|
Having paid $90000USD for my E92 325i, in some ways, I can relate to the owner's feelings. When you pay this much money for a car, you expectations of BMW, fairly or unfairly, are naturally higher. I too would be disappointed, though I would not destroy my car, nor even sell it...you just have to be patient and work with BMW to find a solution that you can live with.
And that's probably where things fell apart. Warranty claims, in my experience, do not work the same way in Asia as they do in Canada where I am from. Here in Taiwan, you have to document, document, document, nag, nag, nag, and work your way up the hierarchy of command before getting legitimate warranty issues dealt with. This person may have had it up to his eyeballs before "snapping."
And culturally, this is a valid statement of disgust in Asia. It's happened a few times here in Taiwan...one woman destroy her 6 series in protest and stood in front of the BMW dealership with her wrecked car for days. Generated media coverage, but I doubt had much affect on BMW sales, just as this likely won't.
It's a tough issue. Just because my E92 cost $90000USD does not mean BMW earned a premium profit. I suppose the margins are inherently higher as I am less sensitive to an additional $1000USD tacked on the price than I would be if buying the car in Canada for less than half this amount. Thus, customer expectations are higher here because of the price, but BMW does not capture most of the huge differences.
Sigh...I had a similar experience with my iPod shuffle...2 workouts and it died. No warranty coverage because it was exposed to sweat even though Apple markets the product specifically for work outs. I better go burn down the Apple store!.
|