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      03-03-2013, 09:01 AM   #1
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It’s the little things..

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So I swapped my 12’ 328i for a 13’ 335i recently.

Noticing some build differences, which may be a MY thing or model thing.


I mentioned them to my dealer, and he said they had to do with it being a 335i (he claimed BMW puts a little more into it than just the engine)

First thing he said was the doors close differently! I didn’t believe him, but the 335i doors did seem to feel..heavier...due to the hinges used not the actual door.


Regardless, if its true or not, I don’t care.

One thing I was happy about was the lining of my sunroof exterior. On my 328i, when I wiped over the sunroof while washing the car or drying it, there was this “felt” material around the brim of the sunroof, which would catch lint and dust off the towel and was impossible to clean.

On the 13’ 335i the rim of the sunroof is a hard rubber, no felt.

Just wanted to share an observation
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      03-03-2013, 09:29 AM   #2
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The doors is a 12 vs 13 thing, not a 335 vs 328 thing.
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      03-03-2013, 09:53 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamesons Viggen View Post
The doors is a 12 vs 13 thing, not a 335 vs 328 thing.
I figured.
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      03-03-2013, 10:15 AM   #4
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As is the sunroof surround.
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      03-03-2013, 02:39 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWforLife View Post
On the 13’ 335i the rim of the sunroof is a hard rubber, no felt.
On my (end of) August '12 built (a '13 my build if I'm not mistaken) 328i, it has the rubber sunroof surround.
My 328i doors close with a solid but muted sound, thanks to the thick rubber surrounds.

Compare a '12 328i with a '13 328i for best results.
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      03-03-2013, 06:11 PM   #6
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Interesting that the salesmen would tell me these differences were based on the model, I already had bought the car !

Thanks for fulfilling the curiosity!
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      03-03-2013, 06:29 PM   #7
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The CA's typically do not know much about the cars they sell, due to the huge turnover in that profession. At the beginning of an Activehybrid 3 test drive, I pressed the start button and since the engine failed to start, the CA said press it again. FAIL. haha
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      03-03-2013, 06:41 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWforLife
Interesting that the salesmen would tell me these differences were based on the model, I already had bought the car !

Thanks for fulfilling the curiosity!
After 13yrs in car sales I can tell you that many salespeople who don't have an answer for your question will pull something directly out of their ass rather than find out what the actual answer really is. Conversely, many customers ask questions they really don't care to know the answers to as evidenced by their accepting answers such as this w/o delving further into said answer
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      03-03-2013, 07:17 PM   #9
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Desertsmoke-can you shed light onto why in the world a bmw salesperson does not know every darn thing about these cars if this is what they do day in and day out? From simply being a bmw fan over the years, I know every feature of every model for the last few model years let alone the current models they are selling! There are relatively few models compared to mercedes for example but even so this is their job. What else do they spend time doing? THey are always sitting around when I am there so its not like they are moving non-stop. I also wonder because each series has 80 percent of the same features to some degree and how you don't know this is shocking.

Boggles my mind
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      03-03-2013, 07:41 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by M3takesNYC View Post
Desertsmoke-can you shed light onto why in the world a bmw salesperson does not know every darn thing about these cars if this is what they do day in and day out? From simply being a bmw fan over the years, I know every feature of every model for the last few model years let alone the current models they are selling! There are relatively few models compared to mercedes for example but even so this is their job. What else do they spend time doing? THey are always sitting around when I am there so its not like they are moving non-stop. I also wonder because each series has 80 percent of the same features to some degree and how you don't know this is shocking.

Boggles my mind
I thought you said the other day you drove the F30 for a day before you realized the different driving modes were via button?

BMW is not that unique. I have bought 30 cars over the years, all makes. The salesman 9x out if 10 had shockingly low intimate knowledge of the products they were selling.
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      03-03-2013, 07:56 PM   #11
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I don't care who they are, nobody can know every detail or feature about every BMW model currently sold.

One question of mine that comes to mind is how much weight does it take to activate and arm the front passenger airbag in an F30?

Nevertheless, the worst thing any sales person can do when asked a question is outright lie or BS if he doesn't know the answer. He should tell the client that he doesn't know or is not sure, but will find out for him and follow up immediately, then do so. This will not only foster respect for honesty, but will also demonstrate a willingness to give great service.
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      03-03-2013, 09:52 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Frzdrdhppy View Post
I don't care who they are, nobody can know every detail or feature about every BMW model currently sold.
Even before delivery, I was teaching my sales guy a thing or two (more actually) about the F30. I also learnt from him.
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      03-03-2013, 09:55 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWforLife View Post
Interesting that the salesmen would tell me these differences were based on the model, I already had bought the car !
Worse is when the service guy tells the owner the 'fault' is not a fault, it's normal. Now that's just plain sick. I have read too many posts about 'normal' from the service guy on this forum.
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      03-03-2013, 11:10 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David328M-Sport View Post
Even before delivery, I was teaching my sales guy a thing or two (more actually) about the F30. I also learnt from him.
+1
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      03-04-2013, 10:22 AM   #15
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ditto

I have only ever leased cars, so I have driven quite a few new cars off of the lot. I have always been amazed at how little the sales staff actually knows about the car. It is rare that I cannot tell the sales person something about the car that they didn't know. From Acura to Infiniti to Audi to BMW. I would give Mercedes credit, as my sales person their was quite knowledgeable from packages to options to pricing.

