BMW Bluetooth Boycott

[pharding]

I was set to order a $65k 545i early next week and take European Delievery on June 23. I am a repeat customer and I am disgusted by BMW's Bluetooth/BMW Assist fiasco. BMW has botched this issue big time. Why not learn from the Audi 5000 disaster and listen to loyal US Customers? Many of us are repeat buyers of expensive BMW automobiles. On this BT issue BMW has made the following mistakes: 1. Poor communication with it's loyal customer base. 2. Inept electronic engineering on a feature that is important to many repeat US customers. 3. Failure to solve a serious problem in a timely manner, once the problem is identified. In this country engineers work OT to solve serious problems. In Germany they don't aparently. 4. Shoving BMW Assist down our throats at the expense of Bluetooth. 5. Gross arrogance and a "I don't care attititude about it's US customer base".

BMW talks of grandiose plans of company growth in the Asian markets while loyal US repeat customers get ignored. BMW needs to wake up before it goes the way of Audi in the US in the mid-eighties.

What am I going to do? I will write every editor at automobile publications, newspaper automobile editors, and consumer publications and express my dissatisfaction with the BMW Bluetooth/BMW Assist fiasco and BMW's gross indifference to loyal US customers who hung in there with a very controversial design.

I encourage others that agree with my dissatisfaction to boycott BMW, write automobile magazine editors, and write BMW.

Paul Harding
Harding Partners
224 South Michigan Avenue
Suite 245
Chicago, Illinois 60604

[SARAFIL]

BMW talks of grandiose plans of company growth in the Asian markets while loyal US repeat customers get ignored. BMW needs to wake up before it goes the way of Audi in the US in the mid-eighties.

What am I going to do? I will write every editor at automobile publications, newspaper automobile editors, and consumer publications and express my dissatisfaction with the BMW Bluetooth/BMW Assist fiasco and BMW's gross indifference to loyal US customers who hung in there with a very controversial design.



Paul--

I'm sorry to hear of your dissatisfaction, but I don't think your methods are going to produce any meaningful results. Your comparison of the Bluetooth "fiasco" (is it really a "fiasco''?) to the Audi dilemma is quite far fetched, and I can't even see how one would compare it to the Audi unintended-acceleration dilemma of the '80s. Audi built cars that were known to accelerate on their own (or, at least, they were reported to do so in the media), and the company's image was tarnished as the cars were seen as unsafe. BMW never promised that your car would be available with Bluetooth, as far as I recall, and anyone that has bought one to this point has done so willingly and knowing that Bluetooth was not available. In addition, BMW has never promised that they would have a Bluetooth kit available for cars that are already built.

Is the basis for your argument that BMW is evil and going to die off in the US market because they have not yet figured out a way to put Bluetooth in their cars? Is this such a serious problem, as you suggest, that engineers should be working around the clock? I think not. When Audi's start driving themselves, that is a serious problem. When BMW has not finalized their Bluetooth kit and it is not yet available, that is not a serious problem. An inconvenience? Yes, definately. A major problem? Not by any means.

BMW has often been "behind the times" by a few years in developing and integrating new technologies into thier vehicles. This is just the latest example. I just think your proposal is taking things out of hand, and you're making a bigger issue out of this than you should.

Regardless of what I think of your idea, I wish you luck with it. Time will tell which one of us was right with our predictions.

[Ender's Game]

As a BMW Salesman the whole Bluetooth issue is particularly agrivating. Did you know that all new 2004 BMWs come with a Bluetooth Passkey card in the glovebox?!? :yikes: More than once I have had to explain to new owners that eventhough they have a Passkey, they do not have Bluetooth. I tell then to be patient and that BMW will at some point develope a kit to make bluetooth work.

[E64Cab]

What's a Bluetooth Passkey card?

[ger3sf]

I don't know what the big deal is all about. I turn off my phone while driving, and if anybody is desperate to get in touch, they can leave voicemail. BT doesn't do anything to enhance the driving experience, so BMW should keep it out. Leave BT for Benz, Lexus and Cadillac buyers.

[JonathanIT]

BT doesn't do anything to enhance the driving experience, so BMW should keep it out. Leave BT for Benz, Lexus and Cadillac buyers.

I heartily disagree. BT gives a seamless handsfree speakerphone, enabling one to drive and keep both hands on the wheel while talking. While not "enhancing" the driving experience per se, it certainly minimizes "interference" with said driving experience. Some people will talk on the phone regardless (especially here in L.A.!), I would much rather have them on a BT system than fumbling with the phone if they were on the roads near me!


Re: Bluetooth Passkey
I heard rumors that the actual phone number for the BMW Assist in the vehicle (the number used to call the car) is printed on this card--is this true or another BMW myth?

Re: Boycott
While it's a little too late for me to boycott BMW, I will most certainly not be renewing my BMW Assist subscription after the first year. $200 is just not worth it and in fact seems like a total ripoff; I can then install the BT kit after removing the BMW assist hardware. I'm contemplating doing a DIY on this particular project just for the pure enjoyment of ripping out that worthless BMW Assist crap myself!

--J.

[Ender's Game]

The Bluetooth passkey card has the code that you enter into your cell phone or other Bluetooth device so that the car and the device can recognize each other.

It is true! the phone number that Assist uses to dial the car is on the Passkey card. However, I don't think that the occupant of the car can answer an incoming call unless it is comming from Assist.

[mikeg]

Hi. Unrelated to bluetooth but could you explain how the prewiring works for a cell phone in the cars middle console? I just want to be able to charge my existing Verizion phone without having the ashtray open. Can they use the prewiring for a charger?

Thanks,

Mike