Are Bmw allowed to ask a premium on new cars

[adamr]

Now as far as I know any Bmw dealership is not allowed to ask more than list price for new stock coming onto their floor

3 BMW M2s are due to arrive at this particular dealership. Two white one blue I queried the blue one and was given a spec. Then asked for an otp which I was told they can't do yet (kind of strange cause I swear in the past I could get an otp for cars on the system regardless if it even existed or not ... Maybe I'm wrong)

So I get a just a price of R1080k. No otp. Go onto BMWs configurator and the same car is R995k. I query this with the sales guy and he says he will get back and of course he doesn't

*Crickets chirping*

Clearly a premium over list price. Have things changed where franchise dealerships can ask a price over list ? For brand new unregistered cars ?

 

[FiRi@Rennzport]

That's absolute BS. It's not a numbered car. Take up with bsales Manager or DP?

I wonder did they do this with the 1m as well...

 

[MikeR]

:YesNo::YesNo: I believe they can as they buy the stock as Independent businesses.

 

[ChefDJ]

I think it depends on the clusters of dealerships.

You might find that vehicles offered under, for example, the SMG franchises will all be priced alike across the models. The same model from an Autobahn, Leo Haese or other cluster of dealerships might differ.

 

[adamr]

That's absolute BS. It's not a numbered car. Take up with bsales Manager or DP?

I wonder did they do this with the 1m as well...

From experience a used Bmw yes can be sold by Bmw for a premium price. A new one though cannot ... Bmw sa will get their panties in a knot as they want to mitigate this business of scalping. But things might have changed. And from other posts I see they can ask anything they want ... Which is kind of sad. So they make their 10-12% plus the premium

 

[Iceman12596]

Welcome to the typical South African business model, max profits and screw the client.

 

[WIDEOPN-X5]

More than a smidge of irony in this thread....... there's a simple solution. Don't buy the car at the premium price. The end.

 

[TurboLlew]

More than a smidge of irony in this thread....... there's a simple solution. Don't buy the car at the premium price. The end.

YES! If everyone just did this then the practice would end. Unfortunately it seems that South Africans love to do this even with relatively ordinary cars.

 

[XPD]

Dealers are under no obligation to follow MRSP, nor can BMW SA force dealers to as they will fall foul of the competition act. In our capitalist economy the forces of demand and supply should dictate price, but as indicated earlier, the seems to be no drying up in demand for even non limited number cars like the M2, which is built to order just like a 318i. There is only one way to drive the price down and stop dealers from bending the public over with no Vaseline, stop buying! Besides for R1m there are some nice pre owned M3's on the market.

 

[Fruks]

Dealers are under no obligation to follow MRSP, nor can BMW SA force dealers to as they will fall foul of the competition act.

What? Is this true?

 

[TurboLlew]

Dealers are under no obligation to follow MRSP, nor can BMW SA force dealers to as they will fall foul of the competition act.

What? Is this true?

The spirit of this is to protect the consumer primarily from e.g. FMCG companies forcing wholesalers and retailers to keep pricing of specific items high. Everything that is sent to a customer at companies I've worked at before has a disclaimer saying pricing is at the sole discretion of the retailer. If someone decides he is going to put pampers on his broadsheet at cost to drive feet into stores, there is nothing anybody can do to stop him. Headache for everyone else involved for a variety of reasons but it's the law. However it also doesn't stop him charging R100/kg for sugar if he is hypothetically sitting with tons and everyone is out of stock. Doesn't surprise me that the motor industry goes the opposite way on this.

Dealers often have stock on the floor that they say are "BMW SA" cars. Perhaps that's how BMW are trying to control price to a degree? I don't know. I have long been convinced that dealers purposely sell vehicles to known scalping dealers and take a cut of whatever they sell it for. The dealer gets a sale recognized, scalper gas a buyer lined up and early car and the dealer makes more money this route than selling direct to the clients. All premium automakers are clamping down now. Why are other dealers given first preference on M2/Mustang as examples when clearly actual clients want to buy the car. It creates an artificial supply situation.

 

[Fruks]

thanks i honestly didnt know that... it is a bit ridiculous to think that BMW wouldnt be able to control the pricing of their cars in their franchised dealers

 

[WIDEOPN-X5]

The desire of those making an issue it would seem relates only to the "upper end" of the pricing of vehicles .

When vehicles are discounted by 10's of thousands of Rands where are the howls of protest then?

I don't understand this thread....

The motor industry in this country whines incessantly about how tough things are. Then next thing the showrooms are upgraded with fancy tiles lavish furnishings etc.

But ask for discount? "Oh we'd love to but you know we've only got R5k in this deal to start with"...... Horseshyte :RedNo:

If everyone stopped buying for a while the prices would come down and they wouldn't go out of business in the process.

One of the best examples of massive margin cars has to be Porsche. It's not a volume seller yet Mr Venter can build 4 x lavish identical layout dealerships round SA and spend R100's of Millions buying Kyalami and revamping it....

All's I can say isbthe margin on a R1Bar Porsche must be HUGE......

 

[Fruks]

so what happens if you walk into a dealership and tell them you want to buy a M2 built to your spec? what price do they charge you? is that even possible here or do you just get whatever the dealers order?

 

[peanut125i]

Isn't there an order button or something after you have used the online configuration tool? I use to stuff around with it making up dream cars but it's damn slow.

Sent from my SM-N910F using Tapatalk

 

[TurboLlew]

so what happens if you walk into a dealership and tell them you want to buy a M2 built to your spec? what price do they charge you? is that even possible here or do you just get whatever the dealers order?

I think you just get a delivery date very far into the future... Individual slots also hard to get apparently across the model ranges

 

[Fruks]

so what happens if you walk into a dealership and tell them you want to buy a M2 built to your spec? what price do they charge you? is that even possible here or do you just get whatever the dealers order?

I think you just get a delivery date very far into the future... Individual slots also hard to get apparently across the model ranges

in other words, most of the cars sold here are dealer orders? thats terrible, if i was buying a new M model i would insist of specifying it myself

 

[Koch903]

Dealers are under no obligation to follow MRSP, nor can BMW SA force dealers to as they will fall foul of the competition act.

What? Is this true?

Competition law in South Africa only restricts minimum retail prices, although maximum price maintenance is technically legal it may be subject to a "rule of reason" analysis in the catch all phrase in Section 5(1) which basically says any vertical agreement that substantially lessens competition in a market without any efficiency or pro-competitive effects is prohibited