German Car Zone

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That's why automobile is called automobile (= "selfmover").

Yes, I agree. It's insane. But I have doubts new "green tech" will bring less weight. Electro motors, batteries, catalyzators, filters, etc will add even more weight - or keep it at the same level, yet lowering the consumption & be less polluting. Mind lightweigth materials are not cheep, and have their own physical limitations. Also safety standards are also there to blame: cabin shell enhancements, airbags, seat belt tensioners, chassis features (eg. ABS, DSC etc) etc. More stuff, more cables, more sensors, more CPUs, more electro motors, more batteries etc.

Not to mention all the luxury / convenience features (like 15+ speakers, multichannel A/C, seat-belt handler, DVD entertainment units, panorama roofs, auto close/open doors, etc.).

Today even the smallest cars are heavy ... due safety & convenience features.




European customers (of MB, BMW, Audi) are not so much obsessed with power & luxury. That's why even the low-power engine & less-equipped cars are selling well.

Well, first an electro-motor (or a fuel-cell one) is by itself way smaller and lighter than a combustion engine. With new tech it will be soon possible to have decent autonomy and performances without too many heavy batteries, and without beeing a hybrid.

Second, like I said I strongly believe there is a trend coming toward more simple, more efficient, more "natural" cars. I think we will see kind of "Ikea" cars, I mean with a good design, a decent equipment, but lightweight and natural materials, and less electronic useless things, a smaller dash, thinner seats and soon. Enormous plastic dash full of buttons will disappear for a clearer, simpler, friendlier architecture.

A bit like modern furnitures compared to the ones in the 18's century.

I think at one time, you bought your car for its motor and power. Look at the ads in the 80's.

Now it is the trend to look at pollution first. This will lead the carmakers to develop lightweight instead of power, to have less pollution and consumption.

The day is not that far where the car in itself will become far more important than the motor it uses. We won't have 18 different motors for one car any more. But we will be able to customize the interior and design much more.

Plastic body will be used, and will even be able to be changed, a bit like in the smart. But it could be further developped, so instead of just changing the colour you could change the design of it... You could have different propositions, and could change it...

I really think the motor will loose the excessive importance it now has. An electric car does not make noise, so you won't notice it any more. And consequently the car will be focusses to something else than power, and will become way lighter.

Tend to disagree everything depends on your income level and the price of a car.

Consider this, the X6 base model 35i starts at 56.800 Eur with zero options.. , thats 89.000 USD for a base car. Start putting in some options and the price will quickly get to the 75.000 Eur (117.750 USD), that is a lot even for americans..

Can you imagine what a fully loaded V8 would cost ?

Factor in the price of gas 8.9 USD/gallon and you will understand why the V8 is not going to be popular in Europe...

Add the environment tax of more than 49 USD a day (!) for the V8 in London..

Nevertheless some people will buy them, just because they love it...

Europeans like premium cars, most of them can't or do not want to give all their money to the tax authorities..

I think you are right but you are banging on the wrong door. This is a truck.

Take a look at the other end instead. We have great versions of both the 1-series and the 3-series to look forward to should all predictions and rumours be true.

Well, the X6 Xdrive 35i starts at 52,500 USD (and that is about 33,300 EUR).... most things are very cheap over there.

@ branko


Chap, you are missing my point. I said in US etc power & luxury features matter much more than in Europe. That's also why BMW are not offering eg. 320i or 118i or 630i or 730d there. European customers are less HP-hungry. It was the same case even in the times the gas was cheap(er).

It's part of the driving culture... Americans tend to prefer big cars with big engines, as they have bigger roads, bigger parking spaces (and bigger wallets ) That may not be as true today as was 2 decades ago, but even now a premium brand selling a 4 cylinder engined car in US would be considered a joke, when in Europe that would be the most popular model by far.

Well you may be right... actually when you refer to the times when the gas was cheaper I was probably not born yet..

We have a long tradition in taxing fuel... ;-)

And luckily the high oil prices doesn't affect us very much since we pay in Euros, it seems like the oil prices are Euro based, with a conversion being made for ease of comparison..