Between its first model year and its last, a typical car sees lots of changes. And while, generally, those changes are good for overall reliability (so the automaker can reduce their warranty costs), they also involve the car becoming cheaper over time. The concept, called Technical Cost Reduction at my former employer, Chrysler, is one I’ve already discussed before. But yesterday, while trying to sell my 2014 BMW i3, I noticed even more features on my 2021 i3 that had been decontented, and it’s driving me crazy.
Decontenting is a frustration that many, many enthusiasts have to deal with as they decide which model year of a certain model to buy. In theory, the cost cuts that automakers make should be ones that the average customer doesn’t notice, and I do think that’s the case with my BMW i3. For the most part, the cost reductions made to the 2021 model-year car aren’t a huge deal to the average customer, and looking on forums, I don’t see lots of complaints.
But now that I’ve noticed these technical-cost reductions (TCRs), they annoy the crap out of me.
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For one, what the heck happened to that compass on the rearview mirror? I want that back! Here’s my 2014:
Here’s my 2021:
What happened to my carbon fiber engine cover? Look at this beauty on my 2014:
But my 2021’s engine compartment lid is made of boring ol’ aluminum:
What happened to the sound deadening on my range extender? My i3 had it to keep that motorcycle engine from making a racket in my cabin:
But my 2021 has no sound insulation; what gives?
Then there’s this little hand-rest for the iDrive control. My 2014 has it:
My 2021 does not:
Then there are the TCRs I’ve pointed out before. There’s the netting at the base of the center stack between the driver’s and passenger’s seat:
My 2021 just has an elastic strap:
There’s the glovebox lock, with is a nice silver metal on my 2014:
On my 2021, it’s black plastic:
Then there’s the netting on the back of the front seats:
My 2021 is missing those entirely:
Then of course there’s the change from the leather armrests:
To vinyl for 2021:
Especially when you consider that BMW made significant engineering improvements to the vehicle’s battery/drivetrain, do these little TCR changes matter? To the average buyer, probably not, and that means BMW’s TCR efforts were a success — the company cheapened their car in a way that didn’t bother probably 99.9% of buyers. But the problem with TCRs is that if you do end up noticing the changes (in my case, because I bought a first and a final model year of the same car), they drive you absolutely bonkers!
Why do I all of a sudden miss a carbon fiber engine compartment cover that I rarely see? Why do I miss that cushioned pad for the iDrive controller (a pad that’s pretty much useless)? Why do I miss that netting on the back of the front seats that I’ve never actually used? Why do I find myself using the mirror compass in my 2014 now that I know my 2021 doesn’t have it? Why am I noticing little stains on the white vinyl armrests when I think about my 2014’s brown ones that are more stain-resistant? And is it just me, or is that range extender a bit louder on my 2021?
Gah!
We are watching in real time as The Autopian’s Hoarders spinoff shows David Tracy trying his best to get rid of the extra car that is continually looking more and more superior to the nearly indentical car he intends to keep.
Looking at the engine cover, it looks like the CF has some sort of warning about not putting luggage on it? I can’t see a similar symbol on the aluminum one, so maybe it can handle more weight and could be therefore thought of as an upgrade?
Odd question: wouldn’t vinyl make more sense to have in places where the leather was? It looks similar, and doesn’t vinyl generally hold up longer over time anyways?
I don’t know how well that white vinyl will hold up; I can tell you that after 10 years and 145K miles, the leather remains perfect.
MB Tex would like a crack at that. But I don’t really know what you actually have there.
At least they didn’t move the glove box lock to the infotainment screen and charge you a subscription for it.
Evil Marketing people at BMW are like “Hey… that sounds like a GREAT idea!!!”
Are we sure all of these are de-contenting, or since it’s a 2021 could some be the result of pandemic-era parts and materials shortages?
Do you notice additional cabin noise in the 2021 with the sound deadening gone? Of everything you mentioned, that would be the most annoying one to me, but then if I couldn’t tell the difference in noise, I guess it doesn’t matter?
I actually like the black key slot instead of the metal one. I mean, who even regularly locks their glove box anyway?
