German Car Zone

First off I am a long time member here that some of you probably know. I chose to make this post anonymously because I've seen people get banned for saying things like this. Im not interested in getting banned and just thought it was an interesting topic. Hopefully you do to and is allowed to stay open.

The other day, while reading through various sites for coverage of the Frankfurt autoshow, I decided to visit one of my favorite twitter sites, namely the official BMW X1 tweet. And when I got there the top tweet was a link to a post of no particular importance on BMWBlog. That sparked my attention because the day before there was a link to them, and the day before that, and I believe a week before that. I found it a little odd that the official BMW twitter page for the X1 was giving such heavy linkage to BMWBlog for posts that weren’t anything exclusive or special, just run of the mill stuff that BMWBlog posted about, usually much later then the major auto blogs had already published; and on top of it the news was simply a copy-paste of that information.

I started thinking more, and then I remember the youtube video made officially by BMW posted here by Scott about how much blog press and buzz BMW is capable of generating. I thought it was a great video. But again, in that video, right next to massively huge sites like autobild was BMWBlog. The BMWBlog image was delayed and focused as compared to the other sites and repeated more often. Ok, that was done intentional to give BMWBlog some more advertising. Thats fine, but I don't see BMW giving that much attention to one blog unless they have a stake in it. What peeves me a little bit is why wasn’t GCZ featured in that video, I think we have much more impact on the buzz around the internet then BMWBlog has. They just copy what we talk about here on a daily basis and make it into a blog post format. I really felt miffed that GCZ didn’t get its just representation on that video. Watch the video again with what I’m saying in mind and it will make perfect sense how much extra attention they gave BMWBlog. Also visit the X1 twitter feed and see how much attention they give to BMWBlog.

Ok.

Then I thought a little farther back and I remember when BMW made a splash page for the at the time upcoming X5M and X6M. I thought that page was revolutionary because it would actually serve you out links to articles that had spy photos or interesting rumors about the two new M cars. Again, I remember BMW Blog getting linkage from them for posts that didn’t contain any ground breaking information.

Ive also noticed that when BMW releases a new car they seem to slip a picture or some information to BMWBlog, information that is obviously coming directly from BMW and is not a rumor from the internet. BMWBlog also seems to have driven and written on every single new car coming out of the BMW factory.

Overall, its clear to me that BMWBlog is part of the CM push from BMW to get people out there in the twitterverse, facebook, forums like this one and of course blogs. In some cases its official, some cases semi official, and some cases pretending to be non official. CM as we all know is notious for sometimes putting mis-information out there to generate buzz or whatever their goal is really. I’m not sure if it is actually directly owned by BMW AG or is a tool of BMW indirectly, althought I don’t think it really matters -- the effect is the same and I think its somewhat decieving-- I for one am slowly getting tired of all the deception around some perfectly amazing cars from BMW.

What irritates me slightly more is that BMW chooses junk sites like BMWBlog to promote in an effort to make popular, thats fine they have their plan. But then why are they simultaneously making efforts to bring down real pillars of the BMW fandom (this is the touchy part, please don’t ban me, im referring to -- UBB Message - MTorque - (Used to have) Passion for M ). Why does BMW choose to ignore or purposely bring down the real solid places like M-torque, places that many of us love, and at the same time promote facades. I just don’t get it sometimes.

In the end, this is not a post against BMWBlog as Im happy to see BMW involved on the internet more then any other brand out there and am happy they are doing what they can do. I just don’t know why they have to artificially promote sites that offer nothing special over the professionally run blogs (AutoBlog, Jalopnik, MotorAuthority, WorldCarFans) while almost purposely ignoring the sites that are special to the BMW fans hearts (GCZ, M TORQUE). I am thankful that Scott is involved on this site and is the primary reason I’m a member here, so I’m grateful for that and please don’t take this the wrong way.

But I am irritated that BMW is actively taking down M-Torque and then going out of their way to promote a total junk blog with all the help they are giving them. There has to be some kind of justice in this world for BMW fans, this is just wrong on every level, how can anyone treat their fans so badly.

CM can just get out of hand sometimes IMO or maybee I’m crazy and dreaming this all up, opinions please!