German Car Zone

But it shouldnt stop them from building sportcars either. BMW arent exactly poor so they sure can afford building sportscars as well.

I'd love to see different kind of derivatives of the existing platforms ... a 3 Series hot hatch or shooting brake ...a 4 door Coupe 5 series ... and a revival of the 8 series. Z6/8 are also nice.

Exactly, we love the cars BMW sometimes make, not the Quantdts or BMW AG.

X1 has exactly the same wheelbase length as E91 3er Touring.
That's should definitely answer your question.

Also: 1er & 3er platforms are very compatible. Even the suspension is the same. Although the platform architecture is a bit different.

It looks like they used 3er Touring AWD platform for X1, while using others 1er components. Making X1 part 3er, part 1er. Therefore a statement X1 is based on 1er & 3er platform. Mind term 'platform' in this case isn't equal to term 'chassis' only.

A 3er hot hatch - That is why there is the 1er.
Shooting brake ? There are ideas to accomodate next 1er and 3er with Progressive Activity Sedan variants.

4dr Coupe 5er - No plans as yet - to the fact this would mean following Mercedes-Benz and Audi which we do not want to do.

8er - No range topping Coupe like the CL-Klasse , we do not need such a car. The Gran Turismo model will fulfill the needs for such a vehicle in this segment.

Z8/Z10 - The ideas are on the shelf - put away for later. Now is not the time all resources are currently on the smaller Z2 Roadster making feasibility as a Concept Vision Z all the more likely in 2009.
There are also talks of introducing a MINI based Speedster based on the new platform that will be developed with Fiat/Alfa Romeo.

Z6 - It is possible, BMW have been propping a four door roadster for four for sometime now whether such a car will go public or progress remains to be seen.

There will be no BMW model under the 1er , Which means Project-i will either be a new brand in which investigations into such ideas have already commenced. Or indeed a further addition to the MINI family.

Hopefully this answers your questions and the ultimate question that BMW are not Audi , nor Mercedes-Benz and do not have to justify offering a complete mirror image of the same product line up as their competitors.

Thanks very much for clarifying! PalBay