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ED, probably was a "since they have it across town, we need to offer it too" deal for MB and Volvo. Being competitors, it's hard for marketing to be left out. BMW was probably the pioneer of it because it absolutely did bring in business and brand loyalty. There are stories here of people doing it at least back in the 90's already.
I have friends who would only borderline be called car enthusiasts and were considering a BMW because I did ED and they enjoyed traveling and life. ED would be a life experience for them.
However it's true that consumer tastes have changed since when ED was popular and did drive brand loyalty. BMW's target audience has also changed significantly from the 90-00's compared to now. They did lose brand loyalty from cancelling ED, 100%, but the numbers would be significantly smaller now compared to even a decade ago.
The hope is Porsche cancelled ED due to covid, as scheduling and planning for delivery to have everything canned near the date due to circumstances out of both their, and the buyers control is shitty. Here's hope they bring it back. They did just open the Leipzig delivery center last year.
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