BMW of San Rafael

I want to highly recommend our salesmen at BMW, SR for their honesty and lack of hard-sell tactics over a recent transaction.
My 86 year old husband decided to reward himself for sitting through a long dentist appointment so he visited the San Rafael BMW dealership to look around. Before long he asked his salesman, Gavin, to write up an offer on a $70,000+ car. It wasn't long before the loan company contacted our accountant to complete the paperwork.

Needless to say red flags went up and we asked my husband to wait to consult his son before making this purchase. The following day my husband and I walked into the dealership to cancel the purchase. I was prepared for a very hard sell and a very hard time cancelling the sale.

But to my amazement, Gavin exhibited absolutely no hard sell. There was not even one "BUT"!
He graciously and immediately said,"No problem. We will cancel the sale." His sales manager, Mark, echoed the sentiment, "No problem." These are two very classy gentlemen and are a stellar example of a car dealership that considers the wellbeing of its patrons in addition to its profits.
Thank you, Gavin and Mark, BMW San Rafael.

GAVIN LIVINGSTONE
We had consummated a deal over the phone, identified the i5, color combo equipment, and headed down to San Rafael from Santa Rosa. Sure we knew
we had a BMW store here, but, time after time after time, as much as we wanted to keep our business local, it was at a price that was simply not acceptable. While we "start" in Santa Rosa, we end up with a much better
bottom line in San Rafael. let's face it, you will, most likely live with your monthly payment for years to come...we were off by $100 a month! that goes every month towards your ridiculous PG&E bill!
What causes Gavin to be a standout is his attitude. we worked out all the numbers, he had the white one ready, we drive up and.....it just wasnt a match for us....too flashy?!...so we switched to a different in stock i5, and negotiation was "easy" again. Gavin is young, energetic, smart as a whip, knowledgeable of his inventory, and just plain easy going. Thank you for
being flexible, not only with our like new i4 trade in, but taking your time with making sure we were completely satisfied. WE WERE.

This a review from a while back

Tom Smith is probably one of the most unpolite and rude persons I've ever had to deal with.

The way I see it is since they are the only BMW in all of Marin county their demand is quite high, similar to what crappy restaurants in touristy places of any major city in the world go through. It doesn't matter how they behave or how bad the food is, it doesn't matter next day they will have a long line of customers waiting for them.

I rather go somewhere else instead of dealing with this person who should probably cut down on the coffee or take some meditation classes.

Rob the sales person and Kris in finance were incredibly professional and easy to work with. Leased an I4 and the process was very easy and smooth mostly electronic prior to getting the vehicle.

Terrible service, had to call 5 times to get information and when the car sold I got a text. Very unprofessional. 0 stars.

Mickey Mouse dealer service. Hold the car overnight for just an oil change even though had an appointment? Then wasted 20 minutes just talking to the service writer. I left and went to a local oil change place and done in less than 20 minutes for $25 less

I've had 5 BMWs serviced by BMW San Rafael over the years and my experiences with service department have been sliding from good to poor customer service and bad work. My last experience convinced me that I am done with BMW, just sold my BMW and bought a sports car from a different manufacturer and quality of service was completely different, polite, respectful, easy interactions.

I know my BMWs - I work on them, I race them, so I know exactly what I want. If you buy anything that represents a significant amount of money - a house, enterprise software, construction equipment - you know that a really knowledgeable salesperson is crucial to making the best choice. At BMW of San Rafael, that man's name is Luis Chinchilla. I bought my ninth BMW, a CPO X5 xDrive40i from him this past week. I was impressed with his attention to detail and he was very communicative.

Luis has an impressive depth of knowledge of these cars, their build history, and options. I bought my last new one 10 years ago and was unaware that during the COVID scare even BMW had been leaving out boards and IC's they couldn't get, and that some features wouldn't work depending on when it was assembled. That armed me with the knowledge I needed to make sure I was buying a car that wouldn't have any nasty surprises. Ultimately I bought the one he had because it was the nicest and best cared for, out of many I checked out around the bay.

Took my X5 into BMW of San Rafael for some electrical damage to the thermostat. 10k later (insurance covered), my car was returned with the dashboard warped. They asked me to bring it back for the BMW Rep. who was going to be in town, to look it over and determine what the problem was, which I did... He concluded it was a defective dash and said they would replace it. I was contacted by my then point of contact, Jacqui who told me they "had to order it from Germany and it would be several weeks".

3 months later, still no dash replacement and no call letting me know the status. I phoned her several times and finally got a hold of her, she told me "it's stuck in Customs". I import for my business regularly and although customs can delay delivery, it certainly doesn't delay it by weeks. She told me "she would call me the moment it arrives to schedule the install and not to worry".

After not hearing back from her in over a month, I phoned to find out Jacqui no longer works there.

It has now been a year and each person I am told "will call me back with details/updates", doesn't...

I have given them so many opportunities to make things right and it just gets worse and worse. There have been 4 people now who I've been told will get back to me, but they do not.

Finally left a message with the Manager Brett, on Monday, he has yet to call me either.

It's well worth the drive to BMW SF and be treated like a human.

I visited the service for an oil change and to inquire about changing my rear brake pads. The service representative, Mark, was rude and dismissive when I asked for an estimate on the brake pads, even calling me "crazy" for not wanting to service them immediately.

I found Mark's behavior completely unacceptable. I asked to speak with his manager, as this kind of treatment is not how customers should be treated.

Overall, my experience was disappointing. I hope the management takes this feedback seriously and addresses the issue to ensure better customer service in the future.

High praise for BMW of San Rafael and in particular, Ryan John, a service advisor there. Was traveling through the area and cut a tire on the highway. Luckily, we had purchased the tire insurance and Ryan got us right in and made sure that he had the exact tire that we needed. It was a record short time from arriving at the dealership to driving away with a brand new tire. Thanks to their service and courtesy...5 stars all around!