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Here in Europe the legislation is becoming more and more prescriptive so all new cars are more a product of legislation rather than design e.g. front end pedestrian protection, semi autonomous braking and soon to be mandatory speed limit adherence. The German manufacturers have to comply with all this and as brands such as Audi own so many sub brands using the same platforms it’s no surprise that differentials between brands are narrowing. In Britain SUV sales far outweigh saloons so BMW are following the market by concentrating on the X series.
This is my first BMW after 6 new Merc’s. I changed as the plug-in E Class I wanted optioned up was a minimum of 9 months for delivery. My last Merc was a E350e and that took 8 months from order so I knew the 9 months wait was going to be real. BMW quoted 3 months and delivered on the promised date. However, I have had loads of issues with the ID7 Lite and even now I am waiting for a software update to rectify these issues. Mercedes Me is streets ahead in every way over Connected Drive. I think BMW really have to up their game in terms of IT - it was only recently CarPlay became free, Android Auto is only available to recent cars and so called over the air maps updates seem to only work once a year but there are manual downloads available.
Apologies if this is reading a bit of a rant but I think BMW could differentiate itself a lot more with just a bit of effort and reflecting more what BMW buyers want rather than what the accountants say can be afforded !
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