Sam Swope BMW

In 2011 my wife purchased a 335i and had no issues until the winter of 2016. The latest issue is that the water pump went out, my wife took the car to the dealership for repairs. Well, after picking up her car the next day the coolant warning light came on… that’s following a $ 1,300 bill for repairs and labor. So I checked the level of coolant in the radiator and its all but empty. There is coolant leaked all over the place. This error from the dealer could have resulted in a blown engine.
I’m sorry but I expected a better level of overall quality from the service department considering that we paid dealership prices. I don’t see any possible way to drive this car back do the dealer without the risk of doing damage to the engine so we will have it towed.
Never mind the impact this has on a day when we have to go to work.
If you read a past review of mine for the Sam Swope Collision Center you would also find that the quality of service from the people was lacking. Well I guess that I expected better.
I may update this review depending on the events in the morning with the dealership. How will they handle this… who knows.

Highly recommend Swope! Excellent customer service, prices are reasonable and you can trust them! We worked with Kyle Cornwell, and it was a red carpet experience. We purchased a vehicle for less than what we anticipated, without the need for heavy negotiating, and got more than we imagined. The experience was wonderful and Kyle was a big reason for that. Everyone was helpful and we are hopeful the future visits to Swope will continue to be this pleasurable.

This all started roughly in march when i noticed that our 2012×5 5.0i was starting to burn oil. So as like anyone else i googled reasons and found that BMW has a Customer Care package that repairs this issue that was release in December of 2014. I called Sam Swope on 4 different occasions and left voice mail to contact me back with information on this and how long will this take to perform the service. Not one call back to me, finally called and a live person answered the phone WOW. The woman said it’s no big deal we can get you in the shop in two weeks to do some checks that BMW needs for us to order the parts because different ones need different parts. I waited the two weeks showed up at the dealer after taking off work to do so, waited in the waiting room probably fifteen minutes and shawn the service advisor came out and said «I am not sure why we had you come in today my service manager said just to order the parts.» Ok now i am a little upset waist of a day to do this. We set up another appointment in two more weeks, I was to drop it off and get work performed. My phone died on the thursday before the appointment at the last part of the day and Sam Swope had called and left a voice mail that was in the terms of we don’t want you to come in and waste your time tomorrow we do not need to check your vehicle for the parts anymore BMW has told all dealers to just replace all the parts, we can get you on a list of people to order the parts to perform this procedure just call us back. OK i get on the phone because as far as i know we ordered the parts and thats why i am coming in tomorrow. fourty five minutes of calling a receptionist finally answers the phone i am fairly steamed at this point she said i can send you back to leave a voice mail or just call back in the morning. WHAT HA are you kidding no one ever answers the phone no just get me a manager that i could speak with. i wait on hold for five minutes she gets back on the phone sir did you figure out what you want to do call back in the morning or i can send you back to the voice mail. MAAM I asked for you to get me a manager to speak with, please hold. she sends me to a voice mail. My blood is boiling at this point, i grabbed my 6 month old and head over there, I spoke with the sales manager at this point he didn’t care, he stated he will call me in the morning. never received a call from them. I called and asked for the service manager to call me back, he did about 8 hours later. I decided that i would not do business with these people. Today three weeks after all this our BMW has gone into limp mode I called yet again like a dummy. I’m sorry sir it will be the fifteenth before we can get you a loaner which is two weeks away. should have known better. called dealer in lexington I am dropping off vehicle monday to get all work performed as they stated a couple days at the most. DO NOT GO TO SAM SWOPE.

