German Car Zone

Very interesting article about BMW's success etc by BusinessWeek. A 'must read' for every BMW fan, and other interested parties (eg. VAG advocates etc ).

BMW's Dream Factory

Sharing the wealth, listening to even the lowest-ranking workers, and rewarding risk have paid off big time.

The car looks like the victim of some mad scientist's experiment gone awry. Inside a research lab in Munich, a BMW 5 Series sedan is splayed open, with electronic gadgets and wires spewing in all directions. The project: an onboard computer that will recognize you, then seek out information you want and entertainment you love. While you sleep, your BMW will scour the Net -- via Wi-Fi and other connections -- collecting, say, 15 minutes of new jazz followed by a 10-minute podcast on the energy industry. It may sound far-fetched, but for BMW's research wizards it's yet another way to woo customers by personalizing cars. This intelligent machine will grow to know you better every day, constantly learning what you like by monitoring your choices. The brains of the system might even tag along with you on a business trip in the form of a "smart card," instructing the Bimmer you rent in Beijing to load up your daily fix of news and music. When Hans-Joerg Vögel, the 38-year-old project chief, hops in the car's front seat and fires it up, his excitement is palpable ...

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Complete article: HERE

Any comments?

VAG have been listening to their employess for ages, and if VAG is succesful the employees also reap in their success.

I can vouch for the article, that's really how things work at BMW. I loved how the Z4 Coupe came about.

This part of the article cracks me up:
" That kind of individualization would swamp most automakers with budget-busting complexity. But BMW has emerged as a sort of anti-Toyota. One excels in simplifying automaking. The other excels in mastering complexity and tailoring cars to customers' tastes. That's what differentiates BMW from Lexus and the rest of the premium pack. "BMW drivers never change to other brands," says Yoichi Tomihara, president of Toyota Deutschland, who concedes that Toyota lags behind BMW in the sort of customization that creates emotional appeal."

I read this article yesterday but i also read these:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...2/b4005078.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/autos/co...005_473123.htm

Great read!

No wonder BMW was named top company in Germany !

hmm, for some reasons when i try to open the page to read the full article my windows explorer crashes... Anyone can post the full article? I am NOT kidding.

I suposse you are using Google Toolbar, and having activated the Ppo-up blocker ... ? Am I right?

I had same problem with crashing IE - it only worked fine in the case I completely deactivated Pop-up function in Google Toolbar, or uninstalling entire Toolbar.

Noe I'm using FireFox instead, and everything works fine (most of the time ...)

i am not using google toolbar. just standard IE... anyway, thanks..

Great article. I'd like to read up on 1957 to learn more about the turning point in the companies history.