Sonnen BMW / Muir Beach, California

Rating: ★★

New Car Dealers, Used Car Dealers

Address: 1599 Francisco Blvd E, Muir-Beach

Postal code: 94901

Phone: (888) 215-5151

I took my X3 2007 for service which is probably the last serves before the warranty runs out. Before I took it I found out that most BMW owners take their vehicle to an independent shop to check it out prior to taking it for their last warranty service because it is apparently a fact known to BMW owner that BMW will do it`s best to leave needed work to when your warranty runs out. So the independent shop told me th... view moreat I needed break pads and new routers for all four wheels and also new air filter. Being armed with this knowledge didn`t sit well with Mr. Tom Smith, my service rep, he told me if the sensor light is not on then there should be nothing wrong with the breaks and questioned ""why didn`t I replace or clean the air filter when I learned that"" I simply told him that I didn`t want to pay for a filter that the warranty covered"". I added that if they didn`t fix the break I will take it the next day to repair shop to have them do that for safety sake and charges will have to be decided in court. Mr. Smith was upset and shouted at me "" Don`t threaten me"" I said you are Tom and not BMW and if stating the fact is a threat then it is. Later when I picked up the car they had replaced all four pads, front router only and the air filter. I could have gotten none of that work done had I left the decision to Mr. Tom Smith, BMW sensors and the dealers/BMW policy. To top it off, When I picked up the car I asked ""so what was wrong with the sensors"", Mr. Smith said that they were not located on the bad breaks so they didn`t report the need for a break change, what a great answer. My reply to that was "" so I was right with my call for a beak job"" then he toped it off and said "" Well if you don`t like the service here go somewhere else"" and I thanked him for the advice. I am not done yet however, I am going to double check on the rear router that my independent shop said needs replacement and the dealer didn`t replace.

Kazmankaz / 10/25/2010

If I could give this dealership zero stars, I would. Even beyond the fact that the 2010 328i Sedan has been nothing but an exercise in corner cutting, I have had a nightmare experience with this dealer, and it would be wrong of me not to put this up here for all to see. Just to give a little bit of back story: I had recently renewed the registration on my A5. It was a couple days overdue, so I had to fork over ... view morea hefty $930 to the DMV. They cashed my check, and I was issued a receipt, so I assumed this was dealt with. Right as I was about to sign the papers on the BMW, I was told that I needed to pay the DMV for the registration on my A5. This was perplexing to me as I had already paid the registration. I told them that this was a mistake because I had already paid my registration. I showed them my bank record proving that I had paid it. Despite all the proof, they said they couldn`t move forward with the purchase without paying this fee. At this point, Jacques ASSURED me that it would be as simple as going over to the DMV and showing them the receipt. He said that if I did that, they`d just write me a check right there. Oh, how wrong he was. I went to the DMV the next day and explained my situation. They said that I would need to fill out a request for refund form, and that I would hear back from the DMV within 90-120 days. I was a bit agitated to hear this, but I thought there was no other choice; so I filled out the form, and provided proof that I had paid the registration twice. While I was waiting to hear back from the DMV, I called Sonnen a couple times to check on whether or not they had heard anything. Every time I called, I spoke to the finance manager that I had originally dealt with when purchasing the car, Ken Lindley. Each time I called the dealer, I was given the brush off; they would tell me to just continue waiting until I heard back from the DMV. So I waited 120 days... After 120 days I called the department at the DMV that handles refunds. They said that they had indeed received my payment of the registration (the original one). They also said that no refund would be issued because the dealer was only asked to pay $23 to transfer the title of the car, and was never asked to hand over the $930 I paid them for the registration. What this means is that the dealer took my $930, sat on it until they transferred ownership of the car, and never called me or notified me in any way that this money was never sent to the DMV. Ultimately the dealer did realize their mistake and refunded me the $930, but it took several months and countless hours waiting on hold at the DMV, going to the DMV, and going to the dealer. Plus, I spent tangible amounts of money on gas and bridge tolls going back and forth to the dealer and DMV. Any attempts to reconcile this situation have resulted in a complete and utter waste of my time. Please, just don`t shop there.

adamsingy / 8/6/2010

Very friendly staff, great selection of cars!!!

d_chan07 / 3/2/2009

I purchased a brand new 2008 BMW 328i for $38,000 from Sonnen BMW in San Rafael, California. The car had a serious manufacturers defect that caused an electrical fire and resulted in my car being totaled. I had multiple issues with the front passengers side fog light falling out of its casing into the lower corner of the bumper which caused three separate fires. BMW has refused to replace my vehicle that had 11,500 m... view moreiles and is covered under warranty.

At the end of June 2008 I first realized this problem happened upon a closer inspection of the exterior of the car. I brought the car right away to Sonnen BMW`s service department, as I was worried about the safety of the vehicle. I showed them what happened, but they told me that they had no available appointments until two weeks out and that my car was safe to drive. Two weeks later I brought my vehicle to Sonnen`s service department, they ""verified the defect"" as stated in their service records. They replaced the complete front bumper and supposedly re secured the foglight. All of this was covered under BMW`s warranty as it was a manufactures defect. I asked Tom Murtha (my service advisor) why this had happened, he told that because there was absolutely no impact damage, the only way this could have occurred was a mistake when building the vehicle at the factory.

My life was put in danger because of a manufacturers malfunction, It was their fault and they don`t want to help me even though their warranty says they have to. If I had been on the highway there would be a very high chance that I would have crashed, become trapped in the car and burnt to death. Are we going to have to wait until someone dies from this? There should be some sort of recall. Mr. Kossar told me that each time I made Sonnen BMW aware of the situation they should have removed the fuse in the circuit board that controls the fog lights.

Because BMW has not taken responsibility and said that this is an insurance matter. I lost $11,200

bmwfire / 12/19/2008

they were very professional in their way of communicating with the customers... they are willing to do business and go down on price if they need to... shop around and you will see...

CrazyBaller / 6/24/2008

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