German Car Zone

LMAO

Thats almost as funny as

X6 (Nutt) SAC...hahaha

In order to remain profitable, BMW must ask prices above market average for their 1 and 3-series . This the company can do if it is not considered as a mainstraim car manufacturer. Problem is that BMW became a mainstream manufacturer since it cancelled all its product developments for which it could be considered as a non-mainstream manufacturer.

A buyer who buys a 1 or 3 serie identifies himself with somebody having a great product such as what could have been a M3 CSL, CS concept, etc. Now he just has a car as anyone else. Personally I drive since all my life with bmw, but since a couple of months I don't have the feeling anymore to drive in a car of a great brand (especially when I took delivery of my latest car three weeks ago). Honestly, I am a bit jealous on the audi-drivers, since they can look-up at for example the R8.
Where are the good old times when I was a teenager in the eighties where I could dream of the M1, M3, etc. Even when I knew at that time that it would be difficult to ever buy such a car, I was sure that i would always wanted to drive a BMW. As I said, this feeling has passed away!

And about the CS, the production of it would be certainly loss making, but in terms of image you build up this is still peanuts (see above higher prices for your base products). It could have been a great promotion stunt as being a luxurious sports coupé including the latest state of the art efficient dynamics stuff.

^^ Interesting post.

M

It's not like BMW are going bankrupt if they build a M3 CSL. They have to knowledge and money to build sporty and intresting cars we can dream about. BMW are just being sissy.

If the CS was based on the new 7-Series then a great deal of the development work was/should have been done already since the 7 is in production already IMO. How much expensive could it have been?

M

Yes, any imageboosting car is a loss-making product. Being that CS, Z8 etc
Yet in this harsh times when profits are melting like an Arctic ice it would be just stupid to give a green light to a product which intentionally makes a loss.

When this crisis is over, and if BMW stay relatively healthy, and BMW F1 success comes along, be sure BMW will come out with a very special sports car featuring latest ED tech. So called "green supercar".

Be sure Daimler will also cancel the SLR successor. Not to mention any exotic above CL, or new Maybach models.

Times are harsh, and the priority is to save the core line, and offer new profitable models. Any less profitable & imageboosting models will have to wait.

NO comment..

I have been mentioning this for quite some time now, there is something wrong with BMW management.

BMW leadership is in crisis.