The Worthless Price Debate

[SpencerM3]

Ok, so now that we have a pretty good idea on what the car is going to look like, what do you guys think it will be priced at?

I know these conversations are generally worthless since everyone has their own opinion and typically those opinions range from in price of about $20K, however I want to see if you could possibly get some cohesion.

The only published report is what Car & Driver said yesterday which would have a base MSRP of around $55K. That sounds relatively good to me. We know it will have a higher MSRP than the E46, but really how much higher? Most E46 after being well spec’d out came in around the $57-$62K. so if we are to assume that option prices will stay relatively true (which they seem to have from the E46 TO E90), I think you can assume that a well equipped E92 will likely come out somewhere around $65-$68K.

Thoughts?

[devo]

Originally Posted by SpencerM3

Ok, so now that we have a pretty good idea on what the car is going to look like, what do you guys think it will be priced at?

I know these conversations are generally worthless since everyone has their own opinion and typically those opinions range from in price of about $20K, however I want to see if you could possibly get some cohesion.

The only published report is what Car & Driver said yesterday which would have a base MSRP of around $55K. That sounds relatively good to me. We know it will have a higher MSRP than the E46, but really how much higher? Most E46 after being well spec’d out came in around the $57-$62K. so if we are to assume that option prices will stay relatively true (which they seem to have from the E46 TO E90), I think you can assume that a well equipped E92 will likely come out somewhere around $65-$68K.

Thoughts?

"Well spec'd" is subjective. The sport package wasn't available until the last year(s) of production to boost sales. IMO nav is a waste of money for most of us. Most of these cars are not used extensively for trips and/or business. (I'd rather spend that money on a good coil over suspension.) So, for comparative purposes a well optioned E46 was roughly $56k-$57k. But, I do agree with your guess for the most part; maybe a couple a Gs less.

[Hans Delbruck]

If base MSRP is $55K in the US, that will probably be a really stripped model. $55k sounds low but possible, since BMW will likely raise the base price the 2nd model year of the car, just like they did with the E46 M3 and the Z4MC.
If they bring the new-improved gearbox, that will probably add at least $2500-3000 to the base.

[RandyB]

Just curious why it would add to the base price if the manual 6-speed is standard equipment? I'm guessing $54k base.

[Sage]

Originally Posted by SpencerM3

Ok, so now that we have a pretty good idea on what the car is going to look like, what do you guys think it will be priced at?

I know these conversations are generally worthless since everyone has their own opinion and typically those opinions range from in price of about $20K, however I want to see if you could possibly get some cohesion.

The only published report is what Car & Driver said yesterday which would have a base MSRP of around $55K. That sounds relatively good to me. We know it will have a higher MSRP than the E46, but really how much higher? Most E46 after being well spec’d out came in around the $57-$62K. so if we are to assume that option prices will stay relatively true (which they seem to have from the E46 TO E90), I think you can assume that a well equipped E92 will likely come out somewhere around $65-$68K.

Thoughts?

see my note about US MSRP http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50216

[Hans Delbruck]

Originally Posted by RandyB

Just curious why it would add to the base price if the manual 6-speed is standard equipment? I'm guessing $54k base.

I should have said "on top of" base ..... SMG/DSG optional for a few grand...

[sparky325i]

Unfortunately the pricing in the increased pricing in the US is due to the weaker US dollar Internationally, if you look back when the e46 M3 was released, the US - EURO rate was about 1:1.

Now you need to pay $1.31 for each EURO. This is a 30% loss and therefor for BMW to pay their workers and get the same money back, they need to increase the price by 30%.

On a positive note, the US dollar is improving lately and hopefully this trend will reverse.

In Canada this is not the case, a good example is the new M Coupe, the M Coupe is Canada is $5000 cheaper than our e46 M3 in 2006. In the US, the M Coupe costs almost $5000 more than the outgoing M3, that's a $10,000 price discrepency.

Again, unfortunately there is no way to make this sound any better, the positive way of looking at this is that in Europe they are still paying more than we are here, so our BMWs are still a better value.