Filed under: Aftermarket
BMW soon to treat U.S. customers as Individuals
The Current issue of Fast Company magazine (despite the name, it's about business, not cars) has an
interesting article about the role of
the "M" brand within the BMW empire.
While we here in the U.S. enjoy the standard M-series cars as much as car nuts anywhere else, it turns out we're soon
to get an interesting service of BMW's M Division - its Individual program. Launched at the Geneva Auto Show in 1992,
the Individual program offers extreme personalization
of your new BMW, including such custom features as exotic paint
schemes, a variety of leather upholstery, antique wood trim, DVD players, photocopiers, minifridges - almost anything
you can imagine, all covered by a full factory warranty.
The Individual program is offered in Europe and Asia across the full range of BMWs. According to Fast Company and
others, the Individual program is coming to the U.S. market, as
soon as they can streamline the ordering process throught the dealer network.
In Europe, Individual is broken down into different levels of customization, ranging from special edition cars in
production runs of 5 to 1,000, through personalized cars (like the 650i cab pictured) built right on the flexible
M-series production line, all the way to full custom special commissions for customers for whom money is no
object.
After all, why should the aftermarket tuners have all the fun?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brad 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Interesting. Sounds like Mercedes' Designo program, only more bespoke...more like Bentley or Rolls. It was also interesting to note that the BMW board doesn't want M to do anything with the 7 Series. They haven't done an M7 yet (the closest they got was the previous gen 7 series with the M Technik Sport Package), but I wonder if the board will let M play with the 7 under the Individual program. Maybe the 7 can be upfitted enough to give Bentley and Maybach a run.
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smj 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
On the BMW international website you can play a bit with the Individual options: http://www.bmw.com/com/en/index_highend.html?prm_content=../../com/en/insights/corporation/mgmbh/_highend/xml/individual.xml
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G. Snyder 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
M Technik is almost almost like a level below individual - still from M division. They have offered M Technik kits for cars for some time (E21 or E30 I beleive). Usually just body kits, suspension, etc. but no real power upgrades.
Another interesting car was the later V12 850 CSI (not the first run). They were, for all intents and purposes, an M8. The engine was breathed on (even the rocker covers said "M-Power", had M badging all over including the red/purple/blue stictching, and had a 6 speed manual transplanted in. Yet the car was never badged or marketed as a true M car. Weird.
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Joel A 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
This is something Cadillac could try. Would differentiate themselves from the all-in-one luxury Japanese brands, for instance. Even the (Ford-owned) Jaguar should consider it. (I consider Lincoln more as entry-level lux.)
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SOhp101 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
Actually you don't need to have an M model version of a BMW in order to get it 'individual'ized. I suppose the author confuses M with Individual since a large number of vehicles from both sub-brands usually originate from the same factory.
It's silly to compare it to the designo program because with the Individual program you're allowed to choose any combination you'd like along with almost any features you'd like, but of course they do have suggestions for the color impaired.
Individual is not cheap, and often times they do charge you extra for paint colors that are part of the normal selection on other series models (for example, to get a certain color on the M5 requires Individual while it is available in the 3 series as one of the standard metallic colors). It's not as individual as you would think.
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G 10:50PM (12/18/2005)
This sounds sweet. The luxury segment has been losing out to the near-luxury segment because their stantard gadgets aren't that much better than in the near-luxury class, and even the expensive options aren't really mind blowing. Personalization can definitely make luxury cars seem special again.
Of course, it this catches on big, it could mean a glut of cars with horrible personalized interiors.(Just check ebay for maserati's. At least half of them have red stitching or piping or all blue interiors, LOL)
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