Inventory....

[///MD]

I know this has been beat over the head, but i was at irvine BMW today and they had 10, yes 10 M3's sitting on the lot collecting dust (literally) 7 sedans, and 3 coupes. That's not counting what they had in back. Just curious what other people have seen at their local dealerships across the country.

[attbimmer]

Yeah lots around. I saw the ones at Irvine last Saturday and then saw at least 10 more at Crevier yesterday. Most with 18s.

[RealSanaii]

M3 is still fairly new and people who are into this car generally order their cars rather than buying it off the lot. Also, unlike the last generation M3, the price is stiff and the economy is down. So it's harder for the general public to buy this performance oriented vehicle when the gas price is set to hit $5 per gallon. Also, for the same money, roughly, one could get into 5,6,7 series (stretched) so that might hold the general people, not enthusiats, down from buying into it. That's just my opinion. Talked to some dealers and they had no trouble selling M3s but not from their lots.

[Mx3]

DCT or MT?

[icemang17]

Originally Posted by Mx3

DCT or MT?

This is a good ???....my thoughts are mostly 6MT

[///MD]

all 10 were MT......is manual driving a lost art?

[Keto]

Originally Posted by pbadiei

all 10 were MT......is manual driving a lost art?

DCT orders were likely all spoken for. People buying the M3 initially are likely pre-ordering. Because certain Socal dealers wanted nutso markups, it's not surprising that they have a bunch on the lot.

This, incidentally, is like the 10 millionth thread noting that there are cars on the lot, gasp, which is not surprising given the sucky economy and gas prices. We have also surmised from earlier posts that BMW's strategy was not to trickle out the cars and have people beg like the E46 (or Ferrari).

[JEllis]

This is good... those are 10 M3's BMW has already sold and shows the dealerships have aggressive sales plans....

Jason

[M2381]

Originally Posted by pbadiei

all 10 were MT......is manual driving a lost art?

Why am I not suprised?

DCT orders allocations were prob all taken already and most people don't know how to drive stick

[AYounglove10]

Its true
my nearest dealer had about 7 or eight lying around
about equal number of sedans and coupe.
I hope when it comes time to order mine i can get under MSRP

[ismelllikepoop]

seems that getting them under msrp is fairly easy now. i had no idea really about the going rate, kind of assumed most places were selling at sticker bc of the california market. when i asked the salesperson if they are selling at sticker he laughed and said yeah if i want to pay sticker i can. but then he was saying they have no prob discounting. is irvine trying to sell those at sticker? seems easier to get discounts on the east coast, but also seems like a lot less inventory (most dealers ive seen only have 1-2 m3's)

[AYounglove10]

See thats what I'm hearing from everywhere else.
The guy i talked to said they were firm on sticker.
Maybe i need to look around more or talk to someone else because I'm not gonna miss out on a discount if it means saving me a couple k

[ismelllikepoop]

yeah i really think that the market is slowing down for everyone. I mean the C63 is getting sold out pretty much everywhere at sticker, and the salesguy said there's no way they would discount because it's so new. Then when he was talking to another associate about their allocations he said they could discount 500-1000 max then told me if i was serious the price is not static and could work out something.

the mb salesguy had one good point tho, that bmw produced a lot of m3's relatively. i mean ebay has over 30 and all under sticker. audi underproduced the s5, and it's still commanding a premium b/c it's so limited. I really like the s5, but at it's price, i'd rather have an e90 stripper with just leather and cold weather package

[///MD]

Originally Posted by ismelllikepoop

yeah i really think that the market is slowing down for everyone. I mean the C63 is getting sold out pretty much everywhere at sticker, and the salesguy said there's no way they would discount because it's so new. Then when he was talking to another associate about their allocations he said they could discount 500-1000 max then told me if i was serious the price is not static and could work out something.

the mb salesguy had one good point tho, that bmw produced a lot of m3's relatively. i mean ebay has over 30 and all under sticker. audi underproduced the s5, and it's still commanding a premium b/c it's so limited. I really like the s5, but at it's price, i'd rather have an e90 stripper with just leather and cold weather package

thats what i was thinking. perhaps BMW over estimated the demand for this car. Lets not forget that the M3 has more competition now then it ever has (IS-F, S5, and the merc). It can't bode well for BMW to have that many m3's just looking pretty on the lot. I also noticed all of them were fully loaded. 70k msrp on the sedans. maybe it would help their cause if they had a few bone dry cars and some around 60k.

[JEllis]

Originally Posted by pbadiei

thats what i was thinking. perhaps BMW over estimated the demand for this car. Lets not forget that the M3 has more competition now then it ever has (IS-F, S5, and the merc). It can't bode well for BMW to have that many m3's just looking pretty on the lot. I also noticed all of them were fully loaded. 70k msrp on the sedans. maybe it would help their cause if they had a few bone dry cars and some around 60k.

Actually BMW has technically already sold those cars if they are sitting on the lot. If anything its the dealer that overestimating demand by ordering too many M3's. But in reality, I think new M3 sales figures are exceeding E46 figures...

Jason

[ismelllikepoop]

yeah but mb and audi purposely limited supply to keep them "hot" which bmw did not do. It makes sense b/c the 3-series is bmw's bread and butter and the C and A5/S5 are not for mb and audi. What I personally think is the problem besides competition is the fact that a fully loaded m3 goes over 70k, only a few grand away from the 911 compared to a 15-20k difference for the e46. I think that a minimally optioned one is a great deal, but the option list is pretty big and a 20k premium over the 335i is significant. imho the new m3 doesnt blow away the 335 like the e46 did the 330.

[bmwprince4life]

cuz its no dct

[ismelllikepoop]

Originally Posted by bmwprince4life

cuz its no dct

i dont think you should have mentioned that you are 17 bc it completely explains your posts on these message boards.

[Davinhci]

Originally Posted by M2381

Why am I not suprised?

DCT orders allocations were prob all taken already and most people don't know how to drive stick

+1

[swamp2]

Originally Posted by M2381

DCT orders allocations were prob all taken already and most people don't know how to drive stick

Uninformed, period.

Although it may be true that long term and in the US there may be a significant percentage of M3 owners that are not great with a MT it certainly is not the case that with early cars these owners are so inexperienced that that do not even know how to drive a MT. Most early M-DCT adopters are not only car and M3 enthusiasts but are fairly experienced drivers.

[M2381]

Originally Posted by swamp2

Uninformed, period.

Although it may be true that long term and in the US there may be a significant percentage of M3 owners that are not great with a MT it certainly is not the case that with early cars these owners are so inexperienced that that do not even know how to drive a MT. Most early M-DCT adopters are not only car and M3 enthusiasts but are fairly experienced drivers.

Hmm I think you might have misunderstood me. I meant that out of ALL the population in the United States a lot of people dont know how to drive stick.

Take average Joe for example, he doesn't really know what the M badge stands for but he is looking for a BMW. He strolls in a dealership and buys a M3 because it "looks cool" and drives fast. Chances are, that he will not prefer to buy the 6MT because he doesn't know how to drive it and will want the automatic/DCT.

And yea I understand what you are saying meaning that there may be a lot of MT converts to DCT because they want the new technology right?

[aggie57]

Originally Posted by ismelllikepoop

yeah but mb and audi purposely limited supply to keep them "hot" which bmw did not do. It makes sense b/c the 3-series is bmw's bread and butter and the C and A5/S5 are not for mb and audi.

Sorry??? MB sold 261,500 C-Class in 2007.