Quote:
Originally Posted by Law
When Van Meel was poached from quattro GmbH to M GmbH four years ago, we already had an idea as to why BMW would want the ex-head of quattro to be the head of M.
In comes the F90 M5, with M xDrive and then the speculations about Van Meