Each year BMW Motorrad turns up mob-handed at a big hotel in Garrucha, Almeria Province, on the south-eastern Med coast of Spain where I live. Bringing with them, in several enormous transporters, multiple examples of each and every model in the new range for the year. This is so that a select bunch of German Beemer enthusiasts can book a holiday there, fly in and try out as many bikes as they can for a fortnight - staying full board in the hotel having a really jolly time riding brand-new models in the warm Spanish sunshine on our unmatched beautiful, comparatively-empty roads, even travelling the 30 Km up the autovia to Andalusia's famous race circuit at Tabernas to have a track day on specially prepared BMW rocketship bikes, provided they've paid the coupla hundred euro extra per day. And at night getting vociferously kali-ed in the hotel bar.
Also in the management party from Berlin Spandau are top echelon guys like the Head of European Sales for BMW Motorrad.. I chat with him or his dep., each year and what they tell me about recent changes to BMW motorcycle manufacturing and customer service attitudes would make your hair curl. It would mine, if I had any.
As you know, BMW in Berlin have been making quality bikes for decades but the Car Division in Munich has always been dead against them & their attitude in Spandau - focussing on uncompromising standards instead of just company profit. Now though, BMW Motorrad in Berlin Spandau is entirely owned by the Munich cost-cutters, which explains why many components like engines and bike furniture are nowadays out-sourced to China, Russia, Brazil, Slovakia, etc. etc., in many cases to the detriment of earlier component quality. This aspect, combined with attacks on Spandau's traditional manufacturing concept of no-compromise standards of assembly, finish and testing, means that a current Beemer is no longer the kind of bike we used to buy a decade ago, when we were quite happy to pay thousands more for a Beemer, than we would for an equivalent bike from the Far East, because we were investing in longevity, reliability and quality.
Even more depressing is the news I hear from our annual visiting management team regarding the sea-change in BMW AG's concept of customer service. Their current first reaction to any complaint or issue that may cost them, appears to be to either blame the problem on the biker, or to dismiss the case out-of-hand. I'm sure some of you will have read Chris Harris's illuminating "Some Thoughts on BMW Bikes" missive, easily accessible from a duckduckgo internet search, quoting a BMW America big-shot saying at a recent dealers' conference that the combine now aims purely at well-heeled guys who buy a new Beemer ever year or so, creating increased profits for the distribution chain which can thus offer hardly-used machines at reduced prices, whilst vastly increasing the factory's turnover of new machines.
And maybe you're also fully conversant with the effects of the disaster surrounding the launch in March this year of the R1200RT with 'electronic suspension' - what a mad, overcomplicated concept ! USA customers fool enough to buy that variant have been offered fifteen-hundred bucks as a cash compensation whilst their bike is absent for a month or two, [ "On no account must you ride your bike !", ran the tone of the message sent to each electro-suspension variant customer ] whilst BMW Bracknell has merely offered British purchasers of that model a £500 voucher to buy BMW accessories or apparel.
Such is the new world of BMW Motorrad. Which explains their neo-fascist reaction to the issue that caused them just now to refuse to supply MW, MB and Sher's with any more new parts.
So either buy a different brand if you must buy new, or buy an older BMW !
ALAN in s.e. Spain
I've preferred the service from my local dealer so tend to favour them now (although I wouldn't let them service my bikes even if they offered it for free 
)
