Quote:
Originally Posted by SCOTT26
BMW would like to remain independent and for that to happen the company has to grow and for that the focus is on the primary markets that will enable this growth , this is what BMW has invested in over the past few years...
A philosophy and an engineering strategy to support it's assault on the primary market segments of Citycars , Premium Compact and Premium Entry segments. Z2 is part of that.
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And this, notwithstanding that Scott26 is supportive of the company line (duh).
There is no way BMW could have survived - and developed the last several years of excellent products - without broadening and expanding its market base. I don't like the thinning of the traditional core and the blurring of purpose and identity. But it is absolutely necessary. You've got to have the easy and reliable money to support the riskier state of the art development.
Consider only the X5 and X3, only, for example. Those owners/buyers would have gone elsewhere. If you don't get customers into your showroom you lose not only the one purchase, but those that fall into place after that - subsequent sales, family members, friends, recommendations, etc. The BMW market would have shrunk - and the company would have withered away.
Or, as Scott highlights,
it would no longer be independent. Preventing that possibility has driven BMW for over two decades.
Without the models we don't like, it's likely that we wouldn't have the V8 in the M E9X and almost a given that there would be no M from the 1 series. We might not even have DCT.