And seeing back seat netting is actually somewhat annoying. a) no one buys printed road atlases anymore and b) the netting always ends up sagging.
Best case, the “leather” is just bonded leather (1/2mm of ‘real’ leather glued to vinyl). No loss there.
Boring aluminum is fine if you never see it.
But yeah, I’d be pissed at the loss of the sound deadening. You clearly lost out on the hand rest and I get it on the compass. How about instead of all this, they just give you a real e-brake cable? That’s gotta save cash, right?!?
As someone with a bunch of failing netting in their 05 X3, they did you a favor by deleting it. I even have netting on my door pockets – which are now useless since the nets have failed. I’ve just waiting for an X3 LCI model with my color interior to come into the junkyard, because one of the LCI upgrades is solid door pockets with no nets.
The saggy netting my e91 drives me crazy. Definitely an improvement.
Some of have really spensive gloves with string backs and finest kidskin leather and everything, of course you need to lock the glove box.
I retrofitted a mirror out of a 2011 X5 into my 1997 E39. They are literally plug-and-play and they come with a compass and homelink buttons, plus the electrochromic dimming which my car already had. Perhaps there is another model from which you can pull the top spec mirror without scavenging it from your older i3?
I also own a G30 and funnily enough, a compass was never offered so you can’t do the same retrofit. Decontenting is real.
Same here – I put an e90 mirror in my e83 X3. I tried the same in my e46 convertible – but you have to use a convertible mirror since they put the receiver for the key fob in the mirror in convertible models. But honestly – what cares about the compass. I don’t think I’ve used it ever, I just wanted a cleaner mirror assembly with a smaller alarm blinker and working auto dim.
I was aiming for those sweet, sweet homelink buttons and the compass was an added bonus. I got the mirror for like $70 off eBay and it was absolutely perfect, like a brand new part, so I won’t complain about having a compass in there.
In any case, the moment the earth poles swap places they will be rendered useless 🙂
Oh yeah, I got the homelink, too, but my garage doors are for my shop/garage that’s separate from my house, so not really a big deal, as I don’t park that vehicle in there.
And THIS right here is how DT justifies keeping both…
Article soon to come.
Help! I need to sell another couple of crappy Jeeps fast.
As an owner of a 2015, these are interesting to me.
I did wonder, could some of these differences (e.g., deletion of sound deadening) have been because the newer car is the sportier “S” trim? Weight savings?
Next up from David Tracy:
The Best And Worst Of Both World, How I Recontented The BEST BMW i3 EVER! (And Sold The Worst On FB)
Now is the summer of our decontent
Made glorious bummer by this son, a dork… 🙂
IMO those are legitimate grumbles, but I’m kind of with them on the nets: when they lose elasticity they don’t work *and* they look bad, so it may be better to skip them and remain mediocre [in that specific area] rather than look good and then deteriorate.
The car I had in 2007 had a mirror compass and I freakin’ LOVED that feature. I miss it. I want it back in every car I ever have again, but I can never find it. I know, I know we all have phones with GPS, but dammit, sometimes I get a little turned around and just knowing which way is which by looking at the mirror would be damn helpful.
My 2002 Impala had a mirror compass and I still miss it. Definitely got me through some tough times in a pre-smartphone world where you were fucked if the Mapquest route you printed out fell in between your seat and the center console.
It’s still important to develop a map of the world by yourself, in your own head. It’s a valuable skill that humans have developed for millions of years. Having a compass handy aids with that, and it’s easier than consulting an app. This is the kind of route data i’m actually interested in. My Mercedes can tell me the car’s elevation above sea level. That was fun on my last trip into the Colorado Rockies.
Subaru ones were self-contained and only need power. You can route accessory power up there and retrofit the mirror with no loss in most cars.
Under $5 will get you a Chinese compensated binnacle compass with suction cup/doubleside tape mount. I have one mounted on my dash directly centered over the instrument cluster.
