BMW has started offering owners a “birth certificate” for their older cars, the price and the ordering method speak volumes

In general, it is a welcome thing, but who would not want to have the facts that only the car company knows about the beloved Bavarian, which they bought only as the umpteenth owner in a row? The step of the BMW Classic division nevertheless reaches an incomprehensible way of execution.

About twenty years ago, I bought a Porsche 911. Of course, it was older, used, and far from top condition. So before I could get behind the wheel, repairs and renovation had to be done. The problem, however, was that the documentation I had for the car was no match for lengthy novels. My only luck was that I knew a number of people in Zuffenhausen whom I could turn to at any time. And thanks to that, I gradually got to the right serial numbers and components, after which I could put the car back together.

It is clear to me that many people are in a similar or even worse situation. If there are fans of the BMW brand among them, then they can start opening champagne, that is, at least for a while. The Munich carmaker has decided to make life more pleasant for the owners of classic cars and will send them a so-called Birth Certificate upon request. So basically a birth certificate that replaces the current Vehicle Certificate. The document is in digital form and will tell you absolutely everything important about your car, such as the chassis and engine number, the date of manufacture or original delivery.

“This document will answer any questions you may have regarding a specific car,” says the Munich automaker about the new service. At the same time, however, he emphasizes that the data is not completely guaranteed. From that birth certificate, you will learn above all in what condition and when your BMW left the factory. If it was produced after 1980, then it also includes information about the transmission and extra equipment.

Some people may bet on the digital form, as it is not always the most practical. In addition, they cannot decorate the garage wall with an original deed directly from Munich. On the other hand, one can agree with BMW that in this way they can get to the required data faster and, moreover, they do not have to pay postage. In addition, the client can print the document as many times as they like, so even if the certificate turns yellow, gets dirty or is lost, all you have to do is restart the computer and the printer. The problems are elsewhere.

On the one hand, it is the price, which is a crazy 125 Euros, i.e. about 3,200 CZK. That’s an absurd amount of money to extract some information from a database and confirm it with a digital signature in a PDF – we doubt that a human operator is involved in this process even for a second. The second problem is the application method, where you have to download a PDF file from the BMW website, which you then fill out and send to the automaker. This is absurd complexity, which, on the other hand, definitely requires human service. Hopefully BMW will fine-tune these details and thereby make the whole service cheaper. We would give about 20 euros for it, 125 by no mistake.

Munich offers the birth certificate of your car in German and English, but always in digital form. However, its price and the only way you can claim it are jaw-dropping in their absurdity. Photo: BMW

Source: BMW

Petr Prokopec

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