If you guys want to let BMW know their actions are directly affecting their ability to sell cars, here is what you can do. A friend of mine wanted to buy a Toyota Tundra last fall. They're quite a bit cheaper in the US than they are in Canada, and being that it's made in NA, there is no duty either, which makes importing one even more attractive.
Anyway, he has a buddy at a Toyota dealer in Spokane that was ready to sell him a truck, they had the deal done and the money was being transfered. Sure enough, this was right when Toyota decided to fax all of their American dealers specifically "forbidding" them from selling to Canadians.
Needless to say, this pissed my buddy off.
Anyway, we got about 15 to 20 people to all email Toyota Canada saying something along these lines:
I am writing to inform you of my recent experiences in trying to purchase a brand new Toyota Tundra. I had been comparing pricing on this truck and found that I could buy one for substantially less money in the US. I went ahead and found a dealer, they knew I was from Canada and they treated me wonderfully, we agreed upon a fair price and the deal was written up.
Then, Toyota decided to inform all of it's American dealers that selling to Canadians was no longer an option. The dealer I was working with called me to refund my deposit and apologized profusely for wasting my time.
At this point, I am not going to be buying a Toyota, in either country. The actions of Toyota quite frankly absolutely disgust me. Consumers should have the choice of where they do business. In fact, the NAFTA provides us with this option.
I would have been willing to purchase my Tundra in Canada had the dealers been able to come relatively close on price. Unfortunately they do not have this ability, and I do not fault the dealer for this, as they have the right to earn a fair profit.
Toyota needs to consider giving Canadian consumers a fair choice. I can understand our vehicles being more expensive in Canada as you're dealing with a larger country and only 1/10th the market size, but surely these handicaps do not add up to the enormous price discrepancies we're seeing now.
--Anyway, basically replace Toyota with BMW and Tundra with 135 or 335 and feel free to use this.
Maybe edit it in your own words so that it doesn't sound like a bunch of people ganging up on BMW
Will it make a difference? Hard to say... look at Toyota and Lexus, they dropped their MSRP's quite a bit. A Lexus IS250 is $31,900 in Canada and $31,775 in the US. Pretty good parity there!