I believe it ran that high in Netherlands (archive)

I'm doing this from memory, and my numbers were obviously wild estimates, but if I recall correctly SMG I was rather pricey (above the equivalent of $5K US) in parts of Europe. It's messy to translate with all the VAT's, taxes and other issues. I also recalled the $6K figure mentioned in the US rumor, so I figured trying to set expectations in the range of $3K to $6K seemed reasonable for those making decisions now in the US.

The reality is that SMG is likely rather affordable to produce once it's designed, but the engineering costs must have been huge. How BMWAG and BMWNA decide to recover those one time costs, and how they decide to position the option in the US market gives us a big range in consumer costs. I expect it to be expensive here for a while, since there is essentially NO competition to it. With time (and for example MB starting to ship a similar unit) prices might fall.

Note in contrast that places like Australia (do I have that right?) will take SMG as a no-cost option. Of course they are paying almost twice what we do for the basic car (see how hard it is to make apples to apples comparisons?)

There's my data - you know my angle - informed enthusiasts make better decisions.

Follow Ups:

Re: Interesting, but... draggon 23:12 3/04/2001 (0)

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