Encouraging report from BMW's head of communications, Tom Kowaleski. As a premium brand, BMW wants to stimulate more custom orders, Kowaleski said. "You can have your car from us any way you want it," he said. This move reduces the amount of time between a Midwestern customer's placing an order and his or her driving it off the lot. Really? How about a 5-door 1-series? Or a 1-series with an M3 V8? How about a BMW with a dipstick and REGULAR non-runflat tires? How about a regular DIN-sized radio or a radio delete option? Guess we shouldn't read too much into this, but it does pose an interesting question when ordering a car from a dealer, such as how hard is that dealer going to try to push us to buy one "off the lot" even if it has options we don't want or need? You can read the whole article here http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-12-17/business/bal-bz.bmw17dec17_1_auto-terminals-bmw-x3-maryland-port-administration
more "how abouts" How about lots more interesting colors? My 650 was available in black, white & several grey tones in between. Make this more exciting. How about more stuff in the Heads Up Display- it seems obvious that the Tach should be visible there. How about an option for a non-registered battery? $400 for a new one is just weak engineering.
You have an interesting view of options, alstroberg You want an even more sophisticated HUD for the windshield (an E63/E64 6-series front windshield that supports HUD already costs $1032 to replace according to the BMW parts database - [suppose a rock chip hits it, a crack develops, or worse, an act of vandalism], yet you don't want to pay $400 to have your battery registered? As for the colors, BMW already supports a fairly impressive array of colors, with BMW Individual going even further than that for a price (usually around $5,000 for a color not normally in the model's color palette). Then there's also Earl Scheib. Just kidding.
HUD & Stuff I already paid for the HUD after seeing the neat stuff it could do with the Nav system. It seems that same system could be so more valuable with some relatively easy software changes e.g. to give options to display engine speed or radio station. The colors should be more exciting- & not for $5k more. Look what BMWUSA says is available: <http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/BYO/ByoHome.aspx?enc=nck2vIa5ATR4eF3Va6xQBb5reUYHOuC3atYXZTfA5AtTOZ9Wti01VyT8E6JD2OUQqM2xR2cByZMYH9g8iE9DISWIt8trcHe03xTjbE43Yfx6F8Ur1N7uYBERFnjEU7uJs3Jmisc6TX0cbS7njRPyBboRG1D61eiUz37Dy/KszyBfqeNWhAZdZfZqpwFKyEYl7A0hi1HQ9OLCwpaFaUIZvw==> Note that Imola Red, & Atlantic Blue were just not available in the US this last Spring. All the other options are -boring. The cost of the HUD gets you something. A $400 battery is just silly.
A HUD will get you something alright... ...if you have to replace the HUD windshield outside the warranty, it gets you a much lighter wallet. As for the battery registration, CSBM5 has a much better answer for you. It will still cost you $400, but unlike the dealer, you only pay $400 for this ONCE. From CSBM5 As an owner of a 750iL, I can tell you from first hand experience that the more complex BMW makes these cars, the more expensive and complicated they get when it comes to servicing. Paying over $1,000 for a windshield (and this is just ONE example) is completely nuts to me -- yet not unfamiliar. My car also has the self-leveling rear shocks, and those are $400 EACH. Again, that's just ONE example from my own car. It might not be out of place to do a little soul searching on how much these high-tech BMW's are going to cost their owners in 10 to 20 years time. My car is 22 years old, and I can tell you that the age of my car does NOT reduce the cost of the parts needed to keep it running.
my car has 134k miles on it and as far as I know it's still got the original windshield, but it does not have the original battery, the way I see it, the cost of the windshield is negligable since it's not a common wear item and windshields are one of the few things that insurance companies don't try to screw you on
Not sure if any of your 3-series have the same options as an E63/E64 Have you checked realoem.com? Stuff like rain sensors, embedded defoggers, and HUDs raise the cost of a windshield considerably. That and BMW is finding ways of making these cars EVEN more sophisticated. That's not going to be cheap to service either.
It's always been a well-known fact that the cheapest thing on a BMW is the nut behind the wheel. Or, as us BMW riders say, "The cheapest thing on a BMW is the rider."
How about a 2011 5er Touring in the US? Can we look forward to the 3er Touring going away as well with the next model?
