Poor reviews and high price lead to BMW E92 M3 order cancellations?

Newswheel staff :: 26 July 2007 :: Filed under Coupe, BMW, BMW 3 Series

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£55k too much for a humble 3?

The evidence is anecdotal at best. But it seems the waiting list for BMW’s new M3 may be suffering something of an exodus in the UK. Following several lukewarm road test reports in the usual UK print press publications, web forums are buzzing with customers claiming to have cancelled orders.

To be precise, it’s not clear that punters are cancelling orders as a direct result of the disappointing early road tests. But a general loss of confidence and fears over residuals have been fuelled by the mediocre reviews.

The general gist is that £55,000 to £60,000 for a 3 Series is an awful lot of money. Hence, any suggestion that the car is less than absolutely fantabidosy will have buyers cancelling orders in droves. The fact that Audi’s revelatory RS4 is providing a tough benchmark certainly doesn’t help. Previous M3s have pretty much had it all their own way.

Moreover, several forum posters also claim they cancelled their orders as soon as the first images and pricing were revealed. Not great news given BMW’s ambitions to sell more of the new E92 M3 than any previous incantation.

What’s more, if reports of dealers taking the news of cancelled orders badly are true, the problem could be widespread.

Anywho, with tales of rather horrifying depreciation on the M6 coupe also circulating, might it be high time for BMW UK to rethink its current pricing policy? As good as the M cars are, it seems punters are only willing to pay so much…

Linkage:
BM3W forum M3 cancellation thread