Well, that’s interesting. There was a post in this thread that someone called a Genius who said it was standard now (see the quote in post #3), but the original post that was quoted looks to be gone, so I’m wondering if that was true.
https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=1801958
The mention of the HK system in the Premium and Executive packages has been gone from the build your own section of the BMW website for about a week, but when I checked the prices a day or two ago, they hadn’t changed. Hopefully BMW had a little heads up that this was coming and only took orders for HK audio packages that they thought they could fill and then dropped the option for any ordered after a certain date. That way, if you you got your order already confirmed and accepted with the HK system, hopefully you’ll get it.
As far as being a downgrade, irrespective of the differences in audio quality between the HK system and the base audio, it’s a definite downgrade if you’re paying the same price for the package that no longer has the HK.