Weblog army joins Californian's BMW bid
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By RICHARD PIERSOL/Lincoln Journal Star
The automotive market has been buzzing about the new BMWs.
A couple of weeks ago, a posting on Autoblog described reports that the 2008 BMW M3 Coupe was hitting U.S. dealerships. One dealer raised the suggested price on one of these “Bavarian über coupes” by $30,000 to around $100,000.
Then Husker Auto Group of Lincoln displayed an M3 sedan on eBay — and didn’t set a reserve (a minimum bid).
Ken Tanisaka of Los Angeles bid $60,000 and won the auction. He was the only bidder.
But then, according to Tanisaka’s Web posting, Husker Auto Group balked at awarding him the coveted BMW, claiming the listing was a “mistake.”
“Anyone ever experience anything like this on eBay?” Tanisaka asked on the Web. “Please feel free to chime in.”
And all hell broke loose in the blogosphere Sunday and Monday.
His post drew more than 200,000 hits. Hundreds of people responded to him.
And mostly anonymous posters on a variety of sites trashed Husker Auto Group, speculated on the outcome, encouraged Tanisaka, interpreted eBay rules, offered legal advice and generally scalded the Web with high-octane outrage.
Even Tanisaka called it “very scary.”
As the invective mounted Monday, Tanisaka made a conditional deal with Husker Auto to get the car and tried to calm the storm.
In fact, he pleaded with the legions who identify themselves with names like “moosepoop” to lay off the dealer while he tried to settle details of an agreement he said he had reached, “with conditions.”
“... One thing that I would like to make everyone aware of is, BMW of Lincoln is proactively working to correct the situation that they screwed up,” he wrote on BimmerPost Monday.
“They are trying to do right, so please don't harass the dealership right now. No phone calls, threats, e-mails or fake sales calls.”
In an interview Tuesday, Tanisaka’s lawyer, Scott Tepper, said he couldn’t comment because discussions with the dealership were still going on.
Ryan Mathis, sales manager for Husker Auto Group, acknowledged Monday the dealership had agreed to sell the car to Tanisaka.
We didn’t have the reserve set properly,” Mathis explained. “We had a ‘buy it now’ at $67,800. It was an error by our eBay manager, $67,800 was supposed to be the reserve.”
His dealership’s service record is impeccable, Mathis said, and he doesn’t feel as though publicity from the Web commenters muscled him into anything.
“No, we’re just trying to do the right thing,” Mathis said. “We don’t legally have to do this. I’m getting a lot of publicity on it, maybe I’ll sell some more cars.
“These bloggers out there, they have lots of time on their hands to do this.”
Tanisaka acknowledged as much Monday on the BimmerPost.
“The past few days have been insane,” he wrote. “Just thinking about what has transpired, leaves you speechless really. How did this thing go from a M3post.com rant to what it became today? In 3 days, the site amassed 650+ comments and 200,000 page views, with people posting from all around the world, lending their support and help. That’s people I don’t even know!
“Amazing stuff, and probably the coolest thing I have ever been part of, leveraging the Internet in a way that I have never seen before.”
Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or at dpiersol@journalstar.com.
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Tommy Macroon wrote on March 25, 2008 5:10 pm:
interesting wrote on March 25, 2008 5:30 pm:
Bill in Lincoln wrote on March 25, 2008 5:47 pm:
CS wrote on March 25, 2008 6:56 pm:
Jonathan wrote on March 25, 2008 7:02 pm:
This guy cracks me up. Husker Auto gets international press (there were literally soldiers in Afghanistan checking in on the story) for trying to back out of an Ebay deal they weren't making money on, and he's pretending that it's a good thing. Anyone who's ever used Ebay or bought a car knows darn well that these guys knew exactly what they were doing. Anyone who knows law can tell you that Husker Auto is on the hook here. If you look at their Ebay feedback, it looks like this type of incident isn't entirely isolated, either. This kind of stuff is why people don't like car dealerships.