One of the best car buying experiences my wife and I have ever had. They went above and beyond in every way I can imagine. They were not pushy during the sales process and really worked with us for custom ordering our new X5. Upon delivery, they even put a big bow on the car for my wife which put a huge smile on her face. Afterwards, we ran into a couple issues and they stepped up like no other dealership ever has before. All around a great dealership to buy from and I could not recommend them more.

i bought a used 2011 335i convertible at another local dealer – not swope but i took it there because i still had factory warranty remaining. i noticed a noise in the engine and also had a recall that needed to be done. i took it in and met a service advisor named Brian. They got the recall done that day but needed more time to diagnose the engine noise. Since it was a Friday I chose to pick up my car and return it when i could get a loaner vehicle. During the second visit they kept my car overnight and Brian called me 2 – 3 times during my car’s stay in their shop to let me know how things were progressing. After reading some of the reviews i was a little hesitant as i have had BMW before but never needed the service department for much other than oil changes. it had also been about 4 years since my last BMW. Overall I’d have to say i had a really positive experience! The noise is fixed and Brian did a great job keeping me in the loop! :-)

As the other reviewers have stated, these people are LIARS of the biggest order, and incompetent.
They advertised a 2011 BMW 750i for $ 68,000 with a little over 3,000 miles. I called from PA to inquire and was told the car was in pristine condition and therefore they would not negotiate on the price. After thinking about it, I wrote to the salesman, Jeffrey Bricker, and told him I was interested but I wanted to avoid any surprises when the car arrived in Philadelphia, and would he please confirm in writing that the car was flawless both inside and out.
The word «flawless» is a little hard to misinterpret, don’t you think? It means perfect. Without flaw. Inside and out. Jeff wrote back that indeed the car had no issues and told me they would also have the car detailed before sending it to me.
When you buy a $ 68,000 car without looking at it in person, you have to trust the dealer. The alternative is to take an entire day to fly down, inspect the car, and fly back. I figured I could trust these guys to give me an honest report on a car that I was going to see in a few days. I mean, what kind of scumbag would tell you direct lies that you would obviously be seeing as soon as the car rolled off the truck? Oh, that would be Jeffrey Bricker and the other scumbag, the General Manager at Sam Swope BMW.
First of all, the car had almost 6,000 miles on it, not the 3k+ miles advertised. There is an actual cut in the leather on the center console. How does that even happen? More ruined leather on the back seat center armrest where someone stuffed hard plastic and then closed the armrest on it. That must have been in there for a while, because it came out when I opened the armrest for the first time (guess the detailer missed that). Even the transport people had noted scratches all over the front and back of the car because they didn’t want to be held responsible — and Bricker had signed that form! Meaning he agreed there were scratches. And these weren’t just scratches. In the front, it looked like someone drove under the back end of a semi, because the metal was so creased. There were numerous other problem areas — nine in all — that my «flawless» 750 came with.
After I calmed down, I wrote to Bricker and sent photos of each of the problems, asking that they pay for these issues to be corrected by the local BMW dealer. Bricker wrote back, saying any used car was going to have problems and this should be expected. «Expected.» Well, when you tell me a car is flawless, no, I don’t EXPECT it to have ripped leather, and scratches and indentations all over it. They offered me $ 150 to have everything fixed. Have any of you ever tried to have ANYTHING done on a BMW for $ 150? You couldn’t get a good detail job for that… which brings me back to the detail job they promised me. Were the pair of dirty socks I found on the floor in the back somehow overlooked by the detailer? Were the long strands of women’s hair throughout the car part not visible during the detail job? How about that hard plastic that ruined the leather on the back armrest? And I guess the black fingerprints on the roof cloth were… yes, something I should have EXPECTED since I was buying a used car.
Look, do yourself a favor and don’t even get involved with these liars and incompetents. I spoke to my attorney and she told me the laws about these kinds of things are vague. We could have pursued it, but the possibility was in the end we would not have been satisfied with the outcome. I have too much going on in my life to devote more time to these losers. I just hope enough people read this review and cost them a lot more than $ 150 through lost business.

