11-28-2021, 04:48 PM | #13708 | ||
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(1.) There are only 2 dealers I've ever worked with (and I've worked with a lot) who've provided a superior level of service: My latest one, Peter Pan & Motorwerks. The honorable mentions would be Carousel Audi & Pacific BMW, but those were more due to sales person than the dealership. Motorwerks did me a huge solid once after BMW David completely fucked the pooch on, well, everything. Motorwerks took over and handled everything for $0 even though I didn't buy that car from them! And it wasn't just one person, it was the whole team - everyone I spoke with was awesome and when I showed up with a friend to pick up my car they gave us a tour, gave us the keys to try anything we wanted, and gave us invites to a few events. That was 2011. I bought them all gifts afterwards - it was that kind of experience. I'm sure it's probably new people now, but great experiences (or lack thereof) last! (2.) Over & over again BMWNA has delivered for me. I don't know if it's luck, or having worked with Maria quite a few times, or what it is, but I've had a lot of twists & turns with my BMW vehicles and BMWNA has always delivered. Things like my IM cars, sure, but more importantly getting compensation for missing features, fixing delivery issues, getting me this X5M with 100% of the stuff I ordered, and 4 awesome EDs including 1 semi-private one they just told me I was getting out of the blue for being a good customer! - in short, they've always exceeded my expectations even though I constantly expect them to fuck me. BMWNA even sent me some headphones completely out of the blue: All of that said, I would completely agree that BMWNA's latest industry level moves don't scream "best customer experience in the industry" - yet somehow none of that has ever managed to hit me specifically ... many of the BMWNA's dealerships have let me down, and quite a few sales people (did mention how much BMW David sucks? If not, BMW David is like a dumber version of Michael Scott from The Office combined with the follow-through of George Costanza) I want to not like BMWNA broadly, yet I can't deny they've always delivered for me, even in tough times like now: I got -4% off -$3250 PenFed w/ no options deletes including all the stuff previously deleted from other X5s back in 2020, and they delivered ahead of schedule. When I've called, they've answered & delivered ... it's impossible for me to fault them. Porsche NA otoh, didn't return my calls or emails, and their dealerships were ... well, dealerships (though I give Nick Murray's dealership props for being extremely polite about assfucking you). Most of them wanted money in exchange for nothing - no allocation, no guaranteed allocation, no specific timeline, etc. I did get the sense from a few that it's just how it is and my gut says they would've delivered, but that ain't how I roll, and BMWNA takes my calls sooo....
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11-28-2021, 05:45 PM | #13709 | |
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I’m under no illusions with Porsche, I’ve already had a weird interaction with the service department. That’s the thing with even higher end car companies/dealers. Usually sales transactions etc are fine, it’s after the sale that most have no idea how to handle problems properly unfortunately. That was my BMW experience, for the most part loved my SA and others at ‘Tonka but their service department was lacking to say the least. Motorwerks sales is fine/not great, their service is awesome though. You know my BMWNA interaction. |
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11-28-2021, 06:27 PM | #13710 | |
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ANYway, eventually he moved or something, can't remember, but he gave me a piece of advice/wisdom on our final deal with him, and the gist was this: "ignore your relationship with the salesperson, and even the dealer, focus on the distributor / importer; call up someone in corporate customer relations, intro yourself, ask questions, etc and do that every year or so and for sure before any purchase. Let them know about your experience and ask for their advice."Does that even apply anymore? dunno, though, BMWNA has always taken/returned my calls and no other brand has (well, Audi has to be fair, but I haven't kept up with them because I haven't gotten an Audi in 10 years) |
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11-28-2021, 08:59 PM | #13711 |
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I got some new EV experience today. Went and drove a Model S Plaid and a Mercedes EQS. Liked the EQS a lot, but hated the Model S for one big reason, I'm sure you can guess why (*hint* there's no need to reinvent the wheel )
I finally got to try out the stupid yoke, and can confirm, it is indeed stupid. Like seriously stupid. I accidently honked at a group of pedestrians all because when I turned the wheel my hand accidently hit one of the touch-capacitive buttons (which are far more sensitive than any other car I've used), also of course being that this was a used car, whoever owned the car before set the horn had set it to a honk and then a long wet fart which had then scared my sensitive ears because there was no music in the car and the fart was loud and unexpected in the speakers. And taking this car through corners just feels weird, forget about parallel parking, even backing the car up out of a space feels weird since there is no top of the wheel and I'm old fashioned and still turn my head to the back windshield, it requires too much focus/thought. What pisses me off more than anything about the yoke though is that I do not understand how Tesla got this passed regulations? Seriously, Mercedes can't get a damn car in the states to pass regulations without adding stupid bumperettes to surround the rear plates all for an old and outdated regulation, but Tesla can cut the entire top half off of a steering wheel? Makes no sense to me. As for the rest of the car, its overall nice enough, $130k nice? Ehhh not so sure about that. The speed is fast as f*** and intoxicating, but I can easily see this getting into the hands of people with very little skill and too much stupidity, and if they need to counteract steering with the yoke that'll likely be a mess too. Handling is typical Model S, numb, uninspiring and not very impressive, speed is the car's one trick pony. New interior is a big improvement, but the lack of stalks and and a gear selector is incredibly perplexing, Musk is forcing everyone to his vision of the future (which sucks in my opinion), but some things didn't need replacing. Brakes could be better, I can definitely see the argument towards them being underpowered as hitting them at triple digits didn't inspire much confidence, guess that's why all the sudden they're offering ceramics for $20k! Back seat is awful, rear bench sits too low so knees are in your chest with no leg support, and build quality is typical Tesla, interior trim pieces aren't properly put together, paint is awful, and body panels are misaligned. Pretty much left mostly annoyed as the car has so much potential but the yoke kills a lot of it, not to mention getting in the EQS afterwards didn't help the Tesla as that car is much quieter and comfortable (not to mention properly screwed together) all while being able to achieve 400 miles of range. But at the end of the day its gonna sell a s*** ton, as no one cares about handling or luxury anymore, its all about 0-60 times now.