Way to give Nebraska a bad name, Husker Auto! "
Randy wrote on March 25, 2008 7:05 pm:
Clifford wrote on March 25, 2008 7:34 pm:
And let Fil know that I'm praying for his hair. "
TS wrote on March 25, 2008 7:35 pm:
RX7owner wrote on March 25, 2008 7:37 pm:
I'm really delighted at what a group of anonymous and
(for the most part) sincere car enthusiasts were able to
do to support one of their own. There were a few writers
who clearly seemed to be either shills for the dealership
or otherwise inclined to support Husker BMW, but the very
great majority were solidly behind Mr. Tanisaka.
It makes me wish we could harness some of this outrage to
deal with some of the other ills and abuses by the powerful
that our country has...
RX7owner "
Andy wrote on March 25, 2008 7:39 pm:
---
This is ridiculous. Check their dispute record with the Better Business Bureau to see how "impeccable" they are. A lot of things in the whole behavior of Husker BMW display signs of intent (tring to avoid the terms deception and baiting tactics, but.. oops, I said it.) "
Micah P. wrote on March 25, 2008 8:59 pm:
So Funny wrote on March 25, 2008 9:07 pm:
Course, what should we expect from the fine folks who have come to rip-off Lincolnites for so many years. The bad pub serves them right. "
Bill wrote on March 25, 2008 10:14 pm:
Suuuure, if you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you!
It stated right on their eBay auction before it ended, "NO RESERVE".
Husker owes the winner the car for the selling price. These so-called "conditions" Husker wants to put on the buyer, whatever they are, reek of an attempt to cover up their seemingly slimy behavior. "
David wrote on March 26, 2008 3:53 pm:
I had no complaints with Husker Auto and thought they did a really good job with my car purchase. "
Spencer wrote on March 26, 2008 5:48 pm:
"Ok, here is where we are. My lawyer has been working on my behalf.
He got the dealership to remove two conditions Fil Catania tried to impose on the deal on Monday. The first condition was that I agree not to sell the car for 2 years. They agreed (through their corporate counsel in Arizona) to drop that one. The second condition was that I agree to confidentiality and that I do something to stop the press from contacting the dealership and say something nice about the dealership. We got that one dropped, too.
I was told to arrange to make the deposit with Fil Catania at the dealership today (and was given a 4 hour deadline). To my dismay, Fil Cataniam, the GM, used my call as an opportunity to berate me, telling me CSNBC, etc.,. etc., were calling the dealership again. In my call to him, he also refused to take my credit card! In essence, he has rejected the deal corporate counsel for the parent company had worked out with my lawyer last night.
So I am ceasing communication with the dealer for now. My lawyer drafted the letter that appears below (he has dealt with Mr. Herbert Klein, general counsel for BMW NA in the past), which he faxed earlier today to BMW NA..
Also, other dealerships have been calling me, offering not only support, but greart deals on M3s! As much as I would love to take one of them, I don't know tif they are real offers or not, and I simply want BMW of Lincoln to live up to its obligations to me.
I would ask that no one call the dealership or BMW NA about this, but just wait and see what happens next. I know my lawyer is preparing a lawsuit, and if we have to file it, I will post further information here. It will also be interesting to see if BMW NA, now that it has been "officially" notified, does anything about this. This will be a good object lesson for all of us about how a car company stands up for its customers, don't you think?"
"
Anthony wrote on March 26, 2008 7:23 pm:
NewCar wrote on March 26, 2008 8:50 pm:
Leadphinger wrote on March 27, 2008 11:22 am:
Jessica wrote on March 28, 2008 11:38 pm:
Richard wrote on March 30, 2008 2:54 am:
I know one thing, I just started a website where dealerships are allowed to list their cars for free. Now, if this particular dealership tries to list their inventory on my site, I'll ban them pretty darn quickly!
Good luck Ken!
Richard
www.sellmyride.us "
Ryan wrote on April 1, 2008 2:41 am: