Seeking advice on an odd situation with a pre-reg BMW car.

[shake n bake]

GP335i said:

Nah mate it's Estoril blue, probably the most common colour out there!

Fair enough, I thought that may have explained the long delay from build to reg. I wouldn't concern yourself though, it's still fully warranted, won't affect the future value and its still a deal you were happy with. Pre reg is always the smarter way to buy.

[daemon]

GroundEffect said:

Just sounds like you've been outwitted a bit. They've managed to get rid of an older-build car without actually lying to you. Ah well. You've paid a bit over the odds but I doubt there's anything you can do about it.

Now, go and enjoy your car!

+1

Its been older stock, probably sat in a showroom somewhere.

Wifes z4, bought in May 2012, had been built in Nov 2011 and there were some subtle differences

I bought an X5 in Nov 2007, just fresh into the showroom and a cancelled order, turned out it was an earlier MY car with the higher tax band and slightly heavier on fuel. Didnt really care as i'd got £5K off back at a time when they didnt really discount X5s much.

Those were both "brand new" cars, first registered to us, and neither was disclosed by the dealer.

[lostkiwi]

GP335i said:

Nah mate it's Estoril blue, probably the most common colour out there!

And that could be why....
If they did loads of Estoril Blue ones yours could have been the last of a batch, or maybe they didn't notice how long it had been there when it was allocated to you.
I doubt there is any kind of conspiracy.

As said elsewhere it was a new car (it had 16 miles on the clock FFS), had not been owned by anyone previous to you (aside from BMW) and you were happy with it at the time of purchase. Just deal with it and accept you got a decent discount at the time.
If you really want to be sure your car is straight from the factory spec it up with an option list that's going to be unique so they have to build to order.

Pre-building cars is very common. Smart made the Roadsters for only 2 years (finished production in 2005) but they were being registered as new in 2007. I think I've even seen a 2010 one once!

[Ares]

lostkiwi said:

GP335i said:

Nah mate it's Estoril blue, probably the most common colour out there!

And that could be why....
If they did loads of Estoril Blue ones yours could have been the last of a batch, or maybe they didn't notice how long it had been there when it was allocated to you.
I doubt there is any kind of conspiracy.

As said elsewhere it was a new car (it had 16 miles on the clock FFS), had not been owned by anyone previous to you (aside from BMW) and you were happy with it at the time of purchase. Just deal with it and accept you got a decent discount at the time.
If you really want to be sure your car is straight from the factory spec it up with an option list that's going to be unique so they have to build to order.

Pre-building cars is very common. Smart made the Roadsters for only 2 years (finished production in 2005) but they were being registered as new in 2007. I think I've even seen a 2010 one once!

Plus it will have been fully PDI'd and prep'd before delivery. The warranty runs from reg date, not build date. Aside from any minor MY differences, it makes no discernible difference.

[Dannbodge]

Silly question but did you not look under the bonnet?

Both my BMWs have had the build date on a sticker very clearly positioned in the engine bay.

[GP335i]

Bought/paid over the phone then delivered mate.

[EskimoArapaho]

GP335i said:

Bought/paid over the phone then delivered mate.

Blimey.

Er, do you want to buy a bridge?

[GP335i]

Haha nah! My thought at the time was what can go wrong, it's a 'new' car from a main dealer... I guess nothing has really, just a bit of a surprise.

[GrumpyV8]

Intrigued by all the 'chatter' I decided to have a look at the VIN on my Monaro. The Vauxhall VIN shows a build date of 2004 but a model reference to 2005. The Holden VIN (yes it has 2!) just refers to the model year of 2005.

It was registered in the UK in June 2006. I am not sure when General Motors imported them from Oz but I'm hoping it spent most of the intervening months in Australia!

[Buster73]

It'll be interesting to see if he mentions this when he eventually moves it on.

I'm sure being a fine upstanding person that he wouldn't dream of misleading any potential buyer.

[Royce44]

Once again, someone posts a topic asking for opinions. Then gets arsey when someone is not in agreement.

Im totally with 300bhp, you need to act your age

[jonwm]

I got my Leon as pre reg, registered May 2012 on a 12 plate, built June 2011, PDI'd into dealer in the February 2012, only issue was moldy sound deadening, (common on the MK2 anyway) all done under warranty and I got the car for £8k off list, 3 years later its never missed a beat, only realised as mine had the older sat nav then investigated :-)

[GP335i]

Buster73 said:

It'll be interesting to see if he mentions this when he eventually moves it on.

I'm sure being a fine upstanding person that he wouldn't dream of misleading any potential buyer.

Errr actually I will, hence why I've asked the dealer if they can tell me why it wasn't on the road for nearly a year and a half, makes you look a bit less dodgy if you have a reason why. Judging by a lot of replies in this thread people will check for these inconsistencies (as will I now...) so you need to have your story straight. I'll say right now hand on heart every car I've ever sold has been done so honestly, if everyone else did the same the world would be a better place.

[shake n bake]

5 years selling all sorts of new and used cars and nobody has ever asked for the build date.
Can you guess why? Even the mighty parkers guide doesn't ask the muppets that buy that bog roll to ask the build date!

[Jader1973]

There is always the possibilty it got damaged in transit, took a while to fix, original order got cancelled, so it sat in BMW stock and then got forced on a dealer.

There is no way a dealer would keep a car for 16 months - they own it, so it costs them money if it doesn't move. They'd have moved it on as soon as they could. If they'd had it come facelift time it would have been discounted immediately to shift it.

[037]

I think BMW recently auctioned some vehicles that have been lying around without any owners. I believe these were cars used for photo shoots!
Can see the OPs grievance
Bring back the cars dealers thread!

[Wills2]

My M5 was register in March 2015 but built May 2014 I didn't know and it meant it didn't have the sport dials which I wanted, but I should have made sure of that. So I just chalked it up to experience.

Edited by Wills2 on Wednesday 2nd September 14:52

[GP335i]

Checked iDrive last night, all the servicing dates are from February 2014, first oil
change due in 6 months apparently!!

[V8A*ndy]

GP335i said:

Checked iDrive last night, all the servicing dates are from February 2014, first oil
change due in 6 months apparently!!

Well that was going to be my next question. Your brake fluid will be needing a change soon to.

anyways how long ago did you buy the car?

Distant selling regulations????

[ralphrj]

Jader1973 said:

There is no way a dealer would keep a car for 16 months - they own it, so it costs them money if it doesn't move.

Maybe - unregistered vehicles are on consignment so usually remain the property of the manufacturer until they are sold. However, there will be some upper limit to the time a vehicle can remain on consignment which varies by brand. I suspect that the OP's car was pre-registered at the point this limit was reached.