Previous owner of a potential purchase

[webwysard]

There is an M5 I'm intrested in but the dealership isn't very helpful with regards to warranty work details and say they can only request that information from the dealership which did the warranty work.

I've asked BMW UK about any warranty claims and they say that any dealership would be able to find that out and if I call the dealership who carried out the warranty work they would be able to help, as they dont have access to such information but they have told me the name of the dealership where the cars been for either service or warranty work so hopefully i would be able to find that out

The other important bit I would like to know is who owned the car ? its a one owner car and the dealership has only said that it was a BMW UK car. I've just googled the reg number and it came up as it was auctioned on the 12th May at BCA Birmingham.

Does BMW UK being owner means it was used as a press car or demostrator ? but in that case why they kept hold of the car as it was registered in March 2014, as normally they sell demo/press car after few months and not after 3 years, unles dealership is lying about the number of previous owners.

Any pointers/advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

Edited by webwysard on Tuesday 30th May 02:18

[Smuler]

webwysard said:

There is an M5 I'm intrested in but the dealership isn't very helpful with regards to warranty work details and say they can only request that information from the dealership which did the warranty work.

I've asked BMW UK about any warranty claims and they say that any dealership would be able to find that out and if I call the dealership who carried out the warranty work they would be able to help, as they dont have access to such information but they have told me the name of the dealership where the cars been for either service or warranty work so hopefully i would be able to find that out

The other important bit I would like to know is who owned the car ? its a one owner car and the dealership has only said that it was a BMW UK car. I've just googled the reg number and it came up as it was auctioned on the 12th May at BCA Birmingham.

Does BMW UK being owner means it was used as a press car or demostrator ? but in that case why they kept hold of the car as it was registered in March 2014, as normally they sell demo/press car after few months and not after 3 years, unles dealership is lying about the number of previous owners.

Any pointers/advice is much appreciated.

Thanks

Edited by webwysard on Tuesday 30th May 02:18

What C/Services say is correct, the dealership who did the work can tell you the work done. My attitude is that I expect the selling dealer, who is potentially taking my hard earned cash to give me the papertrail I want or Foxtrott Oscar off, I'll but elsewhere. I've found most dealers pretty helpful tho.
BMW UK as owner could mean it's a manager's car/company car and therefore owned for a long period of time, unlike, as you say, a demo.

If test driving ask to see V5 and /or HPI check.

[ds666]

Why are you worried about what warranty work it may or may not have had ?

[AOK]

The car would have just come off a 36 month finance agreement with BMW Financial Services.

They send all their return cars through "BMW Group Open" auctions which is where the group buyers go to buy stock among independent dealers and members of the public.

The V5 will often have the name of the driver/agreement holder and then "c/o BMW Group" as the first line of the address.

Usual stuff... I wouldn't worry about this, or about any warranty work that has or hasn't been done. What's important is that it is being sold to YOU with a warranty.

[webwysard]

ds666 said:

Why are you worried about what warranty work it may or may not have had ?

What If the car's been to the dealership few times in previous ownership for numerous issues or same issue and it hasn't been resolved ?

My one month old 2 series GT recovered to the dealership 3 times for heating issues and each time it was in for atleast a week.

I hope I've answed you question ?

[webwysard]

AOK said:

The car would have just come off a 36 month finance agreement with BMW Financial Services.

They send all their return cars through "BMW Group Open" auctions which is where the group buyers go to buy stock among independent dealers and members of the public.

The V5 will often have the name of the driver/agreement holder and then "c/o BMW Group" as the first line of the address.

Usual stuff... I wouldn't worry about this, or about any warranty work that has or hasn't been done. What's important is that it is being sold to YOU with a warranty.

I know it will be sold with a warranty but i dont think anyone would want to stuck with a car which has a history of recurring issue.
There are numerous examples where people end up with a car which spend more time in dealership than on the road.

Atleast knowing the history I will make an informed decision.

Edited by webwysard on Tuesday 30th May 21:04

[webwysard]

AOK said:

The car would have just come off a 36 month finance agreement with BMW Financial Services.

They send all their return cars through "BMW Group Open" auctions which is where the group buyers go to buy stock among independent dealers and members of the public.

The V5 will often have the name of the driver/agreement holder and then "c/o BMW Group" as the first line of the address.

So only if a car comes off finance agreement and goes back to BMW thats when it shows BMW being the last owner on V5 ? and not when its traded in for another car ?

[Smuler]

FWIW, OP, I agree with you about history / such as warranty work.

was very close to buying an approved used 335i and the honest dealer looked into history ; and gave it to me.

It had a litany of issues, 7 in 2 years. I've always believed that past performance indicating future performance so declined it and went for one with no significant work at all needed, it was almost faultless for 25k miles apart from injectors and that was done under warranty

[ds666]

webwysard said:

ds666 said:

Why are you worried about what warranty work it may or may not have had ?

What If the car's been to the dealership few times in previous ownership for numerous issues or same issue and it hasn't been resolved ?

