Am I alone or is BMW turning its back on its heritage?

[joh99033]

This is a letter I wrote to BMW. How do you feel about it?

Dear BMW,

First of all I want to say that ever since I was a little kid, I have been a die hard BMW enthusiast. When I was young my Dad frequently tracked his 320i which he had modified with DCOE 40 and high compression pistons ect. All my life I have rejoiced in the BMW name and described BMW as a driver's car to my friends.

Over the last few years I feel like a good friend has slowly betrayed me. This makes me very very sad. BMWs today have turned their backs on handling and focused on Horse Power. Back in the 1960 and 1970's BMWs were successfully competing their M10 4 cylinder cars against powerful 6 cylinder Porsches and even V8 American cars. What was the formula? Light weight, balanced cars.

My purpose in writing this letter is that (maybe) someone on the inside will read this and actually wholeheartedly agree with me. Is there anyone else left at BMW that actually feels bad, even sick that we have turned away from the our heritage?

Who knows, maybe you can't hear my cry amongst the masses of "new generation" BMW enthusiasts who think driving a 4500 pound 500hp car is cool. Sadly I have to ask myself, why pay $100,000 for the badge when you could settle with a new charger RT. Muscle cars are not our game, its handling.

Thanks for getting threw my banter. I want you to know that I am not alone in this. Many people agree, BMW has lost its edge, and its not going to find it in HP gains for much longer. Not with the cost of fuels. GO LIGHT, GO GREEN, GO HANDLING

And if you think the new 1 series coupe is going to patch things up, your sadly mistaken.

Thanks

Sincerely,

Christian Johnson

[Benz02]

I hear what you're saying and feel much the same way, but you may want to excerpt a couple things, and re-voice the tone of the letter with more diplomatic language. On the other hand, Germans are gruff and straightforward, so they probably wouldn't take offense. Maybe add that this business of operating everything through a mouse toggle and screen is crapola...give us buttons and switches, please...or at least the option of outfitting the car in the way we want. As far as heritage is concerned the answer is yes and no. They did just build a Tii from scratch and offer most parts, they still race, we in the States don't really see the lighter cars they make. And they're making cars and SUV's (!) with enormous engines, weird styling, not very fuel efficient, etc. I do think they pay attention to handling, and that if one drove a Dodge back to back with the BMW, the BMW would be the better car.

[RandyMolson]

I very much concur with what you are saying...those money-grubbers lost their souls a long time ago. HP = €€€ in BMW pockets end of story.

Grammar Notes:

etc.

and it's not going to find it

getting through my banter (and you may want to use a word other than banter, like...ummm...diatribe)

you're sadly mistaken

[dubois]

Like I said before, the 02's represent a bench mark that is hard to beat. A company like BMW is very proud of its heritage, and they spend lots of money to let the world know that. To stay in business and insure that they will be around in the future, they have to evolve, change, improve, innovate and adapt. If they don't they will go out of business. Most of today's buyers don't even know what a 2002 looks like! I think BMW does a terrific job at maintaining that balance of satisfying the masses appetite for their product while meeting the likes of some unique segments. It is easy to stick with a formula that works, but it is also the easiest way to fail. For instance, I personally think my assistant's E46 is a blast to drive, but with "only" 170 hp, it will not sell in today's market! Why should anyone not choose an Altima with 200+ hp? and cheaper! How can anyone sell "feel", handling, etc. I would think the BMW engineers and marketing people do have some hot debated meetings including fist fights!

[megad]

we get the 128 and 135 in january

I'm not fond of the looks, but I was about to order a mini cooper s, I am now trying to decide if I should hold off, if this car brings back the 2002 feeling, or at least the e30 feeling I would like it

the mini has that horrid dash

http://www.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=536

of course I want the 135i 300hp I6

[Delia]

I recommend you buy a book entitled "Driven: About BMW, the World's Most Admired Car Company," by David Kiley. David si the Detroit Bureau Chief for USA Today, and he test drove my '73tii as part of his research. He mentions me in the acknowledgments.

It's not just about the cars, but about the politics and financing of the company.

It's "change or die." BMW's current market niche in a "for profit" business dictates they compromise some aspects upon which they built their reputation for the sake of survival.

Ever heard of Hudson, Packard, Tucker, Marmon, LaSalle, Studebaker? They're all gone. BMW does want to be added to that list.

The Inka Orange '73tii that M/T built is an homage to the company's four cylinder performance sedan roots. That's about as good as it will get.

Delia

[02fanatic]

I agree with Delia...and ain't that Inka tii gorgeous? :-) Gotta love it!

