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A LOT of features have disappeared on BMWs in the last few months. I looked into trading in my X5 (2019) for a X5 45e (plug in hybrid) but it was missing quite

A LOT of features have disappeared on BMWs in the last few months. I looked into trading in my X5 (2019) for a X5 45e (plug in hybrid) but it was missing quite a few bits that came as standard before. Like, fog lights. Or the heated/cooled cup holders, wifi hotspot and several other features. Strangely (ahem) the prices haven't gone down!

Hamuko 5y ago
Front fog lights are utterly useless anyways. Many cars don't even come with them now.
- buserror 5y ago
  Actually I use them a lot, on single track roads in the UK, they provide a MUCH better coverage around the front/side of the car -- I don't know how many critter I managed to dodge because I saw their eyes in the hedges.
  - Hamuko 5y ago
    Is it actually that foggy there that regularly?
    - bestnameever 5y ago
      That depends, what do you define as regularly?
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      In parts of the country, definitely. For days on end, sometimes. And it doesn't really matter how regularly. If you are driving in those conditions… you only have to crash once.
      - Hamuko 5y ago
        But fog lights don't really prevent you from crashing. They do not output that much light and unlike your headlights and highbeams, they are not directed, but just scatter light in front of you. In the UK, it's not legal to have the fog lights on unless your visibility is less than 100 metres in front of you. That's basically the same range as your dipped lights have, and less than five seconds worth of visbility if you're doing 80 km/h. If your visibility is reduced so much, your best bet against crashing isn't just to scatter some light near the bottom of your front bumper, but to engage the rear fog lights and drop your speed significantly.
    - Silhouette 5y ago
      Often enough that I probably use high visibility lights on several journeys per year on average. It's usually because of dense fog on rural roads but occasionally conditions like torrential rain on a motorway too. On rare occasions I've had to drive in conditions so bad that the front fogs on my car were providing the main or perhaps only useful illumination of the road immediately ahead. We were all just crawling along at barely more than walking pace, even on roads that might normally have been major high-speed routes. Vehicles without appropriate lights were parking up, totally unable to make progress until the weather improved. That definitely hasn't been an annual occurrence in my experience, but it's happened to me more than once. I'd be very wary of buying any new car without excellent lights today. I'd even say the lighting would be in my top 5 deciding factors. Basic headlights have improved dramatically in recent years, thanks to better light sources and adaptive technologies that offer better coverage without dazzling other road users, but the specialised lights like high visibility and reversing lights are also important at the those times when you do need them.
- k8sToGo 5y ago
  The front fog lights also often act as the light that goes on when turning into a street (rather than a curve). So not useless.
  - Hamuko 5y ago
    Most cars have dedicated curve lights instead now.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - k8sToGo 5y ago
      Curve light is not the same.
JaimeThompson 5y ago
Are turn signals still an optional extra? :)
- buserror 5y ago
  Yes, the stalk is there, buf if you use it, black cars come to your house, remove your BMW and replace it with a Wolkswagen! Us BMW drivers are all terrified of using them!
cronix 5y ago
That sounds more due to inflation. Instead of charging you more, they keep the price the same and give you less stuff. It's not unique to cars. Even food packages are getting smaller in weight of product and the price the same, or more. I've heard it described as "shrinkflation." For instance, a "pint" of Hagen Dazs ice cream has changed from 16oz (a pint) to 14oz in the last few months. > Many consumers may have noticed that popular food and beverage containers are shrinking along with their wallets, but that prices, alas, are not. Tropicana, for example, recently redesigned its large orange juice container, giving it an easy-pour lid—and the capacity to hold only 89 ounces, rather than its old 96 ounces. The price has stayed constant. In an email, Tropicana spokeswoman, Karen May, explained that the smaller size was needed as "the optimum configuration" for the new lid, adding, "Our consumer research indicates that, despite the smaller size, there was no change in the perceived value of the product because of the benefits of the added features." https://www.newsweek.com/food-packaging-shrinks-prices-stay-same-88345 https://www.newsweek.com/food-packaging-shrinks-prices-stay-...
- Swenrekcah 5y ago
  > "Our consumer research indicates that, despite the smaller size, there was no change in the perceived value of the product because of the benefits of the added features." This sentance makes a mockery of the whole concept of resarch and data-driven decision making.

