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      09-06-2011, 08:49 AM   #178
mkoesel
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Drives: No BMW for now
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BlueBliss View Post
Isn't this a carbon copy of the story that came out right after the E46 production run ended?
It's pretty close isn't it?

However, the conditions for all of this rebranding to happen now might be a little more favorable. For starters, Gran Coupes, GTs, and other new vehicles are coming in various sizes. It makes for a lot of different models carrying the same badge which isn't necessarily the best situation as far as distinguishing all these products. The current 5/6 branding makes for a nice split, putting the GT with the sedan/touring and the GC with the coupe/convertible. Secondly, with the 1 series, breaking the coupe/convertible models off into the 2 series actually makes the "1M" naming issue go away. Granted, a 1 series hatchback with full M treatment would run into the same issue we have today, but such a vehicle apparently isn't on the radar (at least not yet). So then, once you have the smaller product range and the larger product range divided up across two series, it only makes sense to bring the medium-sized product range into the fold.

One thing I could see them doing as an interim step is to keep just the 3 series coupe for now, while rebranding the 3 series convertible and upcoming 3 series-based gran Coupe as the 4 series. This would allow the M3 name to remain for both the sedan and coupe for this generation, while the M4 name would naturally cover the M version of the convertible and the Gran Coupe. Few people would complain about the M4 name for the convertible since that is already everyone's favorite M model to hate on (even moreso than the larger M6 convertible, curiously). And this will also allow the marketplace to get used to the notion of the M4 brand before actually transitioning it onto the iconic M3 coupe sometime down the road, perhaps in the generation succeeding the F3x/F8x.

Quote:
$10 says the coupe remains the "M3." Paypal, anyone?
$10 bucks? That's not even worth the time to login to the website. Make it $100 or more and see if you get some takers.
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