Autoblog

The saga of Ken Tanisaka and BMW of Lincoln, Nebraska is almost over, as the embattled eBay winner of a nicely-priced BMW M3 sedan has exchanged funds with the dealership and the car is set to be shipped for delivery. It's been a long road for Ken involving lawyers and lots of patience as the dealership, part of the Husker Auto Group, stubbornly fought not to honor its eBay auction that Ken won for $10,000 below MSRP.

Now that it's almost over, BMW of Lincoln should be glad that the firestorm of negative media attention with which it's had to deal is about to end. That's what you would think, but this particular dealership seems to relish in making the wrong choices. Autoblog reader Dale pointed us to this advert that was emailed to him from the Husker Auto Group, which paints the whole ordeal as a case of the dealership bending over backwards to make a customer happy. Read the most choice paragraph below.

Being the honorable dealership that Husker is, [it] agreed to honor the price of $60,000 for the BMW E90 M3. This vehicle typically would have been priced around $70,000. At Husker BMW, we honor all contracts. And in this case we covered the $10,000 for the vehicle to make our customer happy.

True, the Husker Auto Group eventually honored the auction that Ken rightfully won, but we'd hardly describe its behavior as honorable. The decision to let go of the car for $10k below sticker appears motivated less by the desire to make Ken happy than to get out from under the harsh spotlight of attention that was aimed at the dealership by a loosely organized but large group of compassionate internet citizens. The last thing this dealership should be doing is bragging about its customer service.

[Source: imakenews.com]

Click above for more pics of the damage allegedly caused Circuit City

For those interested in the soap opera that's ensued surrounding Ken Tanisaka and his efforts to take delivery of a BMW M3 sedan won fair and square and eBay Motors for $60k from BMW of Lincoln, Nebraska, here's what appears to be the final update. Ken's latest post says that all the details for payment are settled and the car is going to be delivered to his nearest Bimmer dealer, South Bay BMW, any day now. Props are paid to his lawyer, Scott, who really did the heavy lifting, as well as the hundreds of thousands of internet folk who made a stink on Ken's behalf. Ken is also auctioning off the right to pick his vanity license plates for the car, which should be interesting. Half the money will go to pay his legal bills, and the other half to charity.

But all is still not well in the land of Carsumer Advocacy (you like? we're starting a new category just for this stuff). VTECnical, a member of the 8thcivic.com forum, shocked us with a tale of $12,199.64 in damages done to his hardly driven 2007 Honda Civic Si with just 800 miles on the odo. The alleged perpetrator in this case is Circuit City store #3124 in Vernon Hills, IL, which reportedly did the damage while installing $3,190.62 worth of stereo equipment into VTECnical's car. While CC did refund the purchase price of the components, it has also cut off all communication, leaving this car owner with an estimate for over $12k in repairs. How could a stereo installation go so wrong? We're not sure and would like more pics of the damage from VTECnical to inspect for ourselves, but the images we do have of the "crime scene" and the estimates given for repair are irrefutable enough, at least for the internet. Circuit City, meanwhile, remains silent.


[Source: m3post.com, 8thcivic.com]

UPDATE: Ken almost got his BMW M3 sedan this afternoon, but things fell through yet again. BMW of North America has now been contacted by Ken's lawyer. Click here for more.

Ken Tanisaka's battle to get his M3 sedan from BMW of Lincoln, Nebraska is not over, despite encouraging words posted by Ken himself on Monday. While the embattled eBay winner had reported that he would be sold the brand new M3 sedan for his winning bid of $60,000, there were "special conditions" that had yet to be discussed. Having spoken with the dealership now, as well as retained his own attorney who specializes in internet law, Ken has revealed what the conditions are.

First, the dealership asked that the car could not be sold for a number of years. How that has anything to do with the dealership, other than them not wanting Ken to profit from their mistake, is beyond us. Ken's lawyer got this condition removed, thankfully. The second condition is that Ken would be asked to help defuse the internet firestorm that began after he posted on M3post.com about this situation. Ken did just that when he posted on Monday that things were moving in a positive direction, prompting us to remark that we can call off the hounds now. Apparently the hounds need to be unleashed again until this dealership gets it.

Ryan Mathis, the sales manager for Husker Auto Group of which BMW of Lincoln is a part, was recently quoted in an article about the situation saying, "These bloggers out there, they have lots of time on their hands to do this." Ken shoots back in his latest post, "Did it ever occur to the dealership that they created a situation that compelled complete strangers to MAKE time?" Clearly there are many people out there who identify with getting screwed by a dealership, hence the outpouring of support and demands for internet justice, but until BMW of Lincoln sells the M3 sedan to Ken with NO strings attached, this isn't going to end. Seriously, BMW of North America, can we get a little help here? Thanks for the tip, everyone!

[Source: M3post.com]

We're betting M3post.com forum member, dooma350, had no idea that his call for help with a shady transaction on eBay Motors would become what it did. After winning a new BMW M3 Sedan on the online auction site from BMW of Lincoln, Nebraska, the dealership refused to sell the car despite there being no reserve price, claiming the auction was a "mistake". dooma350's single post for help on a forum led to an internet-based outcry on his behalf, with lawyers offering free advice, other websites (like ours) promoting his cause, local news organizations getting in touch, etc. BMW of Lincoln's contact information was posted in countless places, and it no doubt received an overwhelming number of opinions about its actions from those who connected with dooma350's plight, and who had probably gone through similar experiences with dealerships before.

Well, we can call off the hounds. dooma350, whose real name is Ken, has posted again on M3post.com informing his volunteer army of minions that he and BMW of Lincoln have come to a resolution, and that the dealership will sell him the M3 Sedan for $60,000, though with certain conditions. Ken will be traveling to the dealership tomorrow to go over the details and find out what those conditions are, but we bet this particular dealership will think twice about slighting him again. One thing Ken notes in his most recent post, however, is that for the sake of this purchase going through, everyone needs to back off the dealership now. He asks, "No phone calls, threats, emails or fake sales calls." OK, Ken. Just promise to send us a pic of you smiling in the driver's seat when this is all over with. Thanks for the tips, everyone!

[Source: M3post.com]

UPDATE: 3-24-08 -- This was left on the original M3 forum thread by Ken, the nearly-defrauded winner of the eBay auction: "Sorry its taken so long to post a update. The site is very slow (understandably). This morning, BMW of Lincoln has agreed to sell me the car at a price of 60K, with certain conditions. I'll be going over the conditions with the dealership tommorow, and I hope to have everything finalized by tommorow afternoon." You can read the rest of his comment here. It's pretty cool what the Internet can do...

Apparently all is not kosher in corn country. BMW of Lincoln, Nebraska posted an auction on eBay for a brand new M3 Sedan for $60,000. Perhaps they were hoping for the kind of eBay madness that would push the price to six figures (something other dealers are doing right on the show floor). If that's what they were after, well, they didn't get it. The car was won by a gentleman in California for the listed price: $60,000.

The problem is that the dealer doesn't want to give him the car. Not long after the auction ended, the winning bidder got a call from BMW of Nebraska telling him the auction was "a mistake," and that he couldn't have the car. In spite of the fact that the dealership changed the Buy It Now price twice -- and so was paying attention to the auction -- and eBay rules that make it clear that if someone wins the auction then you must complete the transaction, the buyer is still trying to get someone to give him the car he won at the winning bid price. Follow the link for the full story, and to you, Dooma350, good luck. Thanks for the tip, Ken!

[Source: M3post.com]