BMW is aggressively targeting BMW Enthusiast message Boards and using the threat of legal action to force the removal of pricing information. This is bad news for the BMW Enthusiast. It makes it more difficult to quickly and painlessly arrive at a fair deal for BMW Retail and European Delivery cars. I am sure that work around strategies can be developed as the internet makes easier for BMW Enthusiasts to share information. I do not believe that the retraction of pricing information is in the best interest of BMW in the American market for expensive BMW cars. It comes off as undermining the trust and loyalty of BMW Enthusiasts in a tough economic climate. We have already just seen BMW's return to the "One Sausage in Different Lengths" approach to design across the BMW line up. The F10 is rather conservative in design compared to the E60. The N54 6 cylinder twin turbo engine has been saddled with problems. The electronic options on the F10 are grossly over-priced. Fortunately Audi is aggressively improving their automobiles to better compete with BMW.

I have just heard that BMW FS has reversed themselves and will let now naive BMW purchasers enter into fraudulent leases based upon European Delivery retail pricing rather US MSRP. The naive person that trusts a BMW dealership thus gets fleeced out of an extra $2,000 plus over a 3 year lease. This practice was banned by BMW FS, but now it is officially back. This fraudulent practice is just inviting a class action lawsuit.

General Motors used to have a loyal following and they took that for granted. Then they slid down the slippery slope to loss of major market share. I am not suggesting BMW is at that point yet. However they have begun taking BMW Enthusiasts for granted. BMW Enthusiasts will not have the appetite for cars that are the price of houses forever. The first to suffer is the new 7 Series which because of all of the shared components with the new 5 Series is now an obese 5 Series, that is not very competitive with the MB S Class.

Hopefully BMW will wake up before they have more under-capacity with their auto plants.

 

:thumbsdown:

 

Just take 20-23% off the sticker and you should be fairly close on Invoice.

KBB and Edmunds always have them too..just take s a bit of time. Hell every BMW dealer I've dealt with just gave me the the dealer , Euro , standard pricing sheets with out even asking when I was trying to decide what to put on the car, but I already knew the pricing going in

 

It was very simple and straightforward to negotiate based upon dollars over Euro Delivery Invoice in my case.

 

disappearing transparency - check
higher pricing - check
derivative designs - check
failing technology - check

Is W. running BMW?

 

disappearing transparency - pewp
higher pricing - pewp
derivative designs - pewp
failing technology - pewp

Is running BMW?

Yup

 

Paul, where did you learn about what BMW is doing? Just curious...

 

Bimmerfest moderator after BMW forced them to pull the Pricing Sheets off of their web site.

 

oh well, I've been thinking about getting a P-car next anyway