So back to BMW... What percentage of BMW sales are the 3-series? And why wouldn't you know the packages/options/specs inside and out from year to year and even month to month if you were a BMW sales person? I don't know. One would think that they would be continuously upselling and describing various options and differences - 328 to 335 to M3 for example.

It seems to me that they focus on their inventory and therefore shy away from discussing the thousands of different options and combinations available in order to focus on the cars they have on the lot rather than to get bogged down with a customer placing an order for a vehicle with a 2 month plus wait. It makes sense.

Maybe given that the cars are BMW's and therefore drive/feel/look awesome they figure the car will sell itself anyway... Why waste the time? Might as well just check the sports page. Like selling iphones, customers are going to buy them, just focus on ringing them up!
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      03-04-2013, 10:43 AM   #16
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my sales rep knew a lot...but my dealer is apparently #4 in the country, so I would imagine they have a thorough sales program. She's worked at BMW for 15 years, so that helps too...
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      03-04-2013, 11:42 AM   #17
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Just remember, auto salespeople are not auto enthusiasts. To them, it's just something that pays the bills.

I totally zone out the salesperson whenever he sits next to me during a test drive. All I hear is "gab, gab, gab, gab..."
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      03-04-2013, 12:29 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeyO View Post
Just remember, auto salespeople are not auto enthusiasts. To them, it's just something that pays the bills.

I totally zone out the salesperson whenever he sits next to me during a test drive. All I hear is "gab, gab, gab, gab..."
Correct. Their job is to sell cars and that doesn't typically translate into knowledge about all the little things we sweat over here on the forums.
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      03-05-2013, 03:50 PM   #19
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Correct. Their job is to sell cars and that doesn't typically translate into knowledge about all the little things we sweat over here on the forums.
Essentially they are idiots who make money. If I ever meet a salesman who doesn't know his own product...

And BMW doesn't have that many models. 1-3-soon to be 4-5-6-7-X1/3/5/6, M series. How many individual models? Not that many. it's not that much to know...and it's all they do.

Sounds like a politician...
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      03-05-2013, 04:08 PM   #20
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zenmaster View Post
The CA's typically do not know much about the cars they sell, due to the huge turnover in that profession. At the beginning of an Activehybrid 3 test drive, I pressed the start button and since the engine failed to start, the CA said press it again. FAIL. haha
Yep - when I bought my 335 M (with summer tires) in December, the CA said, it's fine with the all wheel drive....seriously!
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      03-05-2013, 05:35 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWforLife View Post
Interesting that the salesmen would tell me these differences were based on the model, I already had bought the car !

Thanks for fulfilling the curiosity!
I am also a BMW CA and have been selling cars for 17 years 10 of which have been BMW and Audi. In that guys case I doubt he tried to intentionally give you the wrong info. For what ever reason he probably heard that from someone else and just recycled it. It made sense to him so he is rolling with it. As DesertSmokeBBQ mentioned there is typically high amounts of turn over in the car business and many don't take it as seriously as they should. It is actually more rare than you think to be a car salesman and a enthusiast. I happen to be both and pride myself in my knowledge of my brand however, there some small tweaks that BMW makes as the years roll that they don't make any real effort to let us know about. for example the door hinges.
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      03-05-2013, 06:49 PM   #22
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Boosted John View Post
I am also a BMW CA and have been selling cars for 17 years 10 of which have been BMW and Audi. In that guys case I doubt he tried to intentionally give you the wrong info. For what ever reason he probably heard that from someone else and just recycled it. It made sense to him so he is rolling with it. As DesertSmokeBBQ mentioned there is typically high amounts of turn over in the car business and many don't take it as seriously as they should. It is actually more rare than you think to be a car salesman and a enthusiast. I happen to be both and pride myself in my knowledge of my brand however, there some small tweaks that BMW makes as the years roll that they don't make any real effort to let us know about. for example the door hinges.
I concur, most car salesmen are in it to make money and unfortunately don't know the intimate details about the cars they're selling. I think they really focus on the inventory and not what you could order, therefore they don't bother knowing what all the bells and whistles actually are/do.

They also tend to spill information as it's fact when it's not. That probably annoys me the most. Misinforming me just to get past my question is infuriating, especially because I tend to know the answer before I ask. Telling me "that's not an option" when it is or explaining how some technology works when I know that's not how it works makes me want to walk away.

I loved the audi guy I started my car search with who told me he didnt understand why people expected below MSRP on a S4, it just wasn't done. When I said I could get it for x price at another dealer 300 miles away, he was upset and said that his dealership loses money when people buy cars at another dealership then have them serviced there... I wont even go into the MB online salesman who ordered a car for me to test (apparently they don't stock C350s here) and someone else sold it before they even told me they got it in.

I think they just don't care and are making money selling their inventory so customer service is a waste of their time. Well until you fill out their customer satisfaction form and they want you to put the highest score on each and every option. My BMW CA didn't offer me a test drive but wanted me to say he offered it to me so he could get the max score. His logic was that he could tell I didn't need one because I didn't ask.

I could go on and on..
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