[Guest]

.... To stay in business and insure that they will be around in the future, they have to evolve, change, improve, innovate and adapt....

It is adapt or die. Darwin had some theory about it.

If there was a significant USA market for light, "underpowered" cars, then someone would build them and market them. The 318ti hardly sold in the USA and BMW is in the business to make money.

Here, in Europe, there is a market for little coupes and hatches. But, it is a different world. The countries, cities, and road are smaller and people don't drive as much. And there aren't the same expectations of luxury.

Personally, I wish they would stop the insane technology that only -- IMHO -- makes more things to break. Dual heaters so the passenger and driver can have different temps? Please, as if we need that. Electronic evernything? No thanks.

But the market is demanding it...

[joh99033]

Thanks for all your comments. Sadly I agree with all of you. I guess BMW will simply have to adapt in order to stay alive. Also, the comment where I was comparing BMW's high HP cars with the charger, yeah I know that was absolutely absurd. These new BMWs really do handle well. But I still think that lighter cars are much more fun to drive. Slapping larger tires, brakes, and beefier suspension may compensate for the weight gain, but no matter how hard you try you can't make a heavy car feel like a 2002 or a Mazda miata, or a 914, or a lotus Elise.

I guess we'll just have to keep those treasures on the road.

Christian

[Guest Anonymous]

No we said light and underpowered cars. The 318ti wasn't light. 2800lbs with a brisk 130hp made it worse than a stock nissan 240. Worse than a stock miata. It was a sled anyway you cut it. I'm glad they're finally coming around to horsepower. They certainly can't and won't build a light car and haven't in the last 15 years. E36's, E46's, and the new E whatevers are no slouches when they get on the scales and BMW has stuck relentlessly with this underpowered anemic naturally aspirated 2.5L-3.0L engine. Just like honda fanboys, modern bmw owners have become infatuated with HP/Liter and having the most technically advanced 3.3L engine ever. The problem lies in that fact. 3.3L with 333HP was, for the longest time, the most you could get in a two door car for a handsome sum of 55-60k dollars. This ultimate driving machine bmw built was a winner but the other models: the 325 and 330 were anemic. Even honda with it's accord V6 would blow by most bmw models cept the m models. Personally my friends 330i e46 couldn't beat a 2000 monte carlo LS 3.4L NA FWD in a straight line. "I loose them in the twisties". Then bmw owners unite and hide in the mountains with your "precious" and defend your mark there on internet boards everywhere. I don't feel there is anything ultimate by getting beat in a straight line by a grocery getter that's 8k cheaper than your base model and gets better gas mileage to boot. It doesn't matter if you do use all the techno-wizardry in the world if you get beat by someone who's doing the same thing with 1/3rd the complication and 2/3rd's the price. BMW needs HP and has needed it for years and years. I still think sticking twin turbo's on a 3L inline 6 is a bad idea. All the problems of the supra's, RBx series engines, and 944 turbos come back to mine. miles of vacuum line and there's a crack in it somewhere. It'd just be nice if bmw built a 4L v8 and just stuck it in the base model and was done.

[NickVyse]

Governments demand more and more safety which equals weight.

The market demands more and more equipement, which equals weight.

Power is the only compensation.

Very few modern cars do it for me. Especially the 1 series which looks like a medical condition, even in 3 door form.

[Guest Anonymous]

Greetings,

Oh, I don't know. The lengths to which BMW honored the '02 range during 2002 was undeniably admirable, whereas the F1 effort (initially in retro Parmalat BMW Brabham colors) was rather cool as well. Indeed, I'd probably best identify with the BMW range from the inception of the Neu Klasse until the arrival of the original 5-Series, and if BMW had folded in '75 or '76, I'd be ever bit the fan of the marque as I am today. I just found that there was something undeniably appealing about a company known principly for motorcycles and microcars finding a place in the market with sports sedans that made do with elegantly designed small displacement 4 and 6 cylinder engines. With few exceptions, period Mercedes-Benz products seemed sterile and cold by comparison, whereas the entire sport sedan market niche existing below Alfa Romeo was theirs to exploit and develop. How fun it is to have an example dating for this time, and how we relish celebrating the product design and development philosophy that yielded such memorable results.

The Driving Passion business history tome is well worth seeking out, although I too am unimpressed when cost fails to be an object with regards to provisioning a slender demographic some exceedingly rarified transportation. A comment of mine whenever I find a new M-car in a dealership and gasp at the sticker is to lament that I'd demand nothing less than a Back to the Future hoverconversion for the money asked. Perhaps further indicative of wealth gap between rich and poor segments of society, no application of technology or materials seems off limits with regards to enervating new product with capabilities completely at odds to the sensibility of many '02 owners.

