Wondering if anyone within the collective brain trust of LH may have any insight on whether MB/BMW may restart their European Delivery programs next year?
It seems like it would be a waste of infrastructure they already have in place to facilitate these… I believe Porsche is still doing them (considering a 911 or E63 wagon, possibly an M550i).
What you are basically asking if there is a member of bmw or mb senior management team lurking around if they are willing to give away marketing secrets. Otherwise you may as well start the post with “oh Magic 8 ball…”
If anyone on the webs has info it will be on the ED subforum of Bimmerfest.
Weren’t these discontinued pre-covid? I could be wrong, but I don’t know that covid was the reason for discontinuing them - thought it was more due to general lack of interest (imagine that). I’d love for it to start back up again.
Last time I remember there was not enough discount to justify ED other than the novelty of it. How does ED benefit the manufacturers anyways? Is there a tax advantage or something ?
The decision from corporate when I left BMW late-2020 was that Euro delivery was not returning. Pick up your car at the performance center in SC or Thermal. I didn’t get to pick up my M4 there due to COVID, but I was able to experience the rest of the performance center experience at a later date and it was well worth the trip.
My memory is foggy but I recall for Volvo pre Covid euro delivery was just for cars that Volvo still made in Sweden for the American market. Was BMW the same way? It seems like as the big European car makers go to building more models here it becomes harder to do euro delivery. You aren’t gonna build a few hundred American spec X5s just for euro delivery while all the rest are made in South Carolina.
It was only for German built cars, so really only sedans. If it was a non-German built car like most of the X models, then you just could do the performance center. A hidden trick was you could do both Euro delivery and performance center delivery for the same vehicle.
Yup it was only for cars built in Germany. IDK if first generation X3s assembled by Magna Steyr in Austria were included.
Anything built elsewhere was excluded.
As I understand it, BMW & MB discontinued the programs post COVID appearance.
No discount with Porsche, BMW was something like 7% off MSRP as a starting point, some rebates didn’t apply. MB AMG models IIRC 5% off and no destination fee.
Not considering this solely from a financial perspective, more so for the experience and spending a couple of weeks putting gentle break in miles on the new car in Europe with the family.
You’re correct - May 2020 is when they halted the program. I think they didn’t reference Covid however - they referenced declining interest and customers’ preferences for SUV’s (which are manufactured in the US).
No need to bring back ED. A lot of extra work. Many dealers hate it. And they can’t quantify any sales loss. My humble opinion.
It was a great experience but I don’t think it will ever come back. Rona & less models produced in Germany are not helping the case either.
Well the consumers that did these (like me) found that these were trips off a lifetime. I did two and never stop talking about it
fwiw, volvo still has european delivery.
Plus more cars going electric. Imagine adding EV charging support to the program. Stranded tourists by the autobahn. I’m not sure I would even do PCD for an i4 let alone ED with the range limitations.
I know where the world is apparently going in terms of EVs… (I have a F-150 Lightning reservation). I’d love to squeeze in a Euro delivery experience with my fam, if at all possible next year… On something cool, like a E63S AMG wagon, or a 911S manual, purchases, not leases. Already planning a trip there next June regardless.
If BMW comes back with ED, then a lease on a M550i (have a '18 X5 50i lease ending late January 2022)…
From what I know and understand performance center delivery has always been limited to SC since this change was made. No deliveries at Thermal.
BMW, and probably MB have moved on. Before they were pushing the “German” heritage button. The game has changed. The target opposition is Tesla. They want to be more like them. Does anyone care if their Tesla is made in Fremont, Berlin, Shanghai, Austin?
These are now Global brands. Half their cars aren’t even made in Germany anymore. Euro Delivery is more for the old BMW audience. New buyers don’t really care. They’re more about over the air updates, integration with home systems etc.
Sure, they’ll perhaps sell 2000 more cars with Euro Delivery. But it’s not going to move the company or the stock price. Add to that the number of dealers asking for it to come back - what, 5 dealers? Why bother? If it was 50,000 extra cars a year, it would be a different story.