Quote:
Originally Posted by MaestroAl
I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be condescending. It's just that whilst I recognise this is a very Amerocentric forum, there is a world beyond America and in that world, the Hatchback is king. The drive and engine configuration is completely irrelevant. Most people don't care about that or even know what it means. What most people in the world want is a practical car and that has to be a hatchback for most people. That's why nearly everyone owns one. The fact that the 3 series makes it into the top ten Euro cars in 2012 shows what an epic job BMW have done with the platform, despite the American haters calling ASS a "tree-hugger feature with no place in a sports sedan".
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As a stupid American who clearly knows nothing about cars, you've *still* failed to present a single reason why this abomination is better than the Touring.
I don't care about "brand dilution" or "this car doesn't deserve to be a BMW". People can buy whatever ugly cars they want. It doesn't lessen my enjoyment of *my* hatchback BMW when someone buys a beige X5 with a beige interior to drive their kids to preschool.
What I care about is the incessant whining that it's so *expensive* to certify a car for the US market, and there has to be a *proven demand* for a car in order for them to go to the massive expense of certifying it here. So we end up with a completely neutered model lineup, few diesels, no diesels with a stick, now no Touring with a stick, no big engines in the tourings, etc etc etc. And when this neutered product lineup doesn't sell, they "prove" to themselves that there's no market for them in the US.
And yet BMW magically "finds" the market for cars that have next-to-zero demand. They killed off the 5er Touring in the US in favor of the GT, which promptly dropped to sub-Touring sales after the first year or so, and it looks like they may well bring this 3GT to the US rather than offering a 335 touring or a 6spd 328 touring. And ultimately, neutering individual model lines ends up being a neutering of the brand. If they prioritize slightly-different-looking boringmobiles over enthusiast options, the market will follow, and pretty soon BMW won't sell anything interesting at all. Now, that's fine with me, because I am not a member of the Quandt family, but I sure as hell hope some other automaker steps in to fill the gap.
PS: More than half the cars I've owned have been hatchbacks.. hell, 2 have even been liftbacks.
PPS: I've actually *driven* a slushbox 328 with ASS, and it sucks. I fully agree that auto start stop systems are the future, and it probably wouldn't be bad in a stick, but in the slushbox I drove, the car shook quite roughly every time the engine fired up while I was still sitting at a red light with my foot on the brake.. which was about 90% of the red lights I came to. They're going to have to find a way to make the battery actually last a full red light cycle, or at least smooth out the restart process. Major kudos to BMW for offering the solution to code the car to remember the last ASS setting. That's the right fix, there -- let the customer choose.