let me know the status, even though I was waiting in the customer lounge. I had to seek Brian out just to find out (and over hear) that the car would not be looked at until 11:30 a.m. I did not get a call about the status until 3:00 p.m. when they told me I could pick it up, but I had to get there by 4:00 p.m. Seeing that I live about an hour away, it was cutting it close, but I tried to get down there. Half way to the dealership on the I-15, there was a fatality accident and I called to let Brian know I would be late. Brian did not try to make any accomodation to allow me to pick up the car, even though I was half-way there. I had to turn around once the traffic cleared up for a total waste of time and gas. Two days later I took my second Mini in for brake pads and a look at my clutch. When I explained the problem with the clutch, I was promptly informed by Brian Sanford in an accusatory manner that any evidence of customer neglect/abuse would not be honored under warranty. Of course, that is understood, but since I take very good care of my Mini, his accusation was unnecessary and offensive, especially since I have regularly taken my car in to Brecht for servicing. If they were to find evidence of customer neglect/abuse, then they should bring this up. Not only did I have to hear this "speech" when I dropped it off, but later over the phone twice, again to me and once to my spouse. They determined it was the cable and said they would call me back the next morning after they test drove it. We never got the call back. We had to call several times the next day to find out the status, but it wasn't ready to pick up for another day. In all, I dropped off the car on a Tuesday, and it wasn't finished until Thursday afternoon. If it wasn't for our constant checking about the car's status, I don't know if it would have been ready even then. After they had told my spouse it was the cable, they later came back and said that the clutch cylinder was leaking. We asked for the old parts, but we were not provided with the parts, and after waiting for an hour, I left. No one ever acknowledged their lack of responsiveness or apologized for the accusations about customer neglect/abuse regarding the clutch. I provided my negative feedback on their customer service survey and I received a call on my home answering machine from Brian, when I had indicated that I should be contacted by cell phone. I eventually spoke with James Baumer, the Service Manager. He was completely uninterested in what I had to say and unaccountable for the actions of the service team. My "Brecht Mini experience" would have offended any reasonable person.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I took my car in for an oil change, and because it was pulling to the right. I was told the reason the car was pulling to the right was that the ball joint had gone bad, and needed to be replaced for $750, even though the car only had 41,000 miles. I asked the service advisor if the ball joint could be tightened, and he told me that ball joints could not ever be tightened. When I got home I turned the bolt on the ball joint 2 turns, and the car no longer pulled to the right. By the time I got home from the dealer the car had lost 1 quart of oil from the oil filter seal. When the dealer changed the oil, they either used the old oil seal or cut the new seal when they put the oil filer on. When they finished the oil change, they didn't take the time to run the car and check for oil leaks.

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Reason for Visit: Sales (Used)

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
They dont operate like a BMW dealership or maybe its just a California thing not make you feel welcome, Also i wouldnt recommend buying a BMW certified car from them, they seem to me too laid back and unwilling to serve the customer, they give you an impression that they are doing you a favor by selling you a BMW rather then the other way round, i looked at a so-called gently used bmw certified vehicle and it seemed a lot older and beat up then it should be.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I have a 2004 330XI that is well maintained and in very good condition with all recomended services performed. About six months ago my A/C began to act funny, ie - blow hot air out of one vent and cold air out of the others. I took it to Brecht 4 times to try to solve the problem and each time a Brecht service writer said "oh . . we know what that is" and made repairs and charged me for the repairs and each time when I drove away the problem was still there. When I complained to the service manager James Baumer he was unproffesional and rude to me, and refused to take any responsibility for the fact that they had charged me lots of money for repairs that were not required, and yet made anyway but did not solve the problem. I was shocked that the "best engineered car in the world" was willing to allow a problem go unchecked.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I wonder why there is no choice for a ZERO rating for a dealer like Brecht.

