Quote:
Originally Posted by Raikkonen
100% correct. A modification made on a modern volume production line can be made instantly, and more importantly (as stated) on an individual car. The cost of adding an additional radiator is almost non-existent over the course of the car's production run, unlike other, far more complex components.
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If a special adjustment has to be made just for middle east cars, they're not going to recover the costs over the minuscule run of maybe 10-20 m-sport cars a year.
If these cars are produced in a factory that can handle adjustments like this in the blink of an eye, and the cars meant for the middle east don't have something different about them which prevents the extra cooling from being fit-able without having to move other components around, then no it's not a problem.
I understand the litigious aspect as well. Car companies figure out the probability and cost of a lawsuit and compare it to the cost to make an adjustment. The chance of one of the 10-20 middle east M-sport car purchasers per year suing BMW for cooling issues is next nothing. If it costs more for BMW to add the extra cooling vs. just plugging in some fog lights then there's no business case to provide the extra cooling to the middle east.
Whether it's production cost increases or litigation likelihood, the fact that only a handful of M-sports will go to the middle east could very likely be a big factor in why they're not getting the extra cooling.