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MikeS

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 16, 2014
Messages
713
Location
Brighton UK
I suggest BMW reconsiders how they are treating their customers differently between for example the UK and the USA. In UK we are mostly waiting 6 months plus - I ordered in Jan and will probably be waiting until Sept. However, if I lived in the USA I can now walk into a dealers and buy one off of the lot! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Very annoying.
 
MikeS said:
I suggest BMW reconsiders how they are treating their customers differently between for example the UK and the USA. In UK we are mostly waiting 6 months plus - I ordered in Jan and will probably be waiting until Sept. However, if I lived in the USA I can now walk into a dealers and buy one off of the lot! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :evil: :evil: :evil:

Very annoying.

Its frustrating, but an off the forcourt would not necessarily be the spec or colors/trim you want... but rest assured once your fab i3 arrives you will forget all the waiting and be enjoying a fab piece of engineering.

I ordered in November 2013 and had delivery early May 2014... but its sooo worth the wait.
 
noakey said:
I ordered in November 2013 and had delivery early May 2014.
Yeah, I don't think the lead times have increased really. The vast majority of owners have had a similar long wait (August to March for me). I suppose the difference is we didn't have people driving around telling us how great the car is whilst we waited :?

As for the US getting a better deal. It's worth keeping in mind that the first Euro customers were taking delivery 6 months before the ships started arriving in America.

Probably not much comfort knowing that though. The wait is tough :(
 
If it makes you feel any better, I was one of the first in the USA to order mine (deposit placed last August, order placed the day the dealer got his allocations in early February), and according to the latest update it will take about 6 1/2 months to get here.
 
At least we on this side of the pond haven't had issues with California's green/white stickers, small REx fuel tanks (or are they?), missing Monroney stickers, and a tax rebate on the REx that might get taken away in NJ.
 
...but before delivery, in six months time, the £5k subsidy might have run out.....contractually we are liable to pay BMW the £5k. Not funny.
 
Gonville said:
...but before delivery, in six months time, the £5k subsidy might have run out.....contractually we are liable to pay BMW the £5k. Not funny.

Autocar reported a month ago that it had been extended to 2017:

http://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/industry/electric-car-grant-extended-2017-thanks-new-funding
 
One way to look at this is market potential...England requires right-hand drive, most of the rest of the world, left-hand. England's population is around 63M, the USA, around 317M...they started delivery of the i3 in the USA earlier this month...it's been available elsewhere since last year. There are more on the road, and more interest for a product is built up based on people actually being able to see and touch the things. The whole supply/demand thing will get worked out, but BMW is selling more than they thought they would. It takes awhile to order, install, and be able to use more material and expand the production lines.

I wouldn't be surprised that the wait in the USA increases as people start to see them on the streets and the US car magazines get production reviews of USA spec vehicles (not that there's all that much different), rather than prototype or non-USA spec vehicles.
 
I think it's very interesting to see the cultural differences between US and Europe in relation to purchasing behaviour.

I lived in Nebraska in the 70s and Netherlands in the 80s so a mix of experience.

I think the US experience is to walk into the dealer and expect to do a deal, negotiate a discount, sign the finance deal and take the keys to whatever fits. And if it doesn't to go to the next dealer or to a dealer of a different manufacturer.

If the dealer doesn't have stock he doesn't make a sale.

A consequence of this is over production of models that then subsequently no one wants because the next year model is out. I have seen comments about isn't this a 2014 model? surely they can't delay it until 2015 as the new model must be out? The European culture is perhaps to be more patient, used to waiting for a build to order? If a car is on the dealers lot it's not new anymore. Slightly longer lead times but more sustainable manufacture and not really a "year" model focus. Focus on a new model yes and with mid life upgrades expected, but not a brand new invocation each and every year.

Who knows which approach is right? but like Apple with certain products creating huge demand there is definitely a supply chain challenge. Not being able to build them fast enough is a problem in a "build to order" system when there is a spike in demand.

In Europe we wait patiently, or some of us do, in the US you cancel your order and go elsewhere.

(Incidentally the population of Europe is ? what? Total EU population : 507,069,424? Mostly left hand drive I think. )

 
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