Might Ineos partner with BMW to increase dealerships/service centers?

[PickledHerring]

As someone who's seriously considering the Grenadier but who lives 5 hours drive from the nearest dealer, I'm curious how future access to at least service stations might look.

Total speculation on my part, but given how much of the power train is made by BMW, wouldn't it make sense to partner and use the many more numerous BMW dealerships as a service/sales network?

I'm thinking specifically of the issues of 12k mile services and tire rotations, which currently have to be done by an Ineos dealership, and would mean a multi-day trip each time for me.

I love almost everything about the car, but the distance to go for even basic maintenance gives me pause.

 

[landmannnn]

As someone who's seriously considering the Grenadier but who lives 5 hours drive from the nearest dealer, I'm curious how future access to at least service stations might look.

Total speculation on my part, but given how much of the power train is made by BMW, wouldn't it make sense to partner and use the many more numerous BMW dealerships as a service/sales network?

I'm thinking specifically of the issues of 12k mile services and tire rotations, which currently have to be done by an Ineos dealership, and would mean a multi-day trip each time for me.

I love almost everything about the car, but the distance to go for even basic maintenance gives me pause.

I think you might have misunderstood a couple of things...

Servicing and tyre rotation can be done by anybody. (Although only an Ineos place can do the screen warning update currently)

A BMW dealer would be capable of servicing.

Only the engine is made by BMW, nothing else.

An official tie up is highly unlikely in my opinion.

 

[anand]

As stated above, the engine hardware alone is BMW based; the DME calibration is specific to Ineos, as is everythign else along the path. Other than the fact that the transmission is used by BMW (it is also used by VW, Stellantis, etc.) there are no other drivetrain similarities with BMW.

BMW scan tools cannot read/access Ineos modules beyond what any other generic tool can, and BMW technicians certainly don't know what they're looking at (other than, again, engine hardware).

 

[PickledHerring]

Thanks for the clarifications. I appreciate it.

 

[IslandFalconer]

I beg to differ, anyone who takes a few minutes to start removing plastic will find many many modules all branded by BMW, the DME is also BMW and was tuned by BMW, Ineos doesn’t get the privilege of programming the DME, TCM, BCM. Ineos introduced a security gateway and piggy backed their hardware. You can plug this thing in to ISTA (BMW Software) and see basically the entire vehicle. Ineos went and put the service interval and ADAS and some other internal components on its proprietary ECU that’s piggy backed on top of a BMW X5 base system.

So yes BMW could easily do all the required service work if Ineos would simply release the security gateway and their proprietary piggy back.

Source:I was a BMW Tech, I have the equipment at home. This is basically a BMW that Ineos went and screws with.
They should have done what Toyota did, re jigged the GUI and left what BMW has debugged alone. Now we have two systems that don’t play all that well together and some junior Software designer at Ineos who tried to re invent something that 100’s of millions of dollars and debugging have already been done too. It’s a complete disaster.