Interesting comments on pricing.

It prompted me to have a look back at some old pricing. Back in 2008, an e60 520d SE Auto was priced at rrp of €57285. With the adoption of the CO2 based VRT, the RRP for the same car dropped to €50826. By the end of 2009 the same car had dropped in price to an RRP of €45519, but if I recall correctly the spec had also been extended to include leather on the run out cars, making these pretty good value at the time.

I don't have an opening price to hand for the arrival of the F10 in 2010 but the current RRP that BMW are now quoting for an F10 520d SE Auto is €49203.

So, despite the VRT rate dropping from 23% to 16% a 520d SE Auto has increased in price by 8% in a period of time when inflation has been more of less stagnant. The drop in the VRT rate amounts to a further difference of approx. €2.5k over the same period by my calculation.

Looks like BMW have been fairly aggressive in their pricing updates over recent years!