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Originally Posted by Brisbane
It's not just about ordering or configuring the car:
1. The website is a primary source of information for most people and one of BMW's primary means of communication.
2. When a company prides itself on technology- and brags about their technological prowess in virtually every advertisement it's a sad reflection on them when the information they provide on their website is grossly inaccurate and a year out of date.
3 People who go there for information are going to be a bit dismayed and could question their intention to purchase a BMW. They might even search an Acura (or other) automotive website and rightly assume those automakers are more responsive to their customers (remember that most folks aren't slaves to all thing BMW).
4 It's flat inexcusable. If they can't update their website regularly they should take it down.
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I don't think that it has anything to do with not getting around to updating the site. I think it is done on purpose and here's why. They did not release the pricing and options/package information even to the dealers until after the 2008 production began because the 2008 models have the Pano Moon-roof as standard and the Premium Package is $900-$1300 cheaper. That does not help in selling the remaining 2007's. So they dragged it as long as they could before releasing that info to the dealers.
I believe that the same applies to the website. Remember you and the members of some Internet boards like this may know that the 2008's are already in production, but over 90% of people who are going to buy X5's have no idea. So if they look at the Build your own X5 site and see that it's still showing 2007 (with the 2007 prices), and they call a dealer who wants to sell the 2007's that he has in stock the customer won't have a clue about the 2008's and the price/package change.
I believe that BMW is trying to buy a couple of more weeks time where the "normal" customer who's extent of Internet research is BMWUSA.com will go and buy some of the remaining 2007's. I think once the 2008's get to the dealers in any numbers (which is starting to happen on the east coast, and should happen on the west coast soon) then they won't have a choice but to update the site.
BMW's IT team and their websites are too good to be just slacking on putting up the new info, it must be a marketing decision to hold off on it as long as they could in order to sell more 2007's. I know that some of the dealers in some areas of the country have none (or very few) 2007 X5's in stock, but other dealers have quite a few.