We've never shied away from criticizing automakers for making customers pay for things that should probably be standard at a certain price point. For example, we speced out a BMW 3 Series for over $50,000 that didn't even come with real leather seats. One of the other options that BMW has always decided to charge extra for was a backup camera, which used to only be found on high-priced luxury cars, but now affordable cars from Nissan come with a full around-view monitor on even the cheapest models.

If we were spending over $40,000 on a car, we'd expect it to come with something as basic and important as a backup camera. For 2018, BMW has announced that all of its models will come with a backup camera as standard. BMW will also include its ConnectedDrive Services, which consists of BMW connected apps and BMW online, as standard on all models. BMW Blog has covered the full changes for the 2018 lineup in great detail, but we will sum it up in with a few key points. Many packages such as the cold weather and technology package have been replaced by a tiered package structure with single options that are unlocked after speccing a car to a certain level.

For example, once the convenience or M Sport package is selected, customers will be able to choose single options such as the parking assist. BMW has broken down the full options and prices for each model in its range, which can be checked out here.