Can't search/find the car I want! (So. California)

Hi guys, this is my first post, so bear with me :roll:

I pretty much know what i3 I want to lease- a REx, any color *but* black or white, with the Value Package (ZIR) and Value Plus (ZIV). But when I try and build it on BMW's website, these options are not available. Therefore, I cannot do a dealer search for this car.

I have tried going through the local dealer's websites, by hand. But they often do not list the options up front or they're mislabeled.

I suppose I should trust the salesperson who said he's looking for one for me, but I can tell that he really wants to just sell me one in his current inventory. He even argued with me, telling me that I was incorrect about the Value Packages being available on 2016 models! He said those were only 2017 options... I showed him a 2016 with the options, currently for sale at another dealership.

I am really trying to get a deal, so any tips for finding the best lease deal would be appreciated. I'd love to find an i3 that was maybe a demo or something, that they're trying to get rid of cheap. Of course, there's no way to search for that online. Should I just email every dealership near me? I'd feel kind of bad for going behind my salesperson's back though.

Thanks for any help!

When you limit the colors, you'll only have 3 colors to chose from.

Are you looking for a BEV or rex?

I believe Crevier BMW has one that suits your specs.

http://www.crevierbmw.com/detail-2016-bmw-i3-w_range_extender-new-15132530.html

And so does Pacific BMW

http://www.pacificbmw.com/new/BMW/2016-BMW-I3+REX-for-sale-Glendale-California-29802f010a0e0adf339790f9166c1340.htm

BMW Ontario has a Shadow Sport one (Only 50 of them made, comes with the sunroof)

http://www.bmwofontario.com/detail-2016-bmw-i3-16_bmw_i3_4dr_hb-new-15205975.html

If you're in the SD area, El Cajon has one in black

http://www.bmwofelcajon.com/new-inventory/detail/2016-BMW-i3-Base-w-Range-Extender/1185/WBY1Z4C52GV507342



Easiest way to look through their inventory is to sort by interior color. Look for the " DEKA GRAY/BMW I BLUE HIGHLIGHT" interior color and that will mean it has the value package. Then take the last 7 of the vin and plug it into bimmer.work. It'll decode the vin and tell you what options is has. just look for "322" which is comfort access and that'll guarantee it has the value plus option.

Just start emailing salespeople all over. My experience with crevier is that they're on the more expensive side and didn't budge with the price at all. I'd highly recommend Greg Poland from Pacific BMW. he's pretty well known on other forums. Just shoot him an email [email protected] of what you're looking for and he should get back to you. I got my i3 from him and I did all the "negotiating" through email. There wasn't even really any negotiating honestly, just him trying to track down a car for me and giving me an unbeatable price which was lower than what I had in mind actually. I was in and out of the dealer within 30 minutes.


Some things to keep in mind, the current CVRP rebate for new cars is unavailable, supposedly funding will be back but you never know.

Omg, thank you so much!!

Yes, REx. (I'll try and revise my original post)

Awesome idea about narrowing the search by interior color. I forgot that the Value Package(s) only come in Deka.

And yes, I should be more open to the other colors (I think I could handle black, I mean it's really not that much darker than the gray!). I like the idea of the one with the Moonroof, but unfortunately it's not a REx.

I will check out the guy you suggest.

Yeah, I'm keeping the (current) lack of the CVRP rebate in mind and also using it as a negotiating chip (well, at least not letting the salespeople use it as a justification for putting more money down).

Thanks again!

EyeYaiYai3 said:

He even argued with me, telling me that I was incorrect about the Value Packages being available on 2016 models! He said those were only 2017 options...

Click to expand...

In fairness to Mr. Salesperson, I was confused about this too. The value packages are fairly new, for the 2016 1/2 models. However, BMW's website still only mentions the traditional mega/giga/tera "worlds" and technology package.

I do like how the value packages seem to be more common and save the buyer some $, but clearly there's a disconnect here between product, sales, and marketing.

So how should I go about emailing the dealerships- should I just pick a random salesperson off their websites? Or should I look for the internet salesperson at each dealer?

And what would you suggest I put in the email? I was going to quote one of the good leases listed in the forums and ask if they can meet or beat it. I was also going to say that I'm willing to take a demo car to get an especially good deal. And that I'm not in a rush (don't need a new lease until around November), and can wait for the incentives to hopefully pop up on the 2016's as the 2017's start pushing them off the lots.

Personally, if you're not in a rush to get one, I'd just sit on it. I shopped around last month, dealing mostly with internet sales, and didn't find much in terms of a deal. Cap cost was 10% off MSRP and dealers were still acting like the hold on the California $2500 rebate was temporary.

In short, they don't have much incentive to move them right now. That'll be a different story in fall when the 2017s start to show up, along with the Chevy Bolt.

FWIW July residuals got bumped up 5%

You probably won't see the deals for the 2017 models until the end of the year as a new larger battery model is coming out.

Thanks for the responses. Eneka- I am in contact with Greg Poland (BTW, his email doesn't have a dot between his first and last name) and working with that great new residual number that has changed *everything*!

And I found out about another way to search a bunch of the dealerships for the options I want- go on cars.com or autotrader.com and do an advanced search for "new cars", "BMW i3" and use key words: "value package plus". There are several out there!

Postmortem- I ended up getting a decent deal through my local dealer ($214/mo on a 30mo/10K, $1,750 in MSD on a 2016 REx Deka with Value Package Plus, 10% off MSRP). FYI, before I closed the deal, Greg Poland and I exchanged a couple emails but he seemed too busy and I never heard from him again. I liked Craig Holland at Crevier in Santa Ana- he replied quickly and talked numbers openly. I'd suggest him to others that are looking: [email protected].

I hope the questions and answers help others in their search for the best deal!