I am sure you have heard that while seeking financing for a loan (house, car) that all the scores will be counted as one. I think people will have differing views of how this will impact your score. The inquiries will be there for 2 years and some future lenders may be wary of that many inquiries. A manual review of a future credit application would be easily explainable, 'I was shopping for a car loan'. Let us know how your scores change with the 19 inquiries.
Unfortunately, a verbal agreement between you and a car dealer (depends on the dealer) is worth nothing. You had to sign something that allowed the Mercedes dealer to run your credit, and it sounds like they really ran your credit. My guess is you only glanced at the paper while signing the document (we all do it) and it gave them a lot of latitude for seeking financing. Maybe if you had written on that initial contract that they could run your credit once and had them sign it as well you could have a case. There have been many a story of this happening to other people.
There are many ways for you to approach the breech of your verbal understanding with the dealer:
1. Let it go, move on and enjoy the BMW (sounds like a very nice car)
2. Take the time to compose an objective well written email and send it to the dealer, the regional manager and Mercedes North America.
3. Take to social media and give an accurate accounting of your experience. Write a Yelp review, write a Facebook review, call out the dealer on forums such as this by name so that others will not fall victim to their shotgun approach to financing.
4. Don't give them your business.
Years ago I bought a Saturn Aura from the local dealership (dating myself as Saturn is no more). I had my financing in hand and told them to not run my credit. As you might guess, they ran my credit (I did not know it at the time). Once I found out about the credit pull ( a few weeks later) I was PISSED, only one inquiry but I was upset. I too wrote the scathing email and that was ignored. Social media was not yet a part of everyday life as it is today so I finally let it go.
6 weeks had passed and I had finally moved on (or so I thought) when I was going through the mail after work. I received the golden ticket in the mail, the Saturn customer satisfaction survey. Wow, I took a long time to fill out that survey. Nothing unprofessional like cursing or making fun of their mothers, but it was a very POOR survey. I felt better dropping that in the mail.
A few weeks later and my phone seemded to be ringing off the hook. I was called and apologized to by the finance manager, the general manager and a regional Saturn representative. They realized that I had bought the first model year of the Aura and they were trying hard to have good feelngs from the first owners. The power of a professional, objective survey in this case worked.
Sorry for walking down memory lane in your post, but I feel where you are coming from. Good Luck!