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11-28-2021, 09:24 PM | #13712 | |
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11-29-2021, 01:31 AM | #13714 | |
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When iPhones came out, a lot of people - like me - thought they were silly toys compared to real smart phones like Blackberrys, Danger, et al and doomed to failure; after all, blackberry's keyboard kicked ass and didn't need reinventing! Who the fuck is going to tolerate typing an email on a touchscreen?? That's just fucking stupid amiright? The iPhone was (and is) a functional disaster that feels more like a child's toy than a serious device for serious work. So what happened? Why did a device so functionally inferior steamroll everyone? Well, a few reasons but the biggest one IMO was young women. They LOVED the iPhone - very chic, very tech, very cool! And if you had one you inherited some of that tech cool. The blackberry was dorky & corporate. If you were single & wanted to have sex, best to get an iPhone. Well, I'd say a Tesla is the 2022 iPhone. (and, so far, BMW is tryin REAL hard to be blackberry ... Ford = Nokia, Porsche will fight Benz for Samsung, GM = Ericsson, Toyota = Motorola )
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11-29-2021, 02:15 AM | #13715 | ||
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Sooner rather than later, having a blackberry felt like you were holding onto the fax machine and couldn't let go and move on to email (even though technically that analogy doesn't quite make sense). At the end of the day though, I think the fault really lies with the short lived lifespan of a competent physical small keyboard. It really wasn't until 2007 that blackberry finally started getting the keyboard right (even though the UI was shit), and even then the average exec or middle management person weren't super great at typing on that small keyboard. So folks needing smart phones only had a good 2-3 year run with a competent physical keyboard. Since a better UI and hip alternative was available (and adopted in mass by younger folks) in the iPhone shortly thereafter, people's brains got rewired very quickly into thinking that touchscreen keyboard is significantly better and useable than a clunky physical keyboard, which now by contrast feels completely unusable when you try to use one. What makes me think this is the case is modern computer keyboards. Every attempt at a touch screen or hapticless version of one is horrendously unusable, right? Or is it that our brains for the better part of nearly 40 years have gotten used to the physical haptic feedback of a large physical keyboard that using an alternative similar to a touchscreen one seems foreign and, well, wrong? Our brains have learned to type on small screen on a keyboard on a touchscreen over a longer span than the small physical keyboard had (at least a good one). While the physical desktop large keyboard had years on any touchscreen one. Sometimes the best technical/efficient solution loses out to the one that permeates society and becomes normalized.
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11-29-2021, 05:38 AM | #13716 |
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stein_325i yeah the Plaids brakes are a joke. They fade super quick so you really need to get better ones for everyone's safety.
At a stupid price point too. They're simply boring to drive. Fast but very boring. I'm also at a loss for how they got that wheel to pass regulations. It's downright stupid. |
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11-29-2021, 07:33 AM | #13717 | |
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11-29-2021, 09:10 AM | #13718 | ||
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11-29-2021, 09:17 AM | #13719 | ||
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There are seriously no benefits to it, the only one Elon Musk has cited is that it allows the instrument cluster to have full visibility, which is quite ironic given he argued that an instrument cluster was not important for a Model 3 or Y.
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11-29-2021, 11:17 AM | #13720 |
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Also our ///M Savior has arrived.
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11-29-2021, 11:33 AM | #13721 | |||
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Sucks that by buying a Tesla, you involuntarily give off the impression you've also bought into the whole cult & schtick. No automotive corporation is saint, but there's no other car company where the CEO is so 'out there.'
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11-29-2021, 03:23 PM | #13722 | |
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I mean, I bet you don't have a pair yoga pants, but I bet they catch your eye If you asked me who's responsible for Lululemon, I'd say "high school seniors, college kids, and young adult men" is probably right ... they're not the customers, but they're who the customers are buying for. A big part of it was the multi-colored iBooks.
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11-29-2021, 03:35 PM | #13723 |
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Eh, coulda said the same thing about Apple or Amazon or Facebook ... I worked for a Silicon Graphics reseller in the mid-90s and that SGI fucker was like a cross between J Peterman & Colonel Kurtz ... some real End Days shit; like it wouldn't have surprised me to be at company party and have seen a dude in a top hat fucking a beheaded pig as a novelty.
Elon's a fucking teddy bear compared to the late 90s. I've never talked to him, but some colleagues have worked for him and 100% of them (a.) no longer do, and (b.) thought they had nothing left to learn until they worked for him. I've yet to hear from anyone's who's actually worked with him that didn't give him a high score. I'll take a weirdo top-down leader any day over wishy-washy leadership like 99% of corporations have. Take a look at VW right now - Diess is *barely* in control ... top-down directives are likely non-existent and fiefdoms are rampant. It'd be awful to work there. |
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11-29-2021, 06:22 PM | #13724 | |
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11-29-2021, 07:10 PM | #13725 |
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Its official, we thought the screaming G8X ads were bad but this is another level of WTF BMW marketing.
Take a look for yourselves and be prepared to cringe so hard. Its a good thing YouTube just removed the dislike counter.
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11-29-2021, 07:31 PM | #13726 | ||
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11-29-2021, 07:39 PM | #13727 | |||
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11-29-2021, 07:43 PM | #13728 | |
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But yah, who is approving and paying for this shit? |
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