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Originally Posted by InsideMan
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Originally Posted by c63er
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Originally Posted by bubbs
I think BMW has to look themselves in the mirror. They want to appeal to everyone and they have diluted the brand and appeal to no one. Lack of manuals, electric steering, price, packaging requiring purchasing things you don't want to get things you do. Non transferable maintenance coverage (plus reducing the items covered). I have a 335 and an X1. 335 is the finest driving car I have ever owned. If I didn't have a warranty to 100k miles, I'd be broke. It kills me to say it but I'm buying a new car in the next 5 weeks. BMW is not on the list. Going to drive a Land Rover and Jag this afternoon. They need to wake up.
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This is a very real issue that bmw doesn't see coming right at them. There's a wonderful piece on how large corporations fail and it outlines this similar scenario. Where the bedrock on which a conpany stands is eroding but they don't see it since they are looking up at the clouds. Something to that effect.
I too recently passed up on buying a bmw. Friends and family were shocked. I'm sure there is a ripple effect to that when they know even I won't buy a bmw anymore. Why should they.
You see this across the forums. Something bad is brewing for bmw and they continue to be tone deaf. And now scott has picked up the habit of making inflammatory and racist posts which I'm sure the core of bmw enthusiasts do not appreciate. Add that to the list next to numb steering, no na, no manuals. Just great. |
The forum community makes up very little sales.
How many other manufactures have gone away from a manual transmission?
From reading all these posts, it seems like the forum community is made up of white-collar, salaried employees. Nothing wrong with that and it is well respected, however, they aren't business owners. The comments are reflective of the truth. (Yes, there are some business owners and entrepreneurs on here. Not the majority though.) Having said that, you don't know what it takes to run a business. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and make suggestions when you really have no clue how it really works. I liken it to watching a football game and complaining when your team runs the ball instead of throwing it. Absolutely worthless conversation. |
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Originally Posted by DF
If guys from forums ran a car company they would be out of business in a year
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I used to believe that.
Then I remembered when ferrari was saved by montezemolo who ran it with a ferrari enthusiast pov. Then I remembered Bob lutz who saved how many companies with his enthusiast perspective. Then I remembered audi made a come back from its history of un intended acceleration to a premier German brand because it shifted to enthusiasts with the a4. Then I remebered Mclaren came back out of obscurity because it made the most focused road race cars you could get. Then I remembered alfas return to the USA was only made possible with cars like the 4c and now giulia. The list goes on.
Yea your probably right. Enthusiasts probably aren't important.
But in all seriousness. Once you remove the enthusiast aspect from a bmw and a BMW had to compete based solely on quality, feature content and horsepower then bmw will loose. Car industry is way to competitive and their are plenty who offer exactly the same tech a BMW has for a lot less.
If bmw really wants to shift away from enthusiasts it better get serious about it and make a car as bulletpoof as a Toyota and back it with a 15 year warranty to capture the I just want a box that goes from a to b crowd. Otherwise things will go south for them.