As you may know from my previous board rants I've got a lemon on my hands which BMW Aus has agreed to replace (I have 2009 35d that I bought in Nov and delivered in late Dec - i.e. less than 2 months old)

I have been offered a new 2010 35d with Innovation package (which for me means HID and Power Tailgate) and the addition of the new harddrive based iDrive - which based on my 520d loaner experience is a vast improvement over the 2009 dvd based system (which is relatively slow and not as user friendly as the latest)

The dealership will split the extra cost - which means I would end up paying $3k more ....

with the 2009 model I think I got a pretty good deal (basically 35d retail sticker price drive away with Roof, USB for iPod, sports steering wheel and sideboards & free servicing - not too much fruit - but still not bad for what we needed)

So - I need to get back to dealer today with a ya or na ..what do you guys think ? Is it a good deal?

I'd love to wait for 40d (or even 35i now) but I suspect:

1. I'd be pushing the relationship
2. They are unlikely to take my current lemon back in 4 months time as it may have too many km's and moved on year wise to reclass as a demo, and to be fair to them they'll need the time to drive and iron out all the issues
3. price for 40d will likely rise a bit (as I suspect for all 2011 X5's) - then again it may have more fruit than current models to make up for it ...


My gut tells me to take the offer, drive it and be happy for 2-3 yrs before whole new update comes in 2013 (i.e. skip the LCI altogether).

The LCI looks like they'll be only incremental improvements i.e. 8sp auto and slight kw/NM increases will smooth things out and make better econ/performance (but only small -I didnt but this thing as a sports car so probably not that noticable) - and I suspect there will will little discounting on the LCI's in the first 6 months anyway compared to 2009/2010 models

obviously its always great to have the latest and greatest - but it might be just too hard logistically to make it work ...

Guys - whatda reckon I do?