Back in 2018, BMW started a trial subscription service, as part of a trend at the time, a trend that was followed by several other premium automakers. The idea was to allow customers to subscribe to the brand, rather than least a specific car. So any subscribers would pay a flat monthly fee and would have access to several different BMWs. However, BMW has officially pulled the plug on this service, which will be ending at the end of this month.
BMW’s subscription service was essentially just a test run, to learn about its viability. Oddly, it was only offered in Nashville, Tennessee but it’s not shutting down after almost three years. However, BMW is looking into something similar to replace it.
“Our intent with the pilot was to learn about the viability of the subscription model and gauge customer interest,” a BMW spokesman recently told Automotive News. “We are in the process of developing the next iteration of the program.”
There were two different subscriptions levels for the old service; an entry-level and premium subscription. The former would offer customers less expensive models, up to the 3 Series and X3. The latter would offer more premium models, all the way up to the BMW M5.
BMW isn’t the only brand to shut its subscriptions services down, though. Mercedes-Benz did it awhile back, while Audi will also be cancelling its own at the end of this month. So it seems that the Germans aren’t thrilled with how they turned out. The idea is interesting and it was all the rave back in 2018, which seems like a lifetime ago, but it just didn’t pan out as automakers had hoped. Admittedly, BMW must see some potential in subscriptions if it’s looking to replace its current model with a different one but, as of right now, BMW won’t have a subscription based service past January, 2021.
[Source: Automotive News]
