It's Time to Face the Facts: We Aren't BMW's Target Market Anymore

GON said:
Maybe BMW is targeting an untapped market- Law Enforcement vehicles in Asia?

I am sure BMW is not targeting LE vehicles in Asia but saw this BMW police car in Asia yesterday. Only time I recollect seeing a marked BMW patrol vehicle was in Germany.


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The UK used BMW 530d E61 and F11 for police motorway patrol vehicles and fast armed response almost exclusively until the N57 started blowing up and killing police officers mid chase.
 
edyvw said:
Times are changing, but several things:
1. FXX was good with certain packages. Older philosophy was that ANY BMW is always dynamic. With F they wanted to court Audi, Lexus and MB clients. It didn’t work. It is like all season tires.
2. The 2 series on other hand was true gem. It was result of that realization that F30 is problematic with core audience.
3. G chassis is absolute gem. But, no stick shift. This is pure economics. BMW sold highest number of stick shifts in the US, all 8% of 2 and 3 series.
4. Their engines are still marvel. 330 returns on HWY in M package at 75mph almost same mpg as Camry hybrid.

The real problem is ZF 8 speed. It is so good in BMW, that many die hard BMW enthusiasts are preferring it over stick. That is where the problem is. Let’s say I am glad other manufacturers still offer stick.
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G80 M3 Manual ;)
 
NismoNVT said:
Road and Track

I remember when BMW introduced the F-XX series of vehicles, magazines questioned whether these vehicles deserved to wear the roundel; I believe in 2015 the 5 series lost their crown to the Lexus GS in comparos (although truth be told, BMW won the sales game/crown). Some of the owners/reviewers felt BMW stopped building great analogue cars and began designing digital video games labelled as cars with their EPS units taking away steering feel, and go fast and/or handle a corner parts became part of packages or options.

Has BMW decontented vehicles from coming standard with the "sheer driving pleasure" ethos, or is this just a misguided click generating story?
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It's a "misguided click generating story". I am definitely their target audience, and I love my 530i. Also, BMW appears to be doing very well.

Not so Road and Track. It is not what it once was.
 
MCompact said:
When I worked at BMW 6 years ago it was already evident that the company was more than willing to sacrifice their core strengths and values in exchange for a larger market share.
A friend who has worked at BMW since the ‘70s thinks the Quandt family is no longer interested in the automotive business and will sell out to the Chinese sooner than later…
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Not entirely surprising, and it would be a seismic event.

However, if that were to occur, how the new owners handle the company would be more important than where they're from.

Who is going to argue that Ford did a better job with Volvo, Land Rover or Jaguar than what their subsequent owners did? From an objective viewpoint, Lincoln might have been snuffed out years ago if it was owned by someone else, or had to stand on its own two feet.

Geely has been very good for Volvo, providing backing, and allowing it to operate independently without sucking the life out of it. Lotus as well.

Where would JLR be without Tata?

Closer to home, BMW didn't know what to do with Rover, the "English Pateient" jokes aside.

And then of course, the vultures at Cerebrus had no business trying to get into cars, or owning Chrysler.

BMW's market cap is in the $60B range. Who could afford them?
 
Carmudgeon said:
And then of course, the vultures at Cerebrus had no business trying to get into cars, or owning Chrysler.
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Yes, but the investment bankers, consultants, and lawyers all made a lifetime worth of money for closing that deal.

And the pension funds that provided the funding for the Cerebus deal had some super nice steak dinners provided by the investment bankers. Too bad the pension funds lost their investment, but boy oh boy where those steak dinners in NYC wonderful.
 
Carmudgeon said:
Who is going to argue that Ford did a better job with Volvo, Land Rover or Jaguar than what their subsequent owners did? .
Where would JLR be without Tata?
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?????????

JLR turned a profit the year after they were sold, it needed 2 decades of real effort to develop jaguar and only a few years to recover dumpster fire that was bmw’s land rover…

now they’re burning down to the ground in slow motion 4k video lol
 
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When I think of BMW's target market, this is all I can envision.
Screenshot_20230222-071243-373.jpg
 
Carmudgeon said:
And then of course, the vultures at Cerebrus had no business trying to get into cars, or owning Chrysler.
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Good investment though, knowing you have an asset that can never truly fail because the government will keep bailing it out.
 
I don’t think I’m in the target market of ANY automaker today. Most modern cars just don’t appeal to me. If the controls are not 100% intuitive and I have computer screens jammed in my face with all their unwanted distractions I’m not interested. I will say Apple car play is nice to have but other than that modern cars are just far more complex than they need to be. This drives purchase price and later on repair costs. My target seems to be simple vehicles like Jeep XJ Cherokees and TJ Wranglers.
 
LouC said:
I don’t think I’m in the target market of ANY automaker today. Most modern cars just don’t appeal to me. If the controls are not 100% intuitive and I have computer screens jammed in my face with all their unwanted distractions I’m not interested. I will say Apple car play is nice to have but other than that modern cars are just far more complex than they need to be. This drives purchase price and later on repair costs. My target seems to be simple vehicles like Jeep XJ Cherokees and TJ Wranglers
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Modern cars are going to be complex to meet crash and emission control requirements whether or not you have a computer screen . That ship has sailed.
 
I don't mind complex technology as long as it's relatively easy to use and serves a legitimate purpose. I can appreciate cars at both ends of the technology spectrum. I love my Club Sport and Jeep but I also find several newer cars to very entertaining as well.
 
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