[JK42]

Hi,

Today a few things were updated / verified regarding the E92 M3 release in Finland. This should also apply for other European countries.

First off - at least for Finland, the demo car import has been canceled. The country won't be getting a demo car in March/April at all. Because of:

The first real, off-the-line PRODUCTION cars will be here in late May/early June. Only three (3) cars have been allocated for the whole country in the year 2007!! Christ!

2 of the cars have already been sold through the importer (BMW Finland), but they will be registered and used as demo cars first before their buyers get them. The third car will be sold to the biggest re-seller of BMW in the country, and is still available to pick up.

The cars have been ordered and specified from the factory by BMW Finland, so no option changes are possible, besides exterior and interior color changes (non-price affecting ones.) Color changes may be made up to one week prior to the actual production taking place. But no option changes that would change the price or options are allowed for these cars, they are "locked in" as I was told.

I've been told that the first production cars will be all manual, but that SMG-equipped cars will be off the line very shortly after that. Apparently about 85% of the production capacity has been geared toward the US market, as most big US resellers will get at least 3 cars to sell during the year 2007 - more than some countries, such as Finland! This is also strange, as BMW makes the least profit on the US market with EU produced cars due to the low value of the USD. Apparently the US-centric production schedule is also one of the reasons for the fact that SMG cars won't be rolling off the line right off the bat.

Unfortunately, the first cars being manual means that the 3 cars that Finland gets, one of which I had reserved, will be manual. I'm going to have to consider very hard if I want my car this year, because then it will have to be a manual. And I really don't like the idea of a V8 manual, I have been looking forward to this SMG. If I wanted a manual, I would have gotten a straight six Z4 M Coupé Manual. Oh, and there's a third catch too:

The reseller has been pressured by the importer (BMW Finland) to put the third and only car that the reseller gets on display on their car display hall for 2 months before they can sell it. That means the buyer will only get it in around Late July/August. The reseller also has to register the car to themselves because the importer requires that the reseller allows all people who order the E92 M3 during 2007 for production slots for late 2007/early 2008, who will get their cars from the 2008 allocation (which will be much, much larger than just 3 cars), to have a possibility to test drive the one car for about 15 minutes with the dealer. Also, few bosses, salesmen and other people will test drive the car. So that means that the third, and only available car will be used and test driven and not new when it's buyer gets it - albeit to just slight extent, but the it's the most important first 1500 break-in kilometers of an M car, and those kilometers should definitely not be used for stupid test drives! That makes me furious! So the car will forcibly be manual, cost as much as a new one, will be fucked up from the test driving in worst case and only it's colors can be chosen by the person buying it. I might just give up my "honor" as the first person on the wait-list. As far as the other 2 cars, pretty much the same test driving will happen to them, they will just be hauled around the country from different smaller resellers to visit them all so everybody around different parts of the country can get a shot of seeing the thing live.

I'm really pissed off by how this turned out as a potential customer. 3 cars per country is really laughable in my opinion, especially considering what the cost of the car is. And the way they will sell it is nearly insulting. It's like blackmail. Either you get it engine revved up to red-line all the time during your break-in miles, with a manual tranny, if you want this year, and oh by the way, you'll pay full price through the nose, or forget it, we'll sell it to some other fool who won't know/care/understand.


Here's what the cost is:

Standard price for the E92 M3 in Finland: 100.000 euros

Price with the options that the 3 first manual M3's will have: 115.000 euros

I do not know at this point what the options include, but I suspect pretty much everything except perhaps "full leather" (Vollleder in German option lists), if that's available on the M3 - it's a very stylish, classy (and expensive) interior option on the M5 and M6 where everything on the dashboard and side panels etc. on the doors that is usually plastic, is sewed leather instead.

As the old E46 M3's list price in Finland was about exactly 90.000 euros, and it used to cost 56.000 euros in Germany (list price with no options), this sounds like the price has been hiked up only pretty reasonably. I do not know if the definite list price without options is 100ke exactly, or if that was just a ballpark number.

I thought people would like to know this, as this is is as definite as it gets. If I had said yes today, I would be on the line to get this third car. But considering how the situation is, I told the dealer I'm going to have to think about it. I have a day or two to respond.

Sounds like you guys in the US will have it much better, at least having options to choose from and even having the option of getting the SMG during 2007. Given how things are now, if I want SMG, I'm going to have to wait for early 2008 and actually really Summer 2008 to enjoy the car. Then I might as well wait for the E93 model as the E93 Coupé/Cabrio setup has been getting pretty rave reviews as to it's usefulness (here where it snows for 3-4 months of the year, a real ragtop cabriolets are a pain in the ass, and a CC would be the perfect combination, if it indeed is as quiet, warm and the visibility is as good as with a true Coupé in the Winter, as they claim (or at least around 85-90% as good.)

Best regards,

Jussi