Parallels exist with regards to Porsche. In the fifties and sixties campaigning a 356 in competition was about running quick with modest displacement and going for index of performance-type awards. The overall win at LeMans in '70 must have signaled a turning point of sorts for the diehards, whereas the overkill quality of V8 and V10 M-Cars is having the effect of disenchanting some BMW propeller head diehards. Continuing upon a theme, while BMW enthusiasts stomach the X5, how can Porsche people stomach the Cayenne and the how the company has blithely discarded the traditional numbering system that for years constituted the identity of their products? I laugh now to imagine that Chevrolet and Pontiac couldn't sell overweight front engined-rear wheel drive V8 ponycars to anyone but GM retirees towards the end, but look how Jaguar and BMW are essentially pushing exceedingly refined and expensive versions of the same platform concept. I don't want the 2015 variable-displacement ethanol-powered thrice-turbocharged W20-equipped BMW M8 - thanks just the same. I'd rather have a rapier than a broadsword, and anything released much past the original M3 and the original M5 I just don't care much about.

With regards to contemporary independent BMW, I'm hardly spellbound with regards to the ultimate direction of the company outside of profit and loss. I order my handful of Mobile Tradition parts, treat staff with respect and a measure of good cheer, and leave contemporary BMW enthusiasts in peace. Little of particular personal value is built to last, whether it be material passions or some conception of love. When BMW took over operations in North America and The Ultimate Driving Machine campaign was introduced, the sh*t had hit the proverbial fan by my measure. With the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement and the revaluation of the German mark relative to the U.S. dollar (hope I got that right), everything German was fated to become extremely expensive to U.S. consumers. BMW had (and to this day has) no recourse but to go upmarket. No vinyl interiors, no more vehicles berift of power accessories, no more nonmetallic paints, and if the personal insecurity and vanity of the typical U.S. car buying prospect could be played up by selling them the half-understood but nevertheless substantive conception of status relative to the nameplate, than so be it. Further, if margins would be lower simply to compete, sales volume had to be built if the U.S. market was to remain viable. The global automotive market was starting to shift, and Cadillac, Lincoln and Imperial had little clue that the top of the domestic market would be so comprehensively redefined by first the Germans and then the Japanese.

Back to Bretton Woods, I have an early period roadtest of a BMW 1600 that reveals that when new the vehicle was offered to the U.S. buyer for less than a comparable air-cooled VW 1300 (Beetle). By '74 I believe the price of a larger displacement '02 variation (you know what!) had crested $5,000 - a person really had to want one and could expect to have to deflect criticism from family members and friends might call into question how a rather plain 4-cylinder-powered sedan could possibly be worth it. This price escalation also reframes the usual tii versus '02 'normal' debate - buying a new '02 with all the trimming in '72 was much cheaper than being a late adapter and doing the best one could with the option catalog in '76. If anything, on the basis of rationalizing a personal cost-benefit ratio relative to a vehicle purchase, one can objectively state that a late car makes a strong albeit different statement about the marque as circumstances conspired to force BMW upmarket. Well, enough for me - thanks for reading this post to the end.

Mike K.

'74 Malaga on grey.

[Edwin]

I agree that it would be nice to see more light and nimble cars like our 02's.

However seeing our 02's as the herritage of BMW is leaving out a lot of BMW history.

If I am only looking after WWII there is the 501/502 V8 that is in line with the luxury 760 we have now. And I can certainly see a line of cars from the 507 to the M635csi and the 850 to the current M6.

And if I take the pre-war BMW 328 that won in the Mille Miglia. That was based on a normal roadcar. Aren't the M3's based on normal roadcars and haven't they been successful in racing?

Take a look at Porsche. They have been sticking to the 911 and you could really say they have kept in line with their herritage. However in 1968 the 911 had 130 HP. Just a short time later we had our 2002 tii with.... indeed 130 HP. How much has the 911 grown in these years both in weight and in power? BMW has been building sporty sedans that could win a race with a Porsche from the 2002 tii to the latest M3. I wouldn't say that BMW is turning its back on its heritage. I would say they know their herritage and they are doing a great job keeping it alive.

BMW was in great danger of being bought by Mercedes but they kept independent. Mostly due to the success of building a complete new line of cars.... the Neue Klasse and the 02-serie. And they are still independent.

However, as I stated in my first sentence: I would really like to see more lightweight and nimble cars on the road.