Quote:
Originally Posted by LogicalApex
Quote:
Originally Posted by ScarecrowBoat
Okay well most BMW drivers have an iOS device, and a 740i is not exactly a performance car. Good grief? It's a luxury car, part of that is making it easy to hook up your phone or play music or whatever (are you saying that's not a part of comfort or luxury??) The phone integration on BMWs has been awful over the entire existence of phone integration in BMWs. The writer is just making a point of.....why? Why can't BMW just have a few of their engineers get together for a day and fix these silly issues when a $20k Hyundai can do it so easily.
I did, to an extent. I have had 2x F30s in a the past few years and one of my biggest annoyances with the last car was the absolute disaster that hooking up to my phone was. I actually changed from Android to iOS in my '16 F30 because I was so bothered by how awful the Android integration was, only to be nearly as disappointed in the iOS.
When time came to get a new car the two biggest things which made me actually leave the brand for - gasp - Toyota were the convoluted integration (which bothers you every time you get in the car and you have to pay for?? Seriously??) and the fact that if I wanted simple radar cruise it was going to cost me thousands more (standard in Accord, Camry, etc...). I just do not understand why BMW cannot offer basic features that come in a $19k Honda Civic which greatly improve your daily experience of using the car. They have entire teams devoted to making sure the tactile feel of the buttons or the chirps and beeps sound "right" yet they ignore basic things which affect the driver constantly.
If those things are not a big deal to you I understand, we all have different expectations or reasons for buying a car. I do have to say, however, you should not just blindly support the brand over being cheap or ignoring basic technology. It's not like your mother is the one at BMW responsible for deciding what the basic equipment is. Personally I find it ridiculous that a Honda Accord has better daily functional tech and features than a 330i nearly twice the price. It's plainly obvious that the BMW is the better car, and especially if you option it up, but BMW has for sure fallen behind on value and are currently overly reliant on prestige.
|
My non-expert opinion on the driver for so many options on German brand cars is due to the negotiation that happens when purchasing a new car. I was able to negotiate my car with over $10K in options to being only about $1500 more than the base model MSRP. So the options become a tool to help keep the price relatively consistent.
When I've done shopping for Toyota and Nissan cars their sales people were a lot less interested in negotiating the price of the car and getting it down significantly wasn't really happening.
With the trend toward "no haggle pricing" and smoother buying experiences we are likely to see this change a lot though. |
And that's a good approach because options typically have very little to no resale value long term.
__________________
2017 BMW 530i, Sport Line,Alpine White, Canberra Beige Sensatec, 19 inch V-Spoke wheels, basic plain Jane build with no options whatsoever..... "Less is more".
Before: 2011 BMW 328i E90 sedan, Platinum Bronze Metallic, Dakota Brown leather, 17 inch wheels, 6-speed auto, N52 6 Cyl inline N/A goodness....