[kingbadger]

Originally Posted by epiphone3

The funny thing is that people who have no interest in cars typically have limited understanding of cars and are exactly the ones who say "I didn't pay a lot of money for a luxury car to have it not work."

The type of customer you are talking about as the majority today is exactly the type that I believe will have the least amount of patience and understanding for this type of wimpy battery stuff.

Yes but...there are very few of them who either park up for long periods or only use their X3 for many very short journeys. So neither BMW nor anyone else builds cars for them.

The first manufacturer who fitted an electric clock into the dash - I'm guessing in the late 60's - started the rot. Since then we consumers have demanded more and more gadgets - who would buy a car today without a battery-draining remote?

When neither oil prices or CO2 were an issue manufacturers just fitted bigger batteries. Unsubtle. Heavy. More expensive. No-one cared.

Today we want good fuel economy, all the toys, and manufacturers are in business to make profit. So we get batteries and systems that meet the needs of the vast majority.

For the few it affects - get a charger. inexpensive. Simple.

Or maybe ( and I'm sure Lotus 7 will know) why not fit a battery with a bigger capacity? Make sure voltage and internal resistance are the same but add amp hours. My X3 is sill awaited so I can't see whether there is any space under the trunk floor to fit a bigger battery. But it would mitigate the problem.