Apex

How long the great experience and great service can keep customers coming in and buying new cars regardless of price will remain to be seen, buyers have continued to buy them at a premium for years and the premium pricing vs other markets is nothing new, what is new is the increasing quality and value of lesser brands, I know my parents have moved away from BMW after buying them for 25 years, they could no longer see the "premium" value and "prestige" in the product vs lesser brands and have just brought a fully loaded European car for a fraction of the cost that they are happy with. With the economy I think the badge snobbery has become unfashionable also, you don't want to be seen as a person spending money on a BMW in times of down turn. Of course BMW's in the UK have better options but all start with a lower base package and lower base price. Comparing brand new pricing, ours have a better "base" spec, a lot of our high end models that BMW NZ package for our market have equipment levels that would equate to ticking quite a few boxes if you were to order one new in the UK. I used to have a 545i and when we ran the build on it it had something like 30 options over a base car that BMW NZ had specified for that particular model in our market. I'm not trying to justify cost and agree they should cost 15-20% less new here, I was just pointing out a few things that make it hard to make a direct comparison and packaging is something that needs to be accounted for. Its not exclusive to BMW, my current car, a 2011 Renault Megane RS250 Trophy is 15% more expensive here than they are in the UK and its still not in the exact spec I would want, had I ordered it how I wanted I would have to wait 6 months and it would have cost more as they get a discount when they "package" order cars the same speck and ship them all together. Bulk buying cars is no different than any other product.

As mentioned in an older thread, it did with Jaguar NZ, they have slashed 20% off local pricing due to parallel importing. Jag are at the bottom of the premium sales heap though so need to be more competitive with pricing, people will just buy BMW's anyway.

Spotted this one sporting 7k's worth of BBS wheels and probably another few thousand dollars worth of suspension on Hyper Drives FB page. Not that the 1M needs improving anyway, this is just plain hot and shows some people with money have taste. I know of a few people who have brought these recently direct from the UK, so the local numbers are climbing, good for us fans that can buy one second hand in a few years!

The BMW pricing topic got me looking at BMW’s price list and I found gem in the range that I think is not priced too badly vs the competition. A real Golf GTI, FT-86, BZR, WRX STI or Megane RS250 alternative. http://www.bmw.co.nz/com/en/newvehicles/1s...eAndOptions.pdf I know we don’t have many new car buyers around here but I think this is a model that could be popular if promoted and ordered in manual, fit a LSD and have it remapped and you would have one hell of a good 5-door RWD performance car. Check this out!

Small market, higher buy price, higher specked cars, higher mark up.. it all ads up. The BMW experience is second to none, after sales service has always been fantastic and other brands could learn a lot, this does not quite justify the pricing but does go along way as to why BMW are still number one premium brand in NZ.

Made me laugh. I play that game. If you are after a specific brand and know the exact spec this can help. Have had up to $400 per tyre difference in pricing from one place to another simply because some companies have better relationships with wholesalers. Most will try and sell you whatever brand they sell the most of and slander whatever brand it is you actually want stating their brand is heaps better because Mad Mike uses them on his Drift RX7. Is majorly confusing even if you do know a little bit about tyres. In the case of the OP just see Jono, he has some good tyres for good prices and is the most genuine guy you will talk to on the phone, its nice to talk to someone who actually runs a business.

Says the BMW salesman. With 100k saved and a BMW factory warranty you should not have any problems. 100k is a good chunk on money saved. Or put a LSD in the 535d and get it re-maped, now that would be fun.

Yep. I like my euro plates, I have had them since the euro plates come onto the market and they are mine!! I have it fitted to my new car and gives it more of a personal touch and makes it look less "company car" plus it does fill the space where a NZ plate wont.

I had a good run for years with the “fake imported plates†and then I got done three times in one month, ended up in court, lost, got schooled in the complications and reasoning’s and learnt a lot about identity theft etc and then after going through the proses of ordering and fitting NZ plates I can understand why the parallel import plates are illegal, anyone can fit any plate to any car. Safe to say I have learnt my lesson and would not run fake plates again. What I found funny when getting my current genuine euro plates remade is that it only cost $56.00 vs the $400 it cost to have existing non euro plates re made as euro plates, what’s the difference? This $344 difference is what annoys me, there is no justification and personalized plates are making $350 to do little more than order your plate from the manufacture. If they lowered the cost to say $200 I think that would be fair, they would still make $150 for doing nothing and I bet they would sell 10x the amount they do now.

Love the red M3, looks great! Nice pair you have there.

Haha I thought that was reserved for French cars. My window stops working, take door card off, blow on connectors, refit, working for another 6 months. Beats having to buy whole new regulators every 6 months like I had to do in my old E39. Good luck with the Punto Huff3r.

We all know no one wins and argument, was not trying to start one. I would just like to know what they share out of genuine interest, one is BMW group and the other is VW group, they are like GM and Ford, I am more than happy to be schooled in anything automotive.

Twin turbs V8 E30 in the making there! Seriously big smash, like the F10 that crashed at Christmas, the driver had a dog on board. With this in mind I would like to see Dog airbags installed from now on, maybe include a crash test dog dummy in testing.

You made the sweeping comment that they are basically the same, I was questioning what is the same, seems you can’t tell me. I am genuinely interested. The Rolls Royce Phantom is a BMW product, designed and built by BMW, the equivalent Bentley, the Mulsanne and all other Bentleys are designed and built by VW, completely different cars, completely different companies.

I don't believe you. Sorry. I am interested to know how a BMW Phantom in any way the same as anything from Bentley??

They are two completely different cars, one is a BMW one is a Audi. Like saying a BMW 7 is the same as a Audi A8! I would not one smashing into me!

Importing them is a great idea, much cheaper, I was just going off what was available locally! I agree, but I am a race driver and like going fast, some people just want to drive down Queen Street cranking "Ice Cube" and pulling mean bitches, most don't drive half the speed that the spendy socks start working! They were when I priced them retail a couple of years back, KYB's were under $200 each from Repco, the Bilstiens were over $800 each from Suspension Tech. How much are Koni's for the E30 then?? I wanted some Koni Yellows for my Rally car but Stocks want $1840+GST for the pair, thats not toooo farr off the cost of a set of KW V3's.

Jeremy Clarkson drives one. Enough said really.

Depending on what you are doing you may not need expensive shocks, for your average Joe Koni/Billy may be overkill and unnecessary, KYB from Repco at 1/4 the price maybe all you need. I'm sure the places listed above are quite good, have used race-line and on a good day they are good, maybe less enthusiastic than I would hope for. I found Anthony at alignment specialists in Penrose to be very honest, enthusiastic and thorough and he didn't charge me an arm and a leg, he races and you can see he takes pride in what he does. Just another option at least, there are some cowboys out there so its good to have options. http://yellow.co.nz/y/Wheel+Alignment/Alig...14289_1729.html

How nice are those seats.. not a bad price either!

I don't know, do it and find out? Best result I had was throw away the tyre and buy a new one, there is a reason people throw them out!

Put it on back. Do burnouts until even. 2c

I'm with State and they let me order an OEM screen, polarized with new rain and light sensors, cost them a fortune! Love you State!!

Just thought it was interesting.. I think its because BMW's attract the opposite sex better than any other car, the ladies love the BMW's!