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Originally Posted by Teutonic
Absolutely correct, you summarize it very well!
There is a ceratin niche of price for some vehicles and the prestige of the brand plays a huge role in here.
BMW decided to cheap out and use CLAR FWD platforms, and use very cheap materials in cars.
The new front seats share the same black rear back cover, when they use to have the same color with the leather choice, the headliner is a pantyhose material that is used everywhere and in all, including high end series, they do not offer different lighter headlines in certain models anymore, the sunshade is a saggy cloth, the plastics are terrible, the seats are not full leather anymore but half textile on the bottom area, etc.
They also gave up any halo car and throw an electric i8 which was a failure to begin with as the wrong engine was in it and was very spartan in terms of interior and amenities.
The M badge is slapped in every little car that shouldn’t wear that badge except it is engineered by M.
They actually affected tremendously the M reputation. The real M owners are discredited as the stupid BMW greediness is milking the whatever is left of this letter that used to be a powerful statement.
Bottom line, they pretty much cheapened the whole brand. They wanted volume, they have volume. They wanted China, and they get China reputation.
The shareholders cared about their pockets NOW, not for the future and the BMW brand is actually on a slope.
Never thought that Audi will reach a certain level, yet they did, and exceeding now. They have everything including a halo car to reiterate the status quo of the brand.
BMW now is just a volume maker with a questionable quality in the lower models. At least if they could really make -for example- an X1 like the previous one, with a RWD biased true xDrive, good materials and a sedan like chassis. But so far, all we get is confusing nomenclature with FWD chassis and questionable quality.
Just cheaper cars for more money...
So, ya, BMW value perception is not whee it supposed to be....
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I agree with you 100%. At the end of the day, that's why people buy these cars. There was a period of time that the cars on this end of the spectrum held the crown when it came to tech, but that's just not the case anymore. Brands like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai have stepped up their game and are offering all of the tech that you can find in a BMW, Mercedes, or Audi so something has to set you apart. My personal opinion is that if a brand has a high end halo car, that technology is going to trickle down to the rest of the lineup.
Mercedes has the AMG Project One and Audi has the upcoming Audi E-Tron.