Quote:
Originally Posted by Cyberdemon
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While it doesn't cost anything for BMW to build that car and ship it to the US, they always try to limit the # of permutations of cars they have to build, otherwise it just becomes even more difficult to manage.
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Supply and demand. No demand, no supply.
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One thing not mentioned yet (in this thread) is that permutations are not "free", as Swamy seems to believe. Each permutation of AT/MT/Engine costs money to certify for the US market (EPA, NHTSA). (The actual cost has seen much discussion, but it's certainly in the 7-figure range). For high-value cars like the M3, another couple thousand dollars to amortize over a small run of cars doesn't make much difference, but for cars like the 320i where BMW is trying to hold down costs, it's a lot percentage wise.
If they're only going to sell a couple thousand MT 320i or 320xi, it doesn't make sense for BMW. It would also piss off buyers that had to pay more for the MT version than the AT version (where the certification cost can be amortized over many more cars.)
This has been really borne out by the F31 wagon offerings: AWD AT, diesel or petrol. BMW has sold fewer than 3,000 wagons each year in the US/CA market for the last two models (E46, E91). Very few MT's (my guess is fewer than 500 combined xi/i). Yet the wagon still costs $2500 or so more than the sedans.