I'd read that BMW would have the new 3-Series coupes in the dealers on 1 September, so I dutifully trotted over to Beverly Hills BMW for a look-see-drive over the Labor Day weekend. Anyone familiar with this dealership in LA knows that it has a small new car showroom on Olympic Blvd, just west of Robertson. The used car and service facilities are in the next block and, across the street, they've leased the former Infiniti dealers' space to be more storage and showroom space, mostly for used cars. [Note: Infiniti desperately needs a dealership back in Beverly Hills.]

Beverly Hills BMW has been owned by Sonic Automotive for several years now. I wasn't impressed when the company took over the Beverly Hills store from a couple failed owners and BMW itself; but you figure that these days, the stand-alone store model doesn't work in a market as important and as expensive to operate in as Beverly Hills.

The dealership just went through a major expansion of its service bay capacity; however, the physical space and narrow residential side streets just aren't big enough to cue as many cars and handle the traffic that comes into service and sales every day. The expanded service hours, including Saturday, do help some and it's nice to have service open on the weekend. It's also in a very convenient location for many BMW owners.

I think that some service may be moved across the street to the third storefront. It would make sense as that space has service bay capacity, albeit nothing close to what is needed. But that move hasn't happened yet. I knew they had leased the space across the street a while ago; however, my hopes that it would become a MINI dealer have evaporated now that the space has been built out and filled with Certified Pre-Owned BMWs.

BH BMW keeps a small inventory of test drive cars in the barn-like space behind the main new car showroom. The standard operating procedure is to find out what kind of car the customer is interested in and then offer a test drive in one of the mules kept there. The remaining small space is used for new car prep and delivery.

I walked in the barn space first. I found a new 328i Coupe, but no sign of the 335i Coupe. So I walked into the showroom from the rear entrance. No 3-Series coupes were on the showroom floor either. They did have a beautiful new M6 Coupe in Sapphire Black that had been rejected by the person who ordered it. The main option was the upgraded Black Merino Leather $3,500 package. I have to say French stitching on the dash, seats and door panels was extremely nice. It also had Comfort Access keyless go system and the heads-up display, so this M6 had every option available from BMW. But hey, when you're paying a cool $100k plus for this machine, why not? Something tells me that they won't have a problem selling it right off the showroom floor.

I was approached by a sales associate and I asked him about the 335. He told me that it hadn't arrived yet, but were on its way. I asked him about the 328 in the mule service area and he told me that it was only here for test drives, but wasn't for sale. Fair enough. Do you think I got offered a drive or even to look inside? No.

I told him that I'd be interested in driving the 335i when it arrived. I was interested in it for the engine. It's the first of the BMW inline sixes with direct gas injection and it's also the first in some 25 years to be turbocharged for the US market. Allegedly BMW has taken the lag out of turbo. Porsche claims the same for the 2007 911 Turbo; however both German companies went about it in a different way. Dan Neil of the LA Times had an orgy with the 911 Turbo when he reviewed it a couple weeks ago. I don't think he could have lavished any more superlatives over it. So I'll take Dan's word for the fact the Porsche got rid of the dreaded turbo-lag. Early test reports indicate that BMW has done the same thing by using twin turbo -- one for the first three cylinder bank and another for the second.

I definitely want to drive this car.

Unfortunately, my sales associate was just that, an associate. He had to do the mandatory introduction to the sales manager. I hate that. My question about the 335i's availability got asked to the manager. He repeated that the cars had been released from BMW's prep center in Oxnard and would be here this week. The manager also managed to repeat the same questions about when was I looking to buy? When did my lease expire? What color was I interested in? All valid, but maybe a bit premature. I hadn't even driven the car yet, I haven't seen the new color (Space Gray Metallic) and even if I did want one, I'd probably have to order it to get the color, interior and option packages I was interested in.

But this is Beverly Hills and this dealer is apparently accustomed to selling cars without even the usual obligatory four-turn "test drive" around the block. And color is more important than kit. Does it match my eyes?

As usual, I knew more about the car than either the sales manager or sales associate. I found this out by asking about Space Gray Metallic. Neither knew it was a new color for the 3-Series coupes.

And then I had to hang my head (in despair) one final time. The sales associate gave me his card. The original holder of the card's name had a piece of whiteout tape put over it with the name "Arthur" written on the tape. My guy had to cross out "Arthur" and write his name on the cardstock. And to make matters a bit worse, since he didn't have a direct phone line assigned yet, he gave his cell phone number with an area code even I didn't recognize. I looked it up. The area code is from the Houston, TX area. It's one of those new area codes used for the outer suburbs or for cell phones. It's like the new 424 overlay area code for the 310 area code. So I should make a call to a Houston number to talk directly to my salesperson in Beverly Hills. The poor guy probably couldn't afford a second 310 number and he was probably hoping to make a commission just to be able to pay the rent and eat. It's kind of sad when you think about it.

All I wonder is how long Arthur lasted. It wasn't even long enough to get cards printed. For some reason, I was expecting more from a prestigious BMW store. Ah, I dream. Has anything changed there?