Quote:
Originally Posted by Staszek
Its called profits, do you even want a 3 series in the future? Heck do you even want a BMW in the future.
Sorry but if they pulled out all the "luxury items" in these cars the only people who would buy them are the true enthusiast, which honestly dont amount to a hill of beans.
We are at best less then 10% of the BMW buying public. It would turn BMW into a niche player which is great for enthusiast, but with the over head the BMW has and the amount they currently sell it would bring them right under.
So I think we need to stop talking about roll up windows and non powered seats in a 3 series, it just isnt going to happen, and honestly its not feasible.
Now what they could do though is bring some of the Euro versions over, such as the club sports with the 4 cyc they are really nice and light, or bring the CSL over. You wouldnt sell many, but enthusiasts get what they want, and everyone else gets the other 3 series models.
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BMW has always been something of a niche player, focused first and foremost on performance. It's what differentiates BMW from Lexus, and Mercedes, and Cadillac and a host of others. I think it lost its way when it began trying to market itself as a luxury brand in the 80's. The cars began to go soft. It became a yuppiemobile, sought after for no other reason than the cachet of the Roundel. But that carries you only so far and it's a very fickle audience. Pretty soon, they move on to the next hot thing. Even worse than that, though, was that quality began to suffer. What had been a basic, solid, reliable vehicle that you could beat to death and work on yourself became something of a technological tour de force that had too many flaws requiring an expensive battery of specially-trained technicians to fix. GM has tried mightily to appeal to everyone and look where they are. BMW can't go down that road because they can't afford to compete with the big mass marketers. They can't afford a mistake (the Land Rover notwithstanding). Keep it simple and go with who brung you. Porsche understands that better than most and they are still thriving.