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Originally Posted by SCOTT26
The front wheel drive vehicles are not a sales disaster where did you hear this nonsense from?
The 2er Active Tourer and Gran Tourer are the best selling 2er models globally.
They are also responsible for first time BMW vehicle sales.
We see rises for these vehicles every month since launch. The Active Tourer since launch in 2014 achieved its 100,000 unit goal ahead of the equivalent Mercedes-Benz B-Klasse which took two years to reach 100,000 units.
We now manufacture the Active Tourer in China where it has had equal success.
The whole point of the UKL+ is to provide profitability to MINI something which was not successful over previous MINI generations. The money was made by MINIs multiple personalisation options.
The upcoming China Sedan is projected to be a huge success with early clinics already excited and have placed orders for the new car which launches at the end of the year.
Contrary to everybody's opinion because we are not doing what everybody else is doing BMW is not in trouble.
We are in the opening stages of the full refresh of the model line, and more importantly by the time SUV models reach their global high by 2019. The full BMW X line will have been renewed,refreshed and expanded.
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What you say is logical and follows current sales trends, however, BMW has worked hard since the 70s to develop a brand with a particular image and feel.
The 3 is core to this (global) image and many feel that attention was diverted elsewhere to grow at the expense of its historic sales dominance and driver appeal of this and other icons. Many BMW loyalists believe that this shift will transform what they think is amazing product to just another luxury transportation commodity that trades on image rather than substance.
Many BMW insiders share this anxiety as well and history has shown when your rival Mercedes abandoned its core brand values of quality and engineering they suffered to BMW and Audi who were doing the opposite.