The Sebring convertible (or was it the convertible Mustang, maybe both), I owned had the compass in the mirror IIRC. To set it you drove the car in several circles, my ex thought I was nuts spinning circles in an empty parking lot…
None of those are as annoying as the lack of fill plug for the axle in the later years! (you covered that in an earlier i3 article)
The most surprising is the compass in the mirror. Even cheaper cars are starting to have that shit, and now almost all auto-dimming mirrors, OE and aftermarket, have the compass. In fact, it’s actually harder to find one *without* it!
Has the compass simply been moved to some other part of the infotainment, or digital dash?
Having it up on the mirror is pretty arbitrary anyways.
I guess my fleet is an outlier, the Buick LeSabre has an auto dimming mirror but no compass or thermometer. . My similar age F150 has a compass and temperature in the roof console. The moder Mazda has temp in the cluster and compass and altitude in the navigation scree
As others have suggested, you have the perfect opportunity to grab parts from the 2014 before you sell, just swap around whatever bothers you and make the perfect frankenbimmer.
Yeah, I know this won’t be feasible for all of them, but I imagine a lot of these things could be swapped, and you still end up with the 2014 one being perfectly sellable.
^THIS^ At least for the easily swapped stuff. I’m sure that CF engine cover and foam insulation would be a 10 min swap project
This doesn’t seem so odd in the last production year of a low volume model.
OCD is a helluva drug.
~David Tracy
One of the weirdest/neatest features of my 17 Q7 is the motion activated door pocket lights. Little LED shines in there only when it detects your hand. This was immediately removed for the ’18 MY.
The ’18 S5’s footwell lighting is part of the ambient lighting, so it changes color with everything else. They got rid of that in 19 or 20 IIRC and replaced the color changing footwell lighting with regular old white.
Both are the 1st model year of their generation.
My 2021 Polestar 2 has really nice turn signals and windshield wipers stalks that feel heavy and make a solid sound. The 2024 model (loaner) has some cheap plastic that probably the average driver will not tell the difference but I do, it drives me crazy.
Sometimes I feel like this lady touching materials and saying the car brand name lol there is a funny one about Citroen
Stop looking at how the sausage is made or you’ll never be happy.
Ugh. This drives me insane. Everybody looks at the cost “save” without consideration for the cumulative delight that these little things may knowingly or unknowingly bring to the customers. Beyond that, I never see initial engineering and development costs factored in on these decisions! The bulk of the money has been spent. Now let the people enjoy what was created.
If it’s something that’s literally invisible to the customer and a more efficient way to achieve the same result is found, then go for it. That’s a TECHNICAL cost reduction. But, when it’s simple DECONTENTING of a vehicle, that may save a few cents per vehicle, but often cheapens it by a much larger perceived value. I mean, David, you should add up the cost of those “TCR’s” that you identified and assign a value TO YOU. It will surely be at least 10x the money “saved”. 🙁
Exactly! Whatever they saved, the perceived value to me is higher. And that means they did it wrong.
I do wonder with things like this. It has to be planned that oh look at all these goodies for the first model year or two to get good press and buyer reviews but they know they will cut all this stuff out after those early years and the good press and reviews are already there and normal everyday joe blow won’t notice all these small things missing because they didn’t have an early model. Which this sucks cause early model already can have all sorts of issues but sucks missing out on small creatures comforts like this so can be a lose lose.
Well that mirror, engine cover and hand rest look alike and maybe they can be switched. Have you tried doing it?
Phrases like Technical Cost Reduction remind me of the George Carlin bit about soft language. We’re not removing items, we’re “value engineering.”
If the average person wouldn’t notice, what’s to stop you from swapping the better stuff to the one you’re keeping?
You beat me to it
Stock is sacred.™
Nothing is sacred.
Even for the sound deadening? I’m not saying noise-up the one you’re selling necessarily to hose the buyer, but dang.
That’s a bold statement to be making in this community
😉
There’s a carbon fiber engine cover with sound-deadening material that says otherwise. And it’s right in your garage…
Still stock, just other year stock. Some might even say Technically Stock, the best kind of Stock.
Yep, OEM+ upgrades are the best.
Right-o, got to have numbers matching. One of one 3PO gold over Vader black.
Isn’t vinyl just vegan leather?
In counter point, Off the shelf is never good enough.