Hamuko 5y ago

Front fog lights are utterly useless anyways. Many cars don't even come with them now.

buserror 5y ago
Actually I use them a lot, on single track roads in the UK, they provide a MUCH better coverage around the front/side of the car -- I don't know how many critter I managed to dodge because I saw their eyes in the hedges.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Is it actually that foggy there that regularly?
  - bestnameever 5y ago
    That depends, what do you define as regularly?
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    In parts of the country, definitely. For days on end, sometimes. And it doesn't really matter how regularly. If you are driving in those conditions… you only have to crash once.
    - Hamuko 5y ago
      But fog lights don't really prevent you from crashing. They do not output that much light and unlike your headlights and highbeams, they are not directed, but just scatter light in front of you. In the UK, it's not legal to have the fog lights on unless your visibility is less than 100 metres in front of you. That's basically the same range as your dipped lights have, and less than five seconds worth of visbility if you're doing 80 km/h. If your visibility is reduced so much, your best bet against crashing isn't just to scatter some light near the bottom of your front bumper, but to engage the rear fog lights and drop your speed significantly.
  - Silhouette 5y ago
    Often enough that I probably use high visibility lights on several journeys per year on average. It's usually because of dense fog on rural roads but occasionally conditions like torrential rain on a motorway too. On rare occasions I've had to drive in conditions so bad that the front fogs on my car were providing the main or perhaps only useful illumination of the road immediately ahead. We were all just crawling along at barely more than walking pace, even on roads that might normally have been major high-speed routes. Vehicles without appropriate lights were parking up, totally unable to make progress until the weather improved. That definitely hasn't been an annual occurrence in my experience, but it's happened to me more than once. I'd be very wary of buying any new car without excellent lights today. I'd even say the lighting would be in my top 5 deciding factors. Basic headlights have improved dramatically in recent years, thanks to better light sources and adaptive technologies that offer better coverage without dazzling other road users, but the specialised lights like high visibility and reversing lights are also important at the those times when you do need them.
k8sToGo 5y ago
The front fog lights also often act as the light that goes on when turning into a street (rather than a curve). So not useless.
- Hamuko 5y ago
  Most cars have dedicated curve lights instead now.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - k8sToGo 5y ago
    Curve light is not the same.

JaimeThompson 5y ago

Are turn signals still an optional extra? :)

buserror 5y ago
Yes, the stalk is there, buf if you use it, black cars come to your house, remove your BMW and replace it with a Wolkswagen! Us BMW drivers are all terrified of using them!

cronix 5y ago

That sounds more due to inflation. Instead of charging you more, they keep the price the same and give you less stuff. It's not unique to cars. Even food packages are getting smaller in weight of product and the price the same, or more. I've heard it described as "shrinkflation." For instance, a "pint" of Hagen Dazs ice cream has changed from 16oz (a pint) to 14oz in the last few months. > Many consumers may have noticed that popular food and beverage containers are shrinking along with their wallets, but that prices, alas, are not. Tropicana, for example, recently redesigned its large orange juice container, giving it an easy-pour lid—and the capacity to hold only 89 ounces, rather than its old 96 ounces. The price has stayed constant. In an email, Tropicana spokeswoman, Karen May, explained that the smaller size was needed as "the optimum configuration" for the new lid, adding, "Our consumer research indicates that, despite the smaller size, there was no change in the perceived value of the product because of the benefits of the added features." https://www.newsweek.com/food-packaging-shrinks-prices-stay-same-88345 https://www.newsweek.com/food-packaging-shrinks-prices-stay-...

Swenrekcah 5y ago
> "Our consumer research indicates that, despite the smaller size, there was no change in the perceived value of the product because of the benefits of the added features." This sentance makes a mockery of the whole concept of resarch and data-driven decision making.