This is the first in a new series of articles focusing on the BMW dealers in the area, a bit about their history, ownership, and some perspective from their owners/general managers.

BMW Seattle is a premier BMW dealership just south of downtown Seattle. I had the opportunity to sit down with the General Manager, London Agrawal, to discuss the dealership and its history, as well as his personal BMW story.

BMW Seattle started in the early 1970s as a dual dealership with Phil Smart Mercedes. Due to conflicts with Mercedes over owning both a Mercedes and a BMW dealership in the same facility, Phil Smart eventually separated the two dealerships, both located at separate locations on East Pike Street. Phil later sold the BMW dealership to David Alan Griffith (of Alan BMW in Edmunds) and Steve Norman in the mid 1990s. Later Steve Norman bought out David Alan Griffith. The dealership was eventually sold to Lithia Motors in 2001, who continues to own it today. The dealership moved to its current location in 2009.

The dealership is aligned with BMW North America’s focus on environmental responsibility, and the new showroom built in 2009 was the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified BMW dealership building. There is a portion of a wall at the dealership commemorating the achievement (see pic).

BMW Seattle's Employee Trophy Case. Photo by the author.

The dealership prides itself on taking care of its people and has the trophy cabinet to prove it…employees tend to stay for a long time and their time in service awards are proudly displaced on the sales floor(see pic).

BMW Seattle LEED efforts. Photo by the author.

BMW's Environmental efforts. Photo by the author.

The General Manager, London Agrawal, has been with the dealership since 2000. Before that his car sales experience was working at Acura Bellevue for several years. In 1999 he purchased a brand new 323i from BMW Seattle, and his story arc changed – he fell in love with the brand and “switched teams,” although he still has respect and admiration for the Honda brand. He pointed out that Honda and BMW were not just car companies but were strong engineering companies first with multiple product lines. When he started at BMW Seattle, he gave himself 30 days to “see if he liked it.” He moved up through the ranks and eventually became the GM in 2019. One of his points of pride, besides the fact that the employees tend to be very loyal and stay working there as noted above, is that he has never sold cars over MSRP as a standard practice…a practice that has, unfortunately, become more common in high end car sales.
Over the past 25 years, London has owned quite a few BMWs. He jokes that he might be BMW Seattle’s best customer. I asked him what his favorite BMW was, and he stated with a smile that it was a long-time customer's ’03 E39 M5 with less than 10,000 miles on it - the customer always politely refuses to sell it to him when he asks. He stated that the coolest BMW he had ever sold was the ’22 M5 CS. Only 1000 were ever made (300 in the US) and he was very proud of the fact that BMW Seattle sold seven of them…all in the Frozen Deep Green Metallic color. I asked him what the top three BMW’s he’s ever owned were and he struggled to pick, but eventually settled on the F87 M2CS, the e46 M3 (he regrets selling it to this day and stays in touch with the guy who bought it), and and current Z4 Handschalter package. All manuals, of course.
We wrapped up by discussing the future of BMW and the dealership. London pointed out the Neue Klasse coming next year is a revolution in design for BMW and he is very much looking forward to it. He also informed me that BMW is currently revising the entire model line to transition all vehicles to Neue Klasse models that support ICE, electric, and hybrid variants and they intend to do it in about 30 months, an aggressive and challenging timeline. The overall message is that it is an exciting time in the BMW space. And I agree.