Quote:
Originally Posted by Pyrat 2
Agree. It took years for the full impact of this to hit. And here we are. I've been exclusive BMW since 2000 and as time progressed it's been harder and harder to find a model that hits their old roots of the ultimate driving machine. I used to wander the dealer parking lots regularly on Sunday to scope out what would be my next acquisition. Never do it now despite being less than 2 miles and literally right next to my health club.
In 2018 I veered away from BMW and sold one of my 4 BMWs and bought a Porsche. My wife's E84 will go in a couple years and now that they ditched the rear drive configuration I'm open to look at anybody and likely won't end up with another BMW as a replacement. The rear drive in that X1 was differentiating and is a blast to drive. Now there is no equivalent in that size. My M2 is also about to drop out of warranty in 12 months. When it does I'll likely be shopping again within another year. Maybe another M2 but hard to buy a new car that is fundamentally identical to the old one. So will hope that they don't drop the line or make the next gen bigger.
It took years to create this problem and it'll take years to correct once they start to transform their lineup. I haven't seen signs of them even recognizing that their problem is their product. They moved themselves from a differentiated product line to one that has much less differentiation and therefore competes with more vendors. I'm hoping that they sort through it quickly as my remaining BMWs are all do for replacement in the next few years. A garage with zero BMWs in it in 5 years is a very real possibility. Crazy, considering 20 years of exclusive loyalty to the brand.
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Agree 100 percent. Forum members have been saying this for years. By going more mainstream and turning into a German Toyota, BMW abandoned the very competitive edge that made BMW successful in the first place. Modern BMWs are soft, disconnected, and overpriced. That's a recipe for failure. Charging $55k for a four cylinder 3 series, with no manual transmission, dead steering, and questionable reliability is ludicrous. I would rather buy a Mustang GT for that money.