Quote:
Originally Posted by NPickles
But have you seen the full electric tow hitch in operation, so cool. Press a button and it appears from nowhere and when finished press the button again for it to disappear with zero effort. On my previous Lexus RX450h I paid about £1,450 for a removable towbar, totally manual. For about £1,000 I got a really cool fully electric retractable towbar on my F15, I'm happy. 
Problem is that as far as I am aware you can't get a factory fit towbar for the F15 in the US car you? |
There is a BMW towbar available. However, as I understand it, no, you cannot get it from the factory that way, it's a dealer installed option. And it's expensive, dealer told me 1.5-2K.
Holy smokes! The towbar (not removable) for my Lexus 350 4 years ago was 150 dollars (US). Took me about an hour or so to put it on.
These prices are just insane. This is the kind of stuff that makes most people just shake their heads when others talk about BMW. 1500 dollars for a factory fit tow setup? My friends would fall out of their chair if they heard that number. Most cars are <200 dollars to outfit with a receiver setup after the fact. And, for those that do have expensive factory options, those hitches aren't like the BMW factory hitch. They are typically class 4 hitches with load leveling/brake controllers/upgraded engine cooling/etc.
Just as an order of comparison, I picked an American car (Dodge Durango) that's roughly the same size as the X5:
From the factory ($995)
7 and 4 Pin Wiring Harness
Class IV Receiver Hitch
Full Size Spare Tire
Heavy Duty Engine Cooling
Rear Load Leveling Suspension
Steel Spare Wheel
Aftermarket ($141.36)
Class 3 Curt hitch
BMW pricing on this is just totally out of line. It's a hunk of steel. I don't for one minute believe that their steel in their trailer hitch is any better than Dodge's or Curt's. So, basically, what prices like this tell me is that BMW is taking a hunk of steel that costs them ~100 bucks and marking it up 10X to sell to the customer..
Figure the cost of an Excuhitch (7-800 installed) or factory hitch (1500 installed) when you look at the M package on the X5. If you don't have the M package, you can get a "normal priced" hitch for ~220 bucks (Draw-Tite), but you'll need to trim back the fascia and it's not an easy installation.
This is one of those things that, in the 70K+ range, should just come stock on the truck (especially the diesel). Oh, and to add just a bit more insult, for those of us leasing, you can only residualize 300 bucks of the factory hitch (at least that's what BMWFS told me). That's a real kick in the shin, charge me 5-10X over what it should cost, and then make me eat the entire cost of something that obviously adds value to the car over the first 36 months?
Ok, I'm done ranting. The Execuhitch is a great product, it's just expensive. I have it, and, if I had to do it again, that's what I would do (rather than the BMW option).