[Jason]

BIMMERPOST NEWS

One of the first BMW agents in the world. The Pilakoutas story.

25
COMMENTS

Tweet

The Pilakoutas Family has BMW in their DNA. They're based in Cyprus and started to sell BMW cars very early. So early, that they were among the first BMW agents worldwide.

[1LegitM235i]

Very cool story! Love hearing some of the roots of BMW. Imagine the car market back then...they really had to share the idea of the ultimate driving experience. My father in law still recalled buying his first BMW 2002 when he first came to the States. He wished he had kept it. But the BMW was his inspiration to become a mechanic for BMW. Retired 33 years later and you could say, BMW is in the family's DNA. It may not be in my DNA, but I'm very closed to it.

[GreeKon]

I dig it.

[Schm]

Wonderful story, it's great to see that a BMW has built such a strong quality relationship with their dealer in Cyprus over all these years- a testiment to the constant quality of product and great customer service by the dealer.

Just another reason why I think BMW has gained of the most loyal customer followings.

[greekcs]

Crestron 8X on his desk. Not too shabby.

[PeterKBMW]

Felt a little sense of pride being Greek myself

Great vid!

[P1]

So this guy set up the BMW dealerships in the Emirates also?

[M3 Number 86]

what about the story of Neda at Beverly Hills BMW? She makes 2M a year.

[raysspl]

Fantastic mini-documentary. Thank you for sharing.

[Gray_Panther]

Elladara!!!!!
Bravo!!!

Definitively proud of being Greek and much respect to the family for staying so loyal and diligent throughout the years. Rare to hear such tales.

[Malaka1]

Nice job! Us malakes should sell more BMW's maybe we would not need bail outs :/

[Dackelone]

What a great (BMW)story!

[igom3]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

what about the story of Neda at Beverly Hills BMW? She makes 2M a year.

LOL!!!

[Cooltones]

Wonderful. May this BMW dealership "family" continue for many, many generations.

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by igom3

LOL!!!

[Armen383]

What's yours eh? Well, coming from a guy who's been living in Cyprus for the last 7 years, I have quite a lot to comment on this - and although it might sound a bit on the butt-hurt side, in reality its how things are. Out of all the major German brands dealerships in Cyprus (provided that it's a rather small island with a lot of cars), Char. Pilakoutas is probably one of the best, but... it's the best among utter horror.

I don't know whether it's good or bad, but the village mentality is still present everywhere; and 90% of things here are monopolies. What takes guys in DE 3 hours, takes BMW here 3 days (personal experience). There are a few knowledgeable people working around, but the majority... well, you don't want them to come near your car, let alone do some serious installations/etc. And the vast majority of the salesmen... OMG, they're literally clueless - people in their 50s and 60s selling cars they know nothing about.
Because of the monopoly, you get a car on sale for 100k EUR and in a month you have EUR 90k "special price". Then you patch through BMW export sales in UK and you end up with EUR 80k for the same car. Yeah, nice b-i-s-i-ness for sure.
And don't even get me started on the repairs section when you order, say a new bumper to be replaced because of a minor fender-bender, you wait for X weeks for it to be "delivered" only then to discover that your white color car bumper is actually blue underneath and came from another car.

I mean yeah, these promotional videos are nice to watch for an outsider, but for someone who's dealing with this every day...

P.S. And the best thing is... these guys deal not just with BMW (and therefore Mini and Rolls), but also Land Rover, Jaguar and Nissan. Locals from Limassol know the LOL side to that.

[ga41]

Originally Posted by Armen383

What's yours eh? Well, coming from a guy who's been living in Cyprus for the last 7 years, I have quite a lot to comment on this - and although it might sound a bit on the butt-hurt side, in reality its how things are. Out of all the major German brands dealerships in Cyprus (provided that it's a rather small island with a lot of cars), Char. Pilakoutas is probably one of the best, but... it's the best among utter horror.

