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      02-26-2008, 05:50 PM   #3
Suzie's Dad
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Drives: ML550/AMG
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: The Dark Side

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Good idea!

I'm still waiting for Canadian prices. Comparably-equipped X5s are almost a third more expensive here than in the U.S. despite our dollars being at par. Maybe BMW Canada will decide to price the X6 more reasonably. (Insert picture of flying pig here.)

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Slight error there. The one-third difference doesn't take into account the fact that Canadian-spec BMWs tend to come better equipped than their US equivalents. A 20% difference is more accurate.

I still don't have prices for the base X6s, but the price for accessories and packages appears to be pretty much the same as for X5s: from 1.15 to 1.22 times the equivalent US prices. (MSRP on the power tailgate, for example, which my dealer just received yesterday, is $600 vs $500 in the US.) If you are a Canadian trying to price an X6, you can probably get a reasonably good idea by just adding 20% to the US price. Our dollars are at par. Go figure. Note that some packages in Canada contain more items than the same ones in the US, so be sure to compare apples with apples.

I have ordered my 50i subject to these estimates being reasonably accurate. (All the dealer can do at this point is put me on a sort of wait list, as he has no ordering information for the 50i so cannot actually place an order on BMW.) Configured with just about every option, the price is an almost-exact 100 big ones. Gulp.

One thing worth thinking about if, like me, you like to pay cash and don't finance your vehicles: a prepaid lease. You negotiate a normal lease (36 months, in my case), pay a deposit, and then pre-pay the 36 monthly payments in one lump sum. You get a slight interest rate break, of course, by pre-paying. This way, the residual is guaranteed at 51%. If the actual value in three years is less than the residual, I just walk away. If it is more, I buy the vehicle and resell for a profit. This is meaningful for a new vehicle that may go out of favor as gas prices rise and ecofreaks get ever more anti-car laws in place. Meanwhile, I don't own the X6, which is important for someone who owns a leveraged business; if things go bad and my personal guarantees click into place, nobody can possess a vehicle that isn't mine!

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Another update:

Within a few days the M3 and 1-series will be on the BMW Canada website with Build-Your-Own configurators. (Dealers already have price sheets.) If you configure one of each and then do the same on the US website, you should get an idea of the ratio between US and Canadian prices. This ratio will then likely be the same for the X6.

BMW Canada has told dealers that they (BMW-Ca) are trying to set prices of new models closer to US prices than existing lines are. Don't expect parity, but if the difference on the X5 is, say, 20%, we can probably expect the difference on the X6 to be something like 15%.

Apparently BMW-Ca is taking a bath on lease buybacks at the moment. My dealer says he is buying three-year-old 5-series at auction for 40%, when their residual was 50%. BMW-Ca -- or, more accurately, BMW Financial Services -- are the ones who get to eat the difference. The reason is that the price disparity between Canada and the US is being dissolved faster in used vehicle sales than in new ones, as media like eBay level the playing field between the two countries. The disparity between US and Canadian new vehicle prices is starting to concern BMW. They have begun arming dealer sales personnel with a lot of comparative lease rates and price sheets that show it is actually cheaper to do a deal in Canada than south of the border. In some cases that is true, but only because BMW has arbitrarily set up roadblocks. But a drop from a premium of 20% to one of 15% is a step in the right direction.

We need a smilie on this forum for flying pigs...

Last edited by Suzie's Dad; 03-06-2008 at 04:41 PM.. Reason: Even more info.
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