In terms of production, it might be cheaper to install all the same seats, even if some of them are broken. Of course, these extra things cost money, but you have to consider them in the whole process. Yes, a seat is 100 euros more expensive, for example, but we save 180 euros in production per car, so we have
The “loss” is 20 euros per car. But since it is easier to offer just one seat, we can buy that seat cheaper. We can also produce x number of cars per month. If 25% still choose seat heating and subscription, we will make more profit than offering two different seats. Someone at BMW must have done the numbers. If it was a loss, they certainly wouldn’t have done it.

My (hybrid) car can be had with 180 or 225 hp. I thought I would pay 1450 euros more for the extra horsepower… and that’s just a modification, same engine, etc. I thought it would be better to do a chip tuning for 400 euros. But it’s exactly the same engine, just different settings. So I just took the 180 hp, and it’s going faster enough. There are quite a few things that you don’t see very often, which are already there, especially with cars, and this is more and more. 15 different versions of the same model no longer work as they used to. The list of options goes on for several pages at BMW/Audi/VW. And that certainly doesn’t make the production process faster. If you then look at the others: this is the car with 3 versions and then you have 5 to 10 options and that’s it. Which do you think is faster in terms of production? And yes, one attaches importance to the options he can choose, the other: I have to have this and voila.