I can already tell you good ol' red's response before he even posts it:

Well guess what, BMW has been sliding down the quality/service scale for a while now. Look at the rediculous iDrive, this thing has been going in their cars for what, almost 3 years now and they still can't work out the bugs: http://www.freep.com/money/autorevie...e_20040715.htm

If you love electronic glitches, step into this $70,000 6 series!"

Another thing I noticed about the reviewer's take on the 6 series was a cramped back seat. For redzed, I suppose this is perfectly fine in such an externally large and upscale ride like the Bimmer, but if the CTS doesn't have the interior size of Buckingham Palace it's unacceptable....

 

you can get a V8 northstar STS for under 50K if you can live without all those gadgets.

I personally hate video screens in cars. I don't want to be frusterated while driving because I can't figure out how to change the radio. My computer at home gives me plenty of fits and tantrums, thank you very much

 

Let's see, BMW seems to have a great dealer network and an ordered BMW can arrive from Europe in less than 14 business days. If your 5-series BMW goes into the service department, you get a 5-series loaner - not just any lesser car.

On the other hand, my local Cadillac is the same moron who that offered me lousy service for my Chevrolets - not to mention the fact that ordered GM cars seem to take around three months to arrive. From experience, I can also state that the local Chevrolet/Cadillac dealership doesn't like to part with its loaner cars very freely.

Assuming that GM could manage to make a $64k STS competive with the $65K BMW 545i, the rotten ownership experience that a Cadillac offers would still sour the deal.

To be fair, there are decent Chevy dealers - like the one that fixed the poor work done by the local moron. There's even a fairly friendly Cadillac dealersabout 75 miles away from where I live. Of course the BMW dealer is also about 75 miles away, and even friendlier...

 

So your whole arguement boils down to the fact that you have in your head than any and every BMW dealership is better than any and every Cadillac dealership...

And the fact that you can get a special order in quicker... which I don't know, but I certanly question... 2 years ago, I looked into ordering a Dark Green (I forget the exact color name) BMW 330Ci... the dealership, who was nice, but showed little intersest in me... told me it would take 8-10 weeks to come in....

 

To me, it's purely in the eye of the beholder. So the following is my opinion...

Value pricing seems to make the buyer say to themselves," Hmmm, they must be a reason they are wanting to move this car... new one coming? Options list is low? Backlog of inventory? Well, whatever the reason, if they will sell it for this, by golly I'll take it!"

Rebates say to me," We will PAY YOU to buy this vehicle from us. We know the price was too high, and we've stuck it to all the folks we could, now we need to move the rest of these things fast, so here's a few grand of your own money back... THANKS for buying!... sucker."

Another point I have with rebates is that on most things (not cars), they bank on the fact that most people won't even bother to send them in by the deadline, so many decent rebates never get paid. But they got you to make the purchase on a great price "AFTER REBATE".

Honestly, anybody who thinks a rebate is actually ANYTHING other than their own money (that they NOW get to pay interest to GMAC or some other financier)... well let's just say they need to come to my place for a BIG party with LOTS of beer! I'll arrange to get the beer AFTER you arrive...

 

Cadillac placed 4th overall in the latest JD Powers Customer Service index...but where's BMW?????

http://www.detnews.com/2004/autosins...c01-218505.htm

 

Better resale value, better sales staff, better service...

What's not to like about the BMW ownership experience? If Mini had been sold through Ford or Chevy franchises instead of BMW dealers, would it have been a success?

The whole 12-13 day special order thing just came out this year. Back in 2001/2002, I was told that a 325i would take 6-months to special order. BMW really got their act together, and now they're ahead of the entire industry in terms of customer orders.