Okay to Buy a Corporate or Manufacturer Vehicle?

M

michael5155

Member
I'm considering buying a 2009 Z4, but the Carfax (see photos) shows the car with no owners, listed as a "manufacturer vehicle." I asked the dealership what this meant and they said the car was driven by a BMW executive for a year then sold at auction. The car comes with the remaining warranty until 2014/50K miles. Currently there are 15600 miles on the car.

Does this sound legit?
Should I be concerned about buying this Z4?
Other than typical questions about the car's condition, are there other questions I should be asking about the car's history?
Should I be concerned about the -$140 impact history?
If the car were in an accident, would it still show up on Carfax considering it is a "manufacturer vehicle"?

Thanks for your thoughts and advice!

Michael
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things must be different in the US, in the UK the car will always show 1 owner if BMW have owned/used it. BMW often register cars in their name before selling them on, so they are 1 owner vehicles
 
I get a bad feeling with this car, if it was owned by BMW why was the car not sold through a BMW dealership, by going through auction they would surely lose money or is it because there is a problem with the vehicle.
The listing shows 2 Florida dealers and 5 months with no sale, I would walk away.
 
It is being sold by an authorized BMW dealership, but that is a good point about it being for sale for five months and not sold. They are asking 37900.00 with premium package, premium sound, and heated seats (2009 30i automatic).

Since there's a factory warranty for another three years, should I still be concerned? Just askin'.
 
Similar to my Z4.

It was originally purchased by a customer who drove it until the warranty was up, then returned it to the dealer for an upgrade. A BMW employee drove the car for 1.5 years then BMW sold it at an auction --- also in Pennsylvania.

One thing about dealers to remember if they drive cars like taxi drivers... (or as if the car was a rental). The condition of the interior reflected this, not a big issue and parts were easily replaceable, but still something to consider is how people treat cars that they don't own. Usually the price reflects this too.

On the other hand, I know all service was done at the dealer and have pulled records of everything that was fixed or serviced. And I know the car wasn't in an accident. For 5 months? I wouldn't worry at all---especially with factory warranty on there.
 
Thanks for all the advice and insight. The interior looked pretty good, but the leather on the driver seat was stretched and wrinkled... not a warrantee-able fix according to the dealer.

I'll post the link to the car later today.

Thanks again!
 
CARFAX is a joke IMHO.
When I went to buy my 2007 Z4, we did a carfax on it and it showed clean. Oh, BTW, the owner said it was owned by BMW exec's before him and when he picked it up, it had 7,500 miles on it. It had 17,100 when I bought it in Jun 2010. It is fully loaded and was in immaculate condition.
So, since we had bought a 5x carfax deal, and wasn't going to use them, we ran a report on my old car. Now, I was first and only owner of it and it had 236k miles on it. Had an accident in 2005 worth $6000. Got the carfax and it showed that somebody else was the owner of the car. Showed only 21K miles on it and NO accident. Yes, I did go thru my insurance and a reputable place BMW recommended to get it fixed. I also got it smogged at 200K as well.
We got our money back from carfax.
 
Okay, this thread is going to take a bit of a direction change. I was just about to pull the trigger on the car when I thought I would see what customers had to say about the dealership... not good! Two stars out of five (37 reviews). Lots of issues with service department and taking a deposit only to sell the car to someone else! Then deposit difficult to get back.

Does anyone live in the Miami, Florida area who has heard anything about South Motors BMW? If you've heard something good or bad please post! Or if you have personal experience with this dealer, please post your comments, positive or negative. I'm thinking of buying this car long distance. I can't afford to fly over 1000 miles to see it in person and test drive it. So I am depending heavily on the dealership to be honest and reputable.

Thanks,
Michael
 
I don't take dealer reviews seriously for any dealer. Cars are one thing that people will search on the internet to comment on when there is an issue or a problem, but will not search up to comment to sing praise for a dealer.

Remember the warranty doesn't just apply to that one dealer, you can take it to whichever one you prefer.
 
For what its worth I recently sold my Land Rover Defender to a guy who worked for Mercedes Benz in the UK,he was currently running 3 company cars,and changed them every 9000 miles,they then went into the dealerships ....no idea how this all works ,assume its a means of getting the dealers quality used vehicles ??
 
I'd say at least 50% and probably more of the available used E89 Z4s on the BMW website are ex-BMW UK cars.
 
I work for Toyota GB and we have to change our cars at 15k ( so for me that's every 4-6 months) The cars are carefully inspected and any damage is chargeable. This means we look after them carefully and make sure the 10k service is done on time. The cars are a useful source of used cars for the dealer network and all are good spec models. 95% of the time I am the only person to drive and even travel in the car as I use my Z at weekends so mine looks like new when I swap it for a new one. My Z was a BMW management car for 6 months before being sold through the dealer network and has been a great car for the last 3 years. As long as it hasn't been a thrashed press car, you'll be ok. :thumbsup:
 
Wondermike said:
I'd say at least 50% and probably more of the available used E89 Z4s on the BMW website are ex-BMW UK cars.
Click to expand...
I sometimes park in the car park under Hyde Park ,..Park Lane BMW use it to park up a lot of their vehicles and I often see 3 or 4 Z4s been driven in early morning by what are clearly staff ......how do I know they are staff ?.......have a guess !
 
Cos they wheelspin round the car park and handbrake turn it into the speces? I'd rather buy a manufacturer car than a dealer ex demo by a big margin.Dealer staff don't tent to look after their cars very well in terms of thrashing from cold etc.
 
The original window spec sheet on my car states:
sold to:
BMW of North America, Inc.
Demo Ft. Laud A/s
Company Car

What does this mean? The dealership selling this certified pre-owned car to me said it had just come off lease. Was this not true?

I didn't notice this blurb on the spec sheet until I got home with the car and was sifting through all the service history documents, manuals, etc.

Thanks,

Wiseguy
 
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