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Originally Posted by mkoesel
Quite right. Not every single product is going to be a game changer. You have to keep providing and incrementally improving what you know is profitable and has a proven target market. It's that profit that allows you to invest in new ideas and create the next disruptive product.
The thing about BMW's portfolio today is you see a lot of hatchbacks. The reality is that people like practicality and hatchbacks are nothing if not practical. Like others, BMW has learned that you can't just call something a hatchback and expect it to sell though. Hence SUVs are often marketed first for their presence, strength, and ruggedness, and only incidentally for their five door convenience.
BMW's GT models and 4 Series Gran Coupe, as well as similar products from others like Audi, are testbeds for bringing the practicality of five doors to people who remain averse to SUVs, yet would not be caught dead in a traditional hatchback or wagon. I think they are pretty bold moves. In time - at least here in the West - when the dust settles there probably won't be a very big slice of pie left for the four door passenger car. I figure it will be about the size of today's two-door coupe market, and will be dominated by vehicles that are evolutions of today's "four door coupe". Furthermore, as SUVs become more and more car-like, eventually those people who the GT and GC models were built to ween will have come around, and those models can go away. The proper SUVs will have evolved to be even more car-like and essentially functionally equivalent to them anyway.
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Very good points. Also why BMW initially refused to call the original X5 an SUV and kept using the SAV moniker. You can see now that customers are accepting of luxury SUVs, BMW is comfortable using the term even if literature may still say SAV.
Same for the GC models. I still consider them sedans but Mercedes went to great lengths with the CLS to call it a coupe to capture those individuals who still desired a sporty, stylish vehicle and were willing to pay a price premium for it. BMW, Audi, and others are following the same strategy.
I can only imagine what the oft rumored BMW or MB pickup truck would be called.