Just when I thought the year couldn’t be any worse, it happened. We’ve endured a near-miss with WWIII, we’ve survived scandals at the federal level, we’re in the worst pandemic since 1918, and recently; murder hornets. Yeah, freakin’ m u r d e r h o r n e t s. With a name like that, it has to feel like the end, right? Well, according to our favorite Bavarian auto manufacturer, it isn’t the end of our depressing year. As reported by Bimmerpost and Yahoo News, BMW has decided to eliminate their European Delivery program. This is more than unfortunate, but not surprising.
Sadly, not enough BMW buyers chose European Delivery as an option. This service would allow a BMW buyer to save 5% on the base price of their BMW, have it delivered to the BMW Welt in Munich, and would then be flown by BMW to Germany, picked up in a free shuttle, given an allowance to stay in-country, and would take special delivery of their new BMW at the BMW Welt where they would tour the plant, museum, and have some time to spend driving their new car around Europe. At which point, BMW would handle all shipping, export, and import expenses to have your car sent back to the United States. Talk about a premium service that, again, actually SAVED buyers money on the purchase of a new BMW and included possibly the best vacation possible.
According to Oleg Santovsky, a BMW spokesperson who was quoted in Autoblog:
“After carefully evaluating the changing BMW U.S. customer preferences towards U.S.-built X vehicles and the declining interest in the European Delivery Program, BMW has decided to bring the U.S. market European Delivery Program to a close in the fall of 2020.”
With a low-level of interest, the way American buyers purchase cars changing, and the impact of COVID-19, it is honestly a good decision on BMW’s part. However, it is incredibly unfortunate for those of us who have wanted to take advantage of the service. Especially those of us who paid off their current car loan today and are in the market to buy a new BMW.
Fortunately, there is still some time. May 18th is the final day to select European Delivery while September will be the final month to show up and take delivery of your BMW. They are also reportedly honoring deposits for 2021 model-year BMWs with pre-reservation that don’t need to include the production number.
A close second is BMW’s ‘Ultimate Delivery Experience,’ which includes classroom education and instructions on the track at BMW’s Performance Center, as well as a tour of their Plant Spartanburg, a visit to the BMW Zentrum Museum, and personalized delivery of your new BMW there in South Carolina. You can order any BMW, built-in SC or anywhere else, and take advantage of this program. SO. For the love of everything holy, PLEASE choose this option so BMW doesn’t cancel it as well!
With this depressing news, I’m not holding out that the rest of this year will improve. I’m honestly ready to cry after hearing that the European Delivery service will no longer be offered by BMW. If you want to learn more, our source was here: Yahoo News
