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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Russell" data-source="post: 632220" data-attributes="member: 28407">Actually I don't know whether it will make any business sense to drop the price of the 520i any further. Don't get me wrong, as a consumer I will definitely want it cheaper but from a business point of view I wouldn't drop it any further if I'm BMW because (1) at the end of the day, the difference between the 520i and the 528 is no longer 2 different engines but the same engine in differing state of tunes and no matter how you try to pitch it, buyers will always see it as that i.e. the same engine. So to ask a buyer to pay more than 40k for what is the same engine but with more power, some extra body kits and accessories will be asking too much. Bear in mind that not everyone has the same preferences. For eg. I have a friend who prefers the look of the 5 without the body kit and was trying to get a 528 without the kit. And because all the new one comes with the bodykit, he was even considering spending money to change it back to normal! For others, more power from a higher tune of the same engine equals lower reliability over the long run. So if the gap widens, BMW might sell more 520s but it could be at the expense of the 528s. And I suspect the 528 is probably the higher margin product so why do that. (2) And this is probably most important, the gap is similar to the gap between the E200 and E250 which are essentially the same thing i.e. same engines with different tunes. Competitive pricing strategies... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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