555

I hate the way BMW just seems to randomly decide what options are available where. I REALLY prefer Nasca leather and the truffle brown. But no... No choice for that here in the US. Why is that? Its not like the car is being built in South Carolina. It is coming from Germany where they darn sure have all the options ready to go.

And check this out. Look at the Premium Pkg in Canada!!!

Premium Package $3,500/Canadian Dollars

Includes: Auto Dimming Mirror, Ext., Auto Dimming Mirror, Int., Through Load with Ski Bag, Heated Seats Rear, Park Distance Control, Includes visual display., Harmon/Kardon Logic 7 Sound System

DANG!

BMWSweden

It's all up to the importer to decide how to set up the packages. The manufacturer provides the pieces to the Lego and the importer provide "attractive" pre-assemblies depending on the taste of the targeted audience (prospective customers). The taste varies from country to country and so does the price of the basic carmodel. The basic car model differs also form country to country.
The premium package in Sweden contains Komfort seats, PDC, 17" 122's, rear seat heating, extended climate control and some other stuff. This is priced to USD4400 (excl. VAT) for the 530i. Less for 545 and more for the 520i/525i.

ISUK

Bit of a long shot but has anyone in the US tried to order a car from a German dealer then have them organise shipping to the US?

Up until last year importing a car from Europe into the UK was very cost effective due to differences in tax regimes which affected list prices. I imported a 323Ci from Belgium a few years back and got a spec that wasn't available in the UK. I'm pretty sure that a German dealer could order a US spec car and get any combination of options on it for you from the factory as Germany seems to have the least constraints on spec ordering. BMW would have to honour the minimum US warranty period.