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Most expensive xenons ever!!!!
Unreal |
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#2
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Hey SG...good to read you again!
I too have fiddle with 'builds' recently, and come away shaking my head. BMWNA is obviously trying to jack the pricing to get more in line with their absurd 'out of USA' pricing plans. I look forward to the '$10G steering wheel', that one can only get by buying that 'pkg' of crappy, unsupported NAV, a pair of sunroofs no one cares about 20 mins after they get the car, rear heated seats no one sits in often, Blue Tooth, (incredulous that they can charge for it), auto braking radar, and on and on. Hope all is well in AZ, my friend. BR, D & V
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Ol'UncleMotor From the Home Base of Pro Bono Punditry and 50 Cent Opins... Our Mtn Scenes, Car Pics, and Road Trip Pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627297418250/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627332480833/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/45275375@N00/ My X Page Last edited by motordavid; 08-06-2012 at 08:15 PM. |
#3
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#4
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BMW NA and every car maker in the US continuously moves towards more packaging and fewer a la carte options in order to satisfy dealers, who want to be able to move vehicles off the lot easier and minimise option permutations. |
#5
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M, that part I understand: have cars on the lot that Biff & Buffy think they want to buy/probably lease. SG's point, and my rant is that one is hard pressed to pick off a few things one wants, (to order rather than buy off the freakin lot), without having to check several 'packages' that are full of stuff one may not want, but most of which contain 'stuff' that are way overpriced and simply gross margin propper uppers for the mfg.
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Ol'UncleMotor From the Home Base of Pro Bono Punditry and 50 Cent Opins... Our Mtn Scenes, Car Pics, and Road Trip Pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627297418250/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627332480833/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/45275375@N00/ My X Page |
#6
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On every car, I'd always like to get things a la carte. On a 3er, I want the sport seats, suspension, and steering wheel but not the glitzy bodywork. I want 4-way electric lumbar but not electric seats. But ultimately BMW is in the business to make money, and if ordering policies are overridden frequently then suddenly you'll get oddball, cancelled orders on lots and messed up accounting. |
#7
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I too hate the "bundling" technique. I understand if the dealers prefer to have certain packages that they find attractive, but if you are ordering a car, you should be able to choose from a full menu instead of having to take a bunch of stuff you don't want in order to get an item like xenons. I built an xdrive28i the other day and was a little surprised at the final MSRP seeing as I had to choose packages instead of individual options. I guess some people may go ahead and drop the extra cash to get all the items they want, but I won't. The bundling just makes the BMW entry cars too expensive for what they are by the time you actually get the items you want, imo. Not that BMW is the only manufacturer doing this though. We shopped around Ford, VW, Toyota and a few others recently and noticed it there as well.
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Profeshenal spellar Last edited by FSETH; 08-15-2012 at 10:37 AM. |
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M,
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"Oddball, canceled orders", yes it could and does happen. "Messed up accounting", don't think so, and that's what good accounting and audit depts are for. I am not really shopping for a new $50-$100 G car, of any brand. But as a consumer who might be, I take umbrage with BMW and other brands that force one to take a freakin 'package' full of overpriced stuff to get the item(s) that one wants in their dealer ordered new $80G car. I realize BMW does not care about my cares or rants. But, to couch a defense in your terms is akin to suggesting, "Our customer methods are great...well, they are no worse than anyone else's". BR, mD
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Ol'UncleMotor From the Home Base of Pro Bono Punditry and 50 Cent Opins... Our Mtn Scenes, Car Pics, and Road Trip Pics on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627297418250/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/4527537...7627332480833/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/45275375@N00/ My X Page Last edited by motordavid; 08-15-2012 at 12:03 PM. |
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Besides, xenons should be standard equipment on a BMW anyway, imo. Especially if they are concerned about being considered top manufacturer of safe vehicles.
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Profeshenal spellar |
#10
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I have to disagree with my good friend MD.
While I am not particularly supportive of BMW NA sales policies, limiting option combinations does have its basis in engineering design and manufacturing, not just in shaping customer preferences. There is some shaping going on, sure, but there is still a cost to offering additional variants of a product. If it was just one option, no problem. But if you have 50 options to deal with, that is a lot of variants to build. Each of them has to be confirmed by the engineering team as being plausible (ie, you can have 18" tires with a third row seat but you can't have 18" tires with 19" tires, you can have red or black but not both, you can have sport or regular suspension but not both) and that compatibility table has to be maintained. Apart from the engineering side, parts and service information has to be maintained for all combinations. When we sell assemblies into the automotive business (parts that have been through PPAP) we typically have to ensure that spares are available for 15 years or whatever the OEM specifies. If only a small percentage of people select one option, that is a pretty high support cost amortized over those few purchasers. Then we move to the distribution side of the business instead of the manufacturing end, and we find that each dealer ends up having to stock more models to appeal to the likes of Biff and Buffy who see and like the X5 with the white exterior, and with the red interior, but want a different radio than the one in stock. So the dealer is left with that vehicle in stock, and orders another one. This drives up inventory cost in a business that operates on small single digit margins, at the retail and wholesale ends. Subway can deal with thousands of combinations because they don't really care if Thai chili hot sauce goes with bbq chicken or not, it is your risk, and because they don't stock sandwiches, just ingredients. We bought a resale condo, not a new one, but it was a much larger purchase than a vehicle. Three preset colour schemes. Four floor plans Any other changes were the owner's responsibliity post-possession. Every unit has the same range, same fridge, same dishwasher, same shower door, and that has to reduce costs. They presold all of them over a year before construction started, so they seemed to know what they were doing. By comparison, a car is a small purchase. My car option strategy is to buy a higher line car, with fewer options. You get all the engineering benefits, without padding that goes into high priced options. They are called options because you don't really need them. They are simply more things to break. People have just been conditioned to buy fully loaded as standard practice. All that said, I like Xenons and would want them. And I special ordered my last four BMWs, to get rid of useless options that I didn't want to pay for or repair, like automatic transmissions. With the 3 series I even got them to build outside the defined package (no sunroof for headroom, no power seats for headroom, but with heated seats that only came in a package with those two). Had to wait months. And there was a priority ordering charge.
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2007 X3 3.0si, 6 MT, Premium, White Retired: 2008 535i, 6 MT, M Sport, Premium, Space Grey 2003 X5 3.0 Steptronic, Premium, Titanium Silver 2002 325xi 5 MT, Steel Grey 2004 Z4 3.0 Premium, Sport, SMG, Maldives Blue |
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