No deal will hurt the EU as much as it will hurt us (probably)
......'but the powers that be' believe the unity of the EU is more important than how many BMW's are sold in the UK.
I'm not sure the EU will blink.
I'm sure they won't blink.
I've never understood the BMW argument though. Imposing import tariffs (which we may or may not do) would increase the price of all imported cars by 10%. But if you've decided to buy a BMW, it's unlikely you're going to change your mind on price alone - you aren't going to suddenly decide to buy a Nissan, Honda or Toyota built in Britain just because it's suddenly 10% cheaper than the equivalent BMW or Merc. You'll just put off the purchase for a few weeks/years to save up more, or buy it on credit for 10% more per month. And in 10 years time when Nissan, Toyota and Honda have all bu99ered off to somewhere else in Europe, all cars will be 10% more expensive anyway because none will be being built here (except the low volume Garagistas).
Sure BMW/Merc sales in the UK will drop short/medium term, but so will all car sales. Which is bad for the auto sector in the UK, bad for tax and bad for GDP. Less cash swirling around the system. And how much BMW sales drop is guesswork - I'll say 20% for arguments sake. I'd take that if I were BMW because it also means sales of Nissan, Honda or Toyota in Euroland will drop due to the 10% increase in price there. So BMW stand a chance of picking up more sales in Euroland even if UK sales drop.