Quote:
Originally Posted by ElonM
My CA is having zero luck adding these two options to my order. He even called BMWNA and was told they were not available from the factory.
Any insight into whatever secret handshake, passphrase, or voodoo that is required to get these options added would be much appreciated.
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This is very interesting, because I was wondering if I just happened to be lucky -- and on the edge of an ordering guide update that was going to make these options generally available to all USA M5 buyers -- or my CA really has some special mojo.
I had inquired with this CA early on about getting these options, and he told me that he had reached out to one of his contacts at BMW NA and was told that they might accept these requests, but they would have to try
*after* the order was placed. To be honest, this sounded a bit sketchy to me, like maybe it was a tactic just to try to get the order.
But since I was able to reach my best price with this CA (on a build without these special options) anyway, I really had nothing to lose by placing my order with him.
So, after first entering an order without those options, and having it be accepted and reach "Status 112," my CA apparently had a point of contact at BMW NA in Port Hueneme that he was able to work through.
Text I had provided to my CA to use in his request to Port Hueneme were:
4U1 Ceramic Controls (as offered on USA M550i and Non-USA M5)
5AZ Laserlight (announced 17 May as a pending option for USA MY2020 M5)
I don't know whether those arguments made a difference in persuading BMW to accept those requests or not, but they might help your CA. Also if you look at the press photos for the
USA version of M5 35 Jahre Edition, I believe it shows Ceramic Controls. Whether that makes them more or less likely to accept a customer request for 4U1 is unclear to me.
After discussing the options with that contact, my CA was told to our surprise that they would accept them, with MSRP pricing of $1200 for 5AZ and $600 for 4U1. I had him go back to his contact to check whether adding these options was going to involve a delay on the build, and the answer came back: no delay. My CA was then provided a form that he needed to fill out, basically identifing the option codes and their MSRP (which had been furnished to him by his contact). Then the options got added to my existing build before it went to Status 150.
I was really surprised about this, because 6 years ago I had tried to special order leather options for my F10 550xi that were also well-within the realm of technical feasibility for the factory (and in fact offered as regular options in UK/Europe markets), only to be turned down. But that was at a different dealership.
Honestly, if you have a qualified customer asking to pay you more money to add options that are already well established on your series production line, I really don't understand why they say "no."
My car has advanced to paint booth now, so I hope that the options are truly going to be built in, but won't know for absolute certain until the car reaches the dealership and my CA gets to see it.
Hope this helps, and let us know how things work out for you.