My one month old 2 series GT recovered to the dealership 3 times for heating issues and each time it was in for atleast a week.

I hope I've answed you question ?

You bought a 2 series gt ?

[webwysard]

ds666 said:

You bought a 2 series gt ?

Yes and I'm looking to replace it.

[AOK]

webwysard said:

So only if a car comes off finance agreement and goes back to BMW thats when it shows BMW being the last owner on V5 ? and not when its traded in for another car ?

Depends on the type of finance agreement.

The name on the V5 will always be that of the person who owned / was responsible for the car. In the case of a PCP finance agreement, the car is OWNED by the driver, subject to borrowed money from BMW. In the case of a CH finance agreement, the car is OWNED by BMW, subject to a hire agreement to the driver.

If the car was on a PCP but the driver chose to hand it back, BMW would own it but the car would be "passed to trade" and the name on the logbook would still be that of the last owner.

As such, if they are telling you that the 1st owner was BMW, it is likely the car was a 3 year lease. This wouldn't put me off.

[ds666]

webwysard said:

Yes and I'm looking to replace it.

Quelle surprise !

[webwysard]

AOK said:

Depends on the type of finance agreement.

The name on the V5 will always be that of the person who owned / was responsible for the car. In the case of a PCP finance agreement, the car is OWNED by the driver, subject to borrowed money from BMW. In the case of a CH finance agreement, the car is OWNED by BMW, subject to a hire agreement to the driver.

If the car was on a PCP but the driver chose to hand it back, BMW would own it but the car would be "passed to trade" and the name on the logbook would still be that of the last owner.

As such, if they are telling you that the 1st owner was BMW, it is likely the car was a 3 year lease. This wouldn't put me off.

In that case I'm satisfied that it hadn't been used as a demo/management car and thats what I want to avoid

Now one thing they did mention that they spent £1k replacing all the brake disk and pad, I did ask how come it only costed them £1k when its rougly £3k to joe public, on which their reply was that they get everything on cost price.

I'm still waiting to hear back from them after asking 3 different persons what I need to know before I come to test drive.

Has anyone had any dealing with Stratstone Doncaster ?

[Smuler]

Get sight of the Approved Used checks report, I had that 2/3 times , so most dealers are forthcoming. Got the info verbally in 3rd case.
This shows what was needed done to car when they took it in and decided to retail it.
In my cases very little , which when taking service history etc into account , satisfied me car had been looked after by previous owner.

2 Series GT - M5 , that wins the prize for best trade up in my opinion

[anonymous-user]

Is it a YH registration?

Usually all BMW owned cars begin with YH

YA prefix I believe are BMW press cars

Edited by anonymous-user on Thursday 1st June 06:14

[Eviltad]

lord trumpton said:

Is it a YH registration?

Usually all BMW owned cars begin with YH

YA prefix I believe are BMW press cars

Edited by lord trumpton on Thursday 1st June 06:14

I had two YC registered BMW's in a row which will have been previous PCP cars before I had them.

All the employee car scheme cars for BMW will have been BMW owned as first owner as well.

Is this M5 from BMW AUC? I'd be sceptical buying an auctioned Non-AUC M5 as there must be a "reason" why no one in the AUC themselves bid on it.

My Non-AUC Z4 had an aftermarket head unit which I believe led to be it being punted from an Independent and not BMW themselves.

[AOK]

Eviltad said:

Is this M5 from BMW AUC? I'd be sceptical buying an auctioned Non-AUC M5 as there must be a "reason" why no one in the AUC themselves bid on it.

What? The franchised AUC trade buyers stand side by side with the non-AUC trade buyers at BMW Group auctions... if it has ended up with a non-franchised dealer it merely means they were happy to pay £100 more than all the AUC buyers in the room (and its not difficult to do that and still turn a tidy profit).

[edo]

Walk. They can at the very least tell you the dealer who did the warranty work. They can also tell you the first owner; Private, lease etc.
Bit fishy.

Plenty of cars about. If in doubt buy another one from a dealer that wants your money.

[edo]

This one?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

MOT was done 21st March. Not gone anywhere since.

[webwysard]

edo said:

This one?

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2017...

MOT was done 21st March. Not gone anywhere since.

Yes that's the one , it was sold on the 12th of May In BCA auction and that's when this dealership acquired it.

I've been looking for an M5 for last 2months probably the longest I've have ever looked out for a car and this particular car is the first M5 which has appreciated in value !!!!

this car came in the market on 23rd of May for £37631 and I inquired about it on the 24th but later that day the price changed to £38471 but I thought I will get them down to the original value and was in the process of travelling there to test drive but as they didn't bother to provide required information I thought I Will wait as the dealership is around 120 miles round trip.

But in your link above I'm astounded how cheeky they are that they jack up the price again today from £38471 to £41762 !!!.

I was a bit skeptical about this dealership to start with because of very poor reviews everywhere hence in my post above I asked if anyone had any dealing with this dealership, and now it evident why the got such a bad reputation.

Edited by webwysard on Thursday 1st June 21:28