Your chance to make a difference... and get $4K off your choice of BMW

Back in the day, like two years ago, they called it "discounting". And it went like this: as the prospect buyer wavered over whether to buy or dither on past dinner time, the salesman would step in and say, "okay, how's about I knock four grand off it if you buy it now, no argument."

Now, it's an "initiative", and it's all tied in with keeping the carbons down doing the right thing by Mother Nature for our children's children.

Suzuki was the first one to work in the eco angle locally, with its interpretation of cash for clunkers. It was, for all intents and purposes, what the industry used to refer to as "trade-ins".

Now BMW's playing dress-up-your-discounts with the offer of a $4000 "EfficientDynamics Credit" to buyers of any model in its lineup.

"At BMW, we believe in giving credit where credit's due," said local MD Stavros Yallouridis in company's press announcement. "The BMW EfficientDynamics Credit is designed to reward drivers who choose a vehicle from Europe's most efficient premium fleet."

"The initiative," says the press announcement, "is based on successful fleet renewal and scrapping schemes developed in Europe and the United States that use rebates to encourage buyers to switch to new fuel efficient vehicles."

The schemes to which it refers generally take the form of tax cuts on the purchase price of cars whose CO2 emissions and fuel consumption come in demonstrably below stringent government-set thresholds, with independent verification.

Not, by the way, that BMW and Suzuki don't make good, clean cars. Both do, and you can read the plaudits elsewhere throughout the Carsales Network. But manufacturer-run schemes like these apply regardless of their products' compliance with any emissions or consumption guidelines.

So, are you up for this because you truly want to make a difference or because you truly want a BMW?  If you truly want to make a difference, get a bicycle and donate the price difference to the Fred Hollows Foundation. If you truly want a BMW, you could do worse by Mother Earth. But hurry -- your chance to make a difference only lasts until the end of November.

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