Quote:
Originally Posted by BMWCCA1
It's actually worse from the dealer standpoint than the suppositions posted here—and a loser for many customers, too, from several perspectives.
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Interesting to read this all from a dealer's perspective. For my last BMW I had an ED order placed and had to cancel it. After canceling I found a fully optioned car locally and bought it for much less than I would have paid for the lightly optioned ED order. I did a Germany-Netherlands road trip in a rented Audi instead. When a hotel valet scraped the rental car's bumper, my first thought was how angry I would be if that was my new 540i.
Reflecting on the process, you are absolutely correct. I still visited the Welt and still did my road trip in a great car. The only thing I missed was the delivery photo op.
Perhaps if I had visited with you my experience would have been different. The dealers I visited in Florida had zero interest in placing an ED order. They want quick sales out of inventory only, and quoted insane prices to dissuade me from the process. So to me, as much as I like the brand and aspects of its culture, with each successive BMW the process is increasingly transactional. Each time I return to the same dealer, the salesman I purchased from previously is gone anyway. There is nothing about the experience that compels me to be loyal, especially when I email or call around and find huge price discrepancies on similarly priced models.
So I hate to agree, but you are right. The ED program has lost its appeal all around, and for the 500 per year who pursue it, why should BMW bother?
Another side of this after that road trip: driving in Germany is just not as enjoyable as I remember on previous trips.