I took my car for few repairs and a strange issue of black soot like deposits on my pepper white mini. The service advisor told me that they will contact a sales engineer from Mini customer relations and will get back to me. In the mean time they will just clean the car thoroughly to get those deposits off and asked me to drive it and see if the deposits come back.

1. The deposits didn't even come off completely,
2. They did come back within 15 days.
3.

When I went to pick up the car, I noticed that while cleaning the car, they also made scratches on the driver side door (which is what I was afraid of given the stubborn deposits) and the service advisor agreed to the scratches which were not on the car before Brecht cleaned it. She said I should go ahead and drive it and come back to them for a pending issue of tire replacement which is when they will take care of everything at the same time. Also, they would have heard back from the Mini Sales Engineer by then.


Note that they dont give you a loaner if you didnt buy your car from them. I do understand that providing a loaner is a courtesy service from the dealer and therefore, I asked them is there a way I can get Brecht to be my primary dealer since Brecht is my only option for the closest dealership in the San Diego area. I also told them that I did want to buy my car in the first place from Brecht but that time they were not selling convertibles (only hard tops) and that's why I had to go to another dealer. The service advisor told me if I keep coming to them, I will get the loaner previlages. Brecht is itself about 40 miles from the metro city and the closest car rental which is enterprise is swamped due to lack of staff as well as cars. Had already wasted two hours at that car rental during this visit.

So, when the paint deposits came back and when the few issues which Brecht fixed during my first visit also came back (service engine light, gas cap light, coolant leak, brake pads), I went back to Brecht after a long wait for a loaner (month and a half). They said they still haven't heard from the Mini customer relations and this time all they did was take pictures of those deposits and said they will call me in a week. I had other service issues in addition to the above, such as bad regulator for window glasses and yet another thing that Brecht had already fixed earlier for me regarding the compressor. The service advisor assigned to me - Brian, didn't wait for me to tell him what services are required and just called the body shop specialist and dissed me for another customer without a word. I kept waiting for him after talking to the body shop specialist. When I finally found him inside, he didn't even bother to acknowledge that he is supposed to clear me first before just going about his other business but just said, "I will tell you what, why don't you bring your car back once we have heard back from Mini customer relations and we can take care of all the issues at the same time." wasted yet another two hours and gallons of gas to hear this. I didn't get any call from Brecht as they had promised, so I called Brian after 3 weeks, and he said yes we have actually heard from the mini customer assistance and they have said they cant do anything about it. I just have to keep cleaning my car. I reminded him about what happened when they cleaned my car earlier, made scratches and thats what will continue to happen more and more, besides Brecht still has to fix those scratches for me regardless, and he said at this point I will just have to talk to Mini customer relations.

So I called Mini customer relations and they told me that they will contact the service Manager at Brecht mini and get back to me. The service Manager James Baumer told Mini that he would be happy to look at my car and work with me on the paint issue but at MY cost. Mini customer relations clarified to me that since the deposits are not seen as paint defect, it won't be covered under warranty. I asked them about the scratches that resulted from the dealer trying to get rid of the deposits has made on my car while cleaning it and they said they will make sure to call the dealership and speak to them about it again.

I get a call back from Mini in 24 hours and they said that James Baumer - Brecht Mini service manager will call me on this. When James called me, I explained to him the scratches issue, told him that his service advisors Stacey and the Body shop specialist Ralf have acknowledged that these scratches are due to cleaning, but all I heard from James was that he would like me to set up an appointment to bring my car in so he can look at it. He won't guarantee fixing any scratches and won't be able to provide me a loaner. I told him I don't see a point in driving all the way there for him to just tell me they can't do anything about it. I asked him to

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Reason for Visit: Sales (Used)

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I went to buy a certified car that they told me was very clean and in great shape. When I got there, after driving 2 hours, I found out the car had a ton of damage. The paint was in horrible shape, the door handle on the driver's side was broken, the cup holder popped off when I pushed it and one of the headlights was in really bad shape. The Sales manager took no responsibility and told me that "apparently we don't have a deal." be careful when dealing with this dealership.

