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Originally Posted by ezmaass
Glad to see BMW doing so well. However, I do see a few problems with the plan. Particularly, I think the line-up is getting way too crowded. Not only do we now have a 1, 2, 3, and 4 series, but we have multiple variants of each, resulting in only slight differences in some cases from other offerings in their line-up. While great for consumers who enjoy endless variable choices, each of these models and variants require overhead and investment. Simply said, I wonder if BMW is spreading itself too thin while creating models that are unnecessarily close in terms of specs, usability, etc. Are these new options effective at growing consumer base and sales? At first glance, I'd say yes based upon sales results. However, sales may be strengthening for various reasons, so it's worth exploring the ROI of the new offerings.
In many cases, businesses that begin stretching themselves thin suffer some losses in focus on their core offerings (bread and butter). While offering too many similar options may just cause sales of one model to eat into the next.
Anyway, all of that said, I'm excited for BMW and their success. Their cars are fantastic and constantly improving. Hopefully 2014 is another strong year!
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It sounds counter intuitive, but the more models that BMW produces, the higher their ROI is going to be. Most of the investment in R&D goes into platform and engine development. So if BMW can reduce the number of platforms and engines they have, and apply that small number to a greater number of models, they can amortize their costs over a wider spectrum.
Not counting the outgoing E93M, BMW has a total of three gasoline engines across its entire US model lineup: I4T, I6T, and V8TT. There are some minor and some significant differences within some of the same engine configurations (N63 vs. S63Tu, for example), but the foundation of those engines are the same. Likewise, many of the platforms across the model lineup are shared as well.
So BMW's strategy is to make as many new models off of existing platforms and engines as possible. It reduces costs and ostensibly gives the majority of buyers more choices.
For enthusiasts like me, though, it highlights a brand dilution that I'm not OK with. I'm not sure what I'll be replacing the E92M with, but there's no slam dunk answer like there was when I was in the market for a car 5 years ago.