[jsumrall]

I rented a BMW from Sixt in the USA earlier this year. I wanted to use the ConnectedDrive features, but it was blocked by BMW because the vehicle VIN was (correctly) registered as a Fleet Vehicle (i.e. a rental car) and thus none of those features were allowed with that car.

I have rented BMWs in the Netherlands and don't recall being able to use these features either.

Thus you seem to have encountered a situation which BMW and Sixt know about and have procedures in place to prevent, but their Italian subsidiary seems to have missed it with a certain batch of fleet vehicles, or just this specific one. I'd report it Sixt and move on.

[bosse]

I've rented beamers with Sixt at LAX and O'Hare, the latter just a couple of weeks ago. I didn't have any issues connecting to bluetooth so that I could use CarPlay. Could it be inconsistencies in how their BMW fleet is set up?

I ususally set up the bluetooth connection before driving off the lot, just so I can get staff assistance if it doesn't work - not being able to connect to the car is enough for me to insist on a new vehicle if they're unable to fix it.

[jsumrall]

Bluetooth and carplay do indeed work as you need to be connected to the vehicle. I used those features too. The ConnectedDrive feature discussed here is when you install the BMW app on your phone and register the VIN number of the car to your personal BMW account, verified by tapping some buttons in the vehicle while linking, and "owning" the car in your BMW app. This gives access to things like remote location tracking, starting the car from anywhere to get the airco etc working.

n.b. Doing this in a rental car probably violates some of the terms and conditions one would have to agree to when linking the car, like "I promise this is _my_ car and/or I have permission from the owner to link it to my personal BMW account"...