I don't know whether it's good or bad, but the village mentality is still present everywhere; and 90% of things here are monopolies. What takes guys in DE 3 hours, takes BMW here 3 days (personal experience). There are a few knowledgeable people working around, but the majority... well, you don't want them to come near your car, let alone do some serious installations/etc. And the vast majority of the salesmen... OMG, they're literally clueless - people in their 50s and 60s selling cars they know nothing about.
Because of the monopoly, you get a car on sale for 100k EUR and in a month you have EUR 90k "special price". Then you patch through BMW export sales in UK and you end up with EUR 80k for the same car. Yeah, nice b-i-s-i-ness for sure.
And don't even get me started on the repairs section when you order, say a new bumper to be replaced because of a minor fender-bender, you wait for X weeks for it to be "delivered" only then to discover that your white color car bumper is actually blue underneath and came from another car.

I mean yeah, these promotional videos are nice to watch for an outsider, but for someone who's dealing with this every day...

P.S. And the best thing is... these guys deal not just with BMW (and therefore Mini and Rolls), but also Land Rover, Jaguar and Nissan. Locals from Limassol know the LOL side to that.

I agree with Armen. Having not bought my BMW from them (it's a UK car) and only dealing with them for services for the first year or two of my ownership, I still have to say i'm glad i'm now taking it to a good indy mechanic! Prices for servicing and parts were just horrendous. Sure the old family business thing makes for a nice story but it's not the full story.

[crawfordbay]

Great story. Even more fascinating to hear another angle from locals.

[greekcs]

How's the economy down there in Cyprus compared to Greece?

[Armen383]

Originally Posted by greekcs

How's the economy down there in Cyprus compared to Greece?

The scale of it is too small for anyone to notice (compared to Greece); another EUR 126MM bail-out tranche approved by IMF today. Plus there's just enough Russian money floating around to keep things afloat. Other than that it's still same old story: too many parasites (public servants and the like), huge bureaucracy and very slow pace with everything, NPLs that no one has the gut (yet) to take care of because of “everyone knows everyone” way of life, but hey… at least there’s the sea and the sun Oh, and the enormous dust cloud from Syria the other week

[P1]

Originally Posted by Armen383

What's yours eh? Well, coming from a guy who's been living in Cyprus for the last 7 years, I have quite a lot to comment on this - and although it might sound a bit on the butt-hurt side, in reality its how things are. Out of all the major German brands dealerships in Cyprus (provided that it's a rather small island with a lot of cars), Char. Pilakoutas is probably one of the best, but... it's the best among utter horror.

I don't know whether it's good or bad, but the village mentality is still present everywhere; and 90% of things here are monopolies. What takes guys in DE 3 hours, takes BMW here 3 days (personal experience). There are a few knowledgeable people working around, but the majority... well, you don't want them to come near your car, let alone do some serious installations/etc. And the vast majority of the salesmen... OMG, they're literally clueless - people in their 50s and 60s selling cars they know nothing about.
Because of the monopoly, you get a car on sale for 100k EUR and in a month you have EUR 90k "special price". Then you patch through BMW export sales in UK and you end up with EUR 80k for the same car. Yeah, nice b-i-s-i-ness for sure.
And don't even get me started on the repairs section when you order, say a new bumper to be replaced because of a minor fender-bender, you wait for X weeks for it to be "delivered" only then to discover that your white color car bumper is actually blue underneath and came from another car.

I mean yeah, these promotional videos are nice to watch for an outsider, but for someone who's dealing with this every day...

P.S. And the best thing is... these guys deal not just with BMW (and therefore Mini and Rolls), but also Land Rover, Jaguar and Nissan. Locals from Limassol know the LOL side to that.

Thanks for sharing this. It's always good to see what's really happening once the marketing/advertising veil has been lifted.

[ADRQ0811]

Originally Posted by M3 Number 86

what about the story of Neda at Beverly Hills BMW? She makes 2M a year.

Does she really sell that many cars?