Quote:
Originally Posted by CSBM5
Not sure how it is in the UK, but here in the USA, BMW doesn't really "sell" high end cars anymore -- they're essentially rental cars, i.e. leased. BMW "sells" them to themselves through BMW Financial Services. In the major metropolitan markets like NYC area, lease rates on high end models are in the 80% range. There are very few "car buyers" anymore of these products new from BMW. They hope to find an actual buyer once the car comes off lease in ~3 years.
Hence, trying to define a "new car buyer" is essentially not possible nor particularly relevant to BMWNA...it's what attracts the lessee into the door (doodads, tech, "status", etc, etc, with very little to do with the actual act of truly driving the car necessary to be concerned with) that is all that matters for the most part.
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True that leasing is more popular with luxury brands yet on BMW's balance sheet isn't a lease is the same as a retail sale? It's just a different payment structure and contract than a traditional loan. So at the end of the year, if they lease 500k cars and retail 500k cars, they sold 1 million cars on their balance sheet. That's what matters to the stakeholders (investors) -- how much metal did they move?
[BMW also offers balloon financing which is a lease-like purchase. It's called BMW Select.]
Even with your perspective -- which I believe is a factor btw, the M brand shouldn't be affected by lease vs retail IMO. This misses my point. The audience of the M brand is the
enthusiast. Other manufacturers are going full throttle WITH their loyal enthusiasts (Ford, Dodge, Corvette to name a few as I'm in the US). They drive a cult-like following that's engaged with their brand at the grassroots level. I don't see that with BMW (or Mercedes or Audi to be honest).
I've owned 2 SRTs in my life (Jeep GC and Challenger). Both vehicles came with a complimentary track day experience currently from Bondurant! I purchased both vehicles and within the first month received an email from the
SRT Driving Experience to register with my VIN (only 1 event within the 1st year of ownership). It's a total blast! I won the autocross event and placed 2nd in another event and came home with some fun prizes.
BMW has what, 2 events like this in the US and I found out about them from the forum -- no email. Nothing from my CA. Where's the engagement?
Also the SRT engineers would travel to meet-n-greets and host a town hall meeting. They would sit and answer any question on your car. Of course, they could never comment on "new" developments but they would answer questions like the one here regarding spring rates on the ZCP and how to adjust if lowering.
They also attended
online "chats" where they would visit a forum like this and answer any questions that were posted. They are car folks just like us --- where's BMW's version of this?
Where are the ///M ambassadors? The ones engaging the enthusiast community and bringing the feedback to the engineers? Product development with little or no formal feedback channel is development in a lab devoid of reality. After a few iterations, you end up with a product that's washed down compared to its storied history.
That's what I'm reading on this forum -- the X version was better at this, they Y version did that. A lot of moaning that's making me question if I picked the right car some days. Then I go out, fire up the engine and drive off -- after the first mile I realize this is the best overall performance oriented daily driven car I've owned to date.