Hi Carl. I’m sorry to hear that your first experience of a Motability order has been a poor one. Unfortunately, even ‘experienced’ Motability customers often don’t make sure that an order has actually been placed and are unaware of the tricks that many dealers use. An order form filled in with a dealer is simply an internal note for the dealer (and customer) of what car (and options) the customer wants, but is not a proper order.
The order is only placed when the dealer places the order on the manufacturers order system, at which time a manufacturer (as opposed to dealer) order number is obtained and, depending on the manufacturer, a tracking number is generated. Dealers have build allocations (by month or quarter) of certain numbers of each model of car and are rarely honest with customers if they have used up all of their slots, because they don’t want you to go elsewhere. As a result, a dealer may imply to you that they have placed an order when in reality they just sit on it for a month or two until their next allocations open up, as they physically cannot order before then. That’s why I always specifically ask where they are with their allocations before placing an order and if they tell me they have slots I hound them every few days for an order / tracking number. Some people think you need a VIN, but they aren’t allocated until much closer to build date.
In your case, it’s a shame that Motability have washed their hands of your issue, which is unlike them. If it were me, I would ask to speak to the Dealer Principal (that’s the correct name of the person in overall charge of the dealership) and explain the situation. Include in this conversation the poor attitude of the sales person. A good Dealer Principal will apologise profusely and honour your original AP. They will be giving many thousands of pounds of discounts to retail customers and Motability orders still count towards their dealership and manufacturer bonuses, so a grand is nothing to them. If you still want the 2 Series GC you will be shooting your self in the foot by just walking away, as it will take many months to get another one from another dealer (as you will be starting again) and if the lead time is long your 2 Series GC will be sold to a retail customer in a heartbeat, so the dealer will be quids in. If the Dealer Principal doesn’t help (which I’d be surprised if they didn’t) then escalate a complaint to BMW UK and tell the dealer principal that you will be doing so. Let us know how you get on. It’s infuriating some times when people post problems on this forum, get good advice and then don’t report back on the final outcome!