M steering wheel is now free with the Sport Activity Package?

[ukwildcat]

Nothing to add, but..

In my company (large data storage maker), "The Configurator" is a CRITICAL tool in the salesforce arsenal.

It is NOT customer-accessible, but it is used by the Sales Folk as Gospel - and it should be. Lots of options, complex configurations, etc. and they must all mesh together with something orderable that WORKS exactly as described.

It's not so much to help SELL, it's to make sure they can ONLY sell things that WORK, i.e. *ALL* sales orders can ONLY be generated from "The Configurator."

So.. Of course, it's important that it's correct.

In my limited experience owning (that would be one month yesterday: 1700 miles as of today) a BMW, it seems they are very anxious to CONSTANTLY change things.

On the one hand, that's GOOD. It was my primary complaint with owning Lexus for so long. "You want new technology? Really? Wait for the refresh - in seven years or so, although we'll never tell you, because THIS YEAR'S MODEL is WAY better than your old one - even though you can't tell. Because um.. it isn't. Oh, but there are new colors!"

On the other hand, of course, from an OWNERSHIP point of view, it's BAD. I can understand significant changes every other year or maybe every three years or so.

The 2011 X5 was announced in what? April? Availabile in May. Now in October they make a significant hardware change. To say nothing of constantly changing how many "cargo handling" options they want to screw me out of.

I am GENUINELY glad they like to keep the product up-to-date. I REALLY AM.

But in the middle of a model year? That's not really fair, is it? "For 2012, we will add xx feature" is FINE.

Other than being.. bummed, I guess.. about such changes, when you constantly modify your product in substantial ways, you create the old "wait and see" customer.

BUY NOW!
"No, you'll just make it better in six months."
OK, BUY IT *NOW*!
"No, you'll just make it better for the 2012 model."

It's a game the consumer never really WINS, because he's always waiting for the next big change. That's technology for you.

Oh wait.. Never mind. I forgot: every BMW is a rich bastard that can buy a new model whenever it suits him or her. Sorry. My bad.

<-- works for a living

[Noushy]

Don't complain, I got screwed too. I was told my car would have the new commbox (connected drive) module, the LED corona lights, and my car has neither. It came with a defective headlight, and when looking up the model, it says I should have the new headlight assembly with LED controller. Well lo and behold, I have the 2010 headlight assembly on my 2011 LCI X5 50i. Seems BMW was having a manufacturing problem.

Peace.