Not only are they liars, but they’re incompetent.
Advertised on their website, and many others, is (at this writing) a white 335i coupe, manual, loaded.
Their description said it had 1 owner, and that it was purchased new and maintained at that dealership. The free Carfax report offered on the very same page reported THREE prior owners. Also, that it was purchased and maintained in Illinois. Never mind that the car had been rear ended and has been reported as being RED several times.
I called them to yell at them (I was bored) and found that their phone system is not set up properly. «Press 2 for sales.» [2] «That is an invalid entry.» «Press 0 for operator». [0] «That is an invalid entry.»
When I finally did get ahold of someone at the advertised phone number, the salesman (who sounded like a complete idiot that had no idea what was going on) eventually told me the car had been sent to their «smart center» which is their smarmy nickname for their used car lot.
I call the «smart center» and said I was calling about the white 335i coupe. The salesman said he had to check if it was still there, since he just had someone in it 15 minutes ago. He called me back 10 minutes later, and said the 535xi (WRONG CAR) was still there. I said «No, 335i. Coupe. White.» and he said «Oh, that must be at the BMW store». Putting aside the ignorance of calling a car dealer a «store», I flippantly replied «No, they said it was with you.» He said he’d call me back.
He never called me back.
Their online chat response:
«Unfortunately that vehicle is no longer available. To answer your question… We sold the vehicle brand new and it was traded in by the same owner. We received it new from the dealership in Illinois as a car locate for the original owner. The vehichle’s new owner would be the 3^rd owner.»
I’m so glad my boyfriend showed me the CarFax, else I would have wasted 14 hours driving from Milwaukee and back to look at this car. Do avoid this dealership.

I took my 330i in for scheduled service (oil change and inspection). It was still under warranty and I had the maintenance plan as well, which I told them when I scheduled the appointment. I dropped it off in the morning and after 6 hours and not having heard anything, I called to find out what was going on. They said that I needed new brakes/​rotors, along with new front control arms, and a couple belts were worn and should be replaced. The service advisor quoted me $ 1800 for this. When I asked about this being covered under the warranty/​maintenance plan, he acted like he didn’t know I had this and said he would have to give me a call back. 30 mins. later he calls back and says it will be about $ 750. The brakes/​rotors aren’t covered due to excessive rust, which he said was caused from sitting undriven for extended periods of time. That’s an environment issue and therefore isn’t covered under the maintenance plan. I said that I put about 25k miles on it a year so it doesn’t sit undriven for long, and 20k miles ago the rear brakes/​rotors were replaced under the maintenance plan by another dealer. He still said it wasn’t covered. I asked about the control arms which he said were never covered as they were just standard wear and tear items. That’s interesting since the maintenance plan is supposed to cover wear and tear items. It needed to be done so I said to go ahead and do it. He wanted to know if I could leave it overnight as it was supposedly a 3 – 4 hour job (it had been there for 7 hours now) and I said that I really needed it that night but could wait if absolutely necessary. He told me he’d see what he could do and call me right back. After 30 mins. and no return phone call, I call back. He tells me that it will be ready in an hour. When I go pick it up, I’m socked with an $ 1150 bill! I was given no explanation for the discrepancy between the quoted $ 750 and the actual cost. It was just an «estimate.» As many brake jobs as they do and control arms that they replace, they can only get within $ 400 of the actual price? Furthermore, the other recommended maintenance items that should have been done at this inspection per the maintenance manual were spark plug replacement and automatic transmission fluid flush/​replace. I was told that it didn’t need it. Funny, the book says that if it’s not done, then the warranty is void.
I contacted BMW NA as they didn’t contact me like they usually do after a service appointment. I explained what happened and the rep said he would contact the dealer to try to resolve it. He called me back the next day and said he had talked to the dealer. He said that the dealer had provided a more detailed explanation to him about the brakes/​rotors. They had «pitting» from rust and therefore would not be covered as that was not normal wear and tear. Again, I told him that it doesn’t sit undriven for any length of time but he could only go with what they told him. As for the control arms, he couldn’t verify if they were a covered item or not, but according to the dealer they weren’t. I guess BMW NA doesn’t know what their own maintenance plan covers? As for the transmission fluid and spark plugs, he repeated the same thing about it not being needed. Weird, because BMW’s maintenance book specifically says that it is. They had never been replaced before so I don’t see how it wouldn’t be needed. Regardless, the warranty and maintenance plan had just expired so they couldn’t cover it now anyway. I’m sure they didn’t plan that one! Also, Swope emailed me a customer satisfaction survey. I related the experience and how dissatisfied I was. I checked the box that said I would like to be contacted but of course never heard back from them. I guess they figure that since it’s no longer under warranty I won’t be going back to them. I must not be the first person they’ve done this too.
Bottom line is, don’t go here unless you’re sure everything is covered under warranty. If they say it’s not, check with someone else or go to another dealer. Even if it is, I wouldn’t trust them after this incident. That was my first and last time at Sam Swope. I will be using an independent shop from now on as there are several good ones in the area. I also found out that they would have only charged half of what Swope did!

