Quote:
Originally Posted by zx10guy
Just my opinion. But the way I see it, BMW is having an identity crisis. They built their reputation and heritage on being enthusiast oriented. Then wanted to broaden their market to encompass more of the masses. Doing this is extremely difficult and even more so being successful at it.
Different industry, but I saw this with the niche A/V market. There were brands that got their start catering to the audiophile/videophile what have you. Once they started to set their market goals to encompass the mass market, those companies got into serious trouble. Many went bankrupt. Many had to be absorbed by a larger conglomerate. And others are only a shell of what they once were.
In my opinion, BMW needs to stick to a specific market segment and be good at that instead of being mediocre across different market segments. At the M Car Control Clinic last year, I had a conversation with one of the instructors about current M cars. It's pretty telling that he said he didn't like any of them except the M2.
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good analogy, but do you expect them to really shrink their product line and niches they helped create? the enthusiast in me says they should, but from a business perspective, as one of the only independent manufacturers, that could be the kiss of death.
unfortunately, car enthusiasts are a small sector of the market and the more we complain, the smaller we get and become an afterthought to BMW. this has been happening over several years now and you see where it's going...