Quote:
Originally Posted by NYG
The Ferrari example was definitely extreme but it was just to illustrate that a lot of people that spend a hefty amount of money on a vehicle do care about branding and the status that comes with it. While M cars aren't the same level, they're still beyond the average car buyer's price range.
I think that for guys/ladies like us, we're obviously looking for more than just an M badge so it doesn't really matter to us. While BMW makes more sales with fake M cars, they'll inevitably lose sales on real M cars as a result. Remember all the articles back when the M550 came out and out accelerated the previous gen M5? They were basically calling everyone stupid for even getting an M5. Everyone ate that nonsense up even though the M550 wasn't half the car the M5 was. My M Performance 440 probably accelerates faster than my M4CS in most driving conditions and it does it consistently. It's still a complete joke of a sports car (compared to the M4) where it matters and I've tracked that pig before too.
The average buyer just bypasses the M and settles on a more affordable fake M. So BMW sells more cars in general but begins to care less about making real M cars. None of our cars are built ground-up to be sports cars. I've already spent a ridiculous amount of money on my M4 to get it where it should have been and I'm probably not even done yet. I just know for a fact that unless BMW makes a miracle happen, there's no chance I'd pay in the 85k range for a G80/G82 when I could have a tracked out C8 Stingray for 70-75K that was actually built to perform, not modified to perform. Or spend a little more and get a Porsche.
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I get that. I only loosely paid attention to BMW across the decades. At least since 2000, I've always considered BMW to me a 'good' sports car. Their reputation was always that their cars were too soft to be great sports cars and too sporty to be great tourers. There's nothing wrong with that, and I certainly see the appeal of the halfway car.
I can't really think of a BMW that was ever the pinnacle of anything in the auto industry because they've always had that underlying luxury focus with few exceptions. I think in general, cars are getting worse for 'track' use but I don't think most cars were ever meant to be for track use, they were just easier to tune/modify/tinker.
I get your hesitation to buy though. BMW doesn't make that many products that I'm actually interested in. I only ended up in the 135i because of it's bang for the buck speed in a leather coat. haha.