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Reason for Visit: Service

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Customer service is awful. The service department takes no responsibility for anything that they do wrong. We were delivered a car with damage and when the service dept was to fix the damage it took 10 days longer than we were told. They did not apologize and we were not compensated at all. We were also given a loaner car that broke down and they did not help us get a new car or give any assistance to us the day it broke down on the freeway. In fact, they even charged our credit card for gas without our consent.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
Don't use BMW financial for your financing needs. They are the most unprofessional company I have ever dealt with. The folks at Brecht did not help at all with my issues. Very arrogant!
I financed a part of my recent purchase though BMW financial, signed up for auto debit for my monthly payment. BMW kept calling me telling me that my bank account was closed...it isn't. I repeatedly gave them the account info every day when they called and was still told that the account was closed. Every day I got calls saying that my payment was late, sometimes twice a day! Terrible customer service and folow-up. Brecht management wouldn't do anything to help. I never got a return call from BMW Financial after repeated messages left. All in all a very stressful experience.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I was looking at the new 1 series BMW cars i was told by the manager Mike Lewis in a derogatory way : “Maybe BMW is not a car for you; maybe a Mini is more for you.

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Reason for Visit: Sales

I recommend this dealer: No

My Review of Brecht BMW:
I took my car to Brecht BMW (closest dealership to my house). I was met by Mike (Sales Associate). He refused to take the car back. He wouldn't give me a reason other than I didn't buy the car from them. I continued to push telling them that I was told by the lender used by Brecht and the dealer I did purchase my car with, that I was doing everything I was told to do by the lender. I was told that I could take it anywhere / anytime and that if I didn't turn it in that day I would be fined. I was told that the process was simple and that I could wait until the last day no problem (I checked with the lender on two seperate ocassions before I turned it in). I also explained to Mike that I lived and worked 45 miles away. The only reason I waited until the last day was because I was trying to sell the car since and had a buyer looking at it that afternoon. I had put $6k down and the blue book was higher then the buyout amount. I was hoping to re-coup some of my down payment. Mike still refused to help me.

All the dealers first question, is always were did you buy the car? That is how they determine what level of treatment you are going to receive. I continued to question why they wouldn't sign the mileage verification form, since I knew it was something they could do. I tried to explain to them all the problems I had in the past, hoping this would make them realize they could provide some good customer care (for BMW as a whole since they do represent the BMW name) and retain me as a customer. Mike (Sales Manager) then came out -- he said my sales associate has already told you we are not taking the car back, leave or I will call the police. I then said, I couldn't believe he was not willing to help me. I said that when I owned my VW in college, they seemed more concerned with treating their customers well then he did. He said, "I should go back to VW because I don't deserve to own a BMW." I asked his name and he THREW his card at me. His threats scared my children. We all left in tears.

The next day my brother and his business partner came to retrieve the car. They again were met with hostility and lack of customer care this time by the GM (it is apparent that poor customer service comes from the top down). If the GM doesn't care about his customers then why would the sales staff? My brother picked up the car, drove it across the street to the Mercedes dealership and they took it, no questions asked. The whole turn in process at Mercedes took literally 3 minutes. Why could Mercedes take back a BMW lease while BMW couldn't/wouldn't??? This doesn't make sense.

During this whole situation, no one at Brecht has ever apologized for treating me so poorly and still to this day no one has given me any reason why the car was not accepted. Brecht even lists "Authorized Lease Turn in Facility" on the front page of their website.

I will say though, my husband has been in contact (for his BMW) with the financial group & has talked to a financial manager there that has apologized and gone out of his way to help us out! He said we should have never been treated like that and he is embarassed any dealer would treat a customer that way -- no matter what the circumstances.

I know all dealers are not bad; but Brecht has an attitude that we as customers are lucky to own a BMW versus they are lucky to have us as customers.

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