You know the feeling you get when doing a job well done? Or, perhaps, the warm fuzzies that overtake you by knowing that you’ve put in a honest day’s work?
Yeah, the crooks at Saw Swope BMW don’t either.
My car («The B») is 21 years old. She is an old-​school BMW (325i). She has seen me through road trips, auto accidents, caravanning, job changes, new schools, booty calls and the resultant coyote mornings. Despite my inability to wash her in a timely and regular manner, I have deep love for The B. I want the best for her.
During my last car trip back home for the holidays, my driver’s side front door lock froze up. It’s happened before. The tumbler is old and worn out. Usually, I can get by with greasing it and the problem’s solved. This time, however, the lock wouldn’t budge. I drove home getting in and out of my car like a Duke boy (ahh, those Kentucky stereotypes seem to always creep back into my life) and resolved to get the lock fixed before driving back. In addition, I thought my passenger side front tire looked low. My usual mechanics were closed for the holidays so, against my better judgement, I ventured over to the dealer (NOT where my dad bought The B) to get it fixed. After an hour and a half ‘review’ that cost me $ 141.11, the criminals at SS (draw your own conclusions) told me that I had a «big» problem.
«Big? How big?»
$ 1286.94. I kid you not. To open my car door would cost me $ 1200. I kept the itemized receipt. You see, not only would my door never open by mortal means, but everything about The B was failing — except for the tire. The tire was fine. Now understanding the meaning of ‘gobsmacked’, I paid $ 141.11 to SS for unlocking my car (but I couldn’t relock it because it would freeze up again), filling my tire with air («no puncture») and shocking the curl out of my hair. Freaked out, I contemplated putting in the big bucks. I drove back to Chicago and planned on contacting the local BMW dealer so I could get the work done. Thing is, I noticed my tire was low again. This time, it was nearly flat. I took it to a tire shop and discovered a 2 inch piece of hanger-​wire (or something like that) which had PUNCTURED my tire. God watches over babies and idiots. I was cruising for a blow out. Incensed that the ‘professionals’ at SS let me get back on the interstate with a dangerous tire, I thought I should reconsider the $ 1200. I asked the tire guy if he knew of a good car place. He told me about a European import shop that «does everything and is staffed by no-​nonsense (but honest) Europeans.» That was all I needed to hear. I took The B to the shop and had my new best friend, Bob, check her out. He found the problem, ordered the parts, did the work and had her back to me in two days. Total cost (even with high-​ass Chicago, IL tax): $ 222.46. I.kid.you.not. I thought back to a story told to me by the mechanic who worked on my car when I lived in Nashville. He told me that he had his car *towed* from Louisville to Nashville rather than have the SS BMW boys work on it. What does that tell you?
Either the dummies at SS BMW are *that* incompetent or *that* shady. In either case, you should give them neither your business nor your hard-​earned money. I understand a little dealer mark up. It’s expected. This? Is borderline criminal. For shame, SS! Complete shame! On YOU, sir (s)!