Volume One, Issue Three - Wednesday, March 20, 2002
By Donald Buffamanti and Greg Flores, Founders
Here's the latest Auto Spies News
Over the past few weeks we’ve been talking about recent happenings regarding the new seven series from BMW.
As the spies scour the net, it is amazing how many sites have picked up on our exclusives and are hotly debating our findings. We are uncovering thousands of very emotional posts on this topic.
In case you have not read our review on the new seven (in our Auto show report available at
http://www.autospies.com/report/default2.asp ) we have been very critical of the car and it is leading people to think we are anti-BMW. That could not be further from the truth! Out of the thirty or so cars 001 has owned in the last three years, fifteen or so have been BMW’s. We think they are making the best cars on the market and have created the highest amount of ‘brand envy’ in the history of the automotive business. In 001’s opinion, the M5 is the best car on the planet, bar none. We just think they made a SEVERE mistake on the new seven. Yes, the ride is fantastic and it drives better than the S-class, but it is BUTT ugly from many angles. Some people might say we hate radical change, but they are wrong. The spies are the first guys on the block when ANY new technology, auto or gadget is introduced. We’re glad they are trying to create something revolutionary and different. They just didn’t make it GOOD different! The antithesis of this car is the new SL or the Modena. Drive around town in the seven and people give you the ‘Dog stare’ (you know, tilting your head to the side with that ‘glassy eyed’ look). Then drive around in the new SL or a Modena and people are just awestruck. You could get pleasure from these cars, just sitting outside the car in a lawn chair, enjoying your favorite adult beverage and just marveling at their beautiful designs (they will be collector’s cars twenty years from now). The seven is like that wonderful spouse who is almost perfect but their face could stop a train and their butt is VERY flabby. When you build a car in this price range, it should be perfect. In our estimation, the seven is far from that. You may say we’re nitpicking, but think of it this way, when you go to the Olive Garden for dinner and they make a few mistakes, so what! You didn’t pay that much and they didn’t claim to be ‘The ultimate dining experience’ before you walked in the door. But if you go to the Ritz-Carlton and spend $250 on dinner for two, it BETTER be great! BMW, you built a very good car in the new seven. It’s just not great! All you new seven owners out there, get ready to take a major depreciation enema on this baby, when you go to dump it on the new A8 or S-class next year.
Auto Spies exclusive: More 745 happenings-Premium subscribers only
A woman was driving her 745 south on the I-5 a couple of weeks ago and the iDrive shut down the car WHILE she was driving on the highway! She had enough power steering power to get it of the road and when the BMW roadside assistance guy showed up, he couldn’t get the thing going again and the car had to be towed. The techs at the dealer looked at it and it took almost two full days to figure out the problem and get it going again. There have been numerous instances of iDrive glitches that have been reported to the spies.
Auto Spies exclusive: BMW knows of these problems and all 745’s being prepped at the port, are having new upgraded iDrive software installed on them. Hopefully, it will correct the bugs. I hope it’s not Microsoft software! If so, you’ll probably have to wait twenty-five minutes for your car to boot up! J
Auto Spies exclusive: Next generation 3 series- Rumors are coming in to us, stating the new 3 series will have an optional V8 engine available in all versions, not just the M-series. Look for the next generation 8 cylinder non-M to have to have performance numbers almost identical to the current M3! We’re hoping BMW can figure out a way to get a retractable hardtop/convertible on the next 3 series.
Negative halo effect
Some of the LA region dealers are reporting to the spies the foot traffic through the dealerships has actually gone down since the intro of the seven. One large BMW dealer said they had virtually no phone calls from customers on one of their normally busy days.
Cutting through the hype
Although dealers will tell you the 745’s are flying off the shelves, let’s run the Auto Spies BS decoder on this one…
Check out this Ebay auction on a used 745 with only 1000 miles:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eb...491149&r=0&t=0
They were asking $68K for the car and guess how many bids they got? Goose Egg, “0”!
You won’t see that happening on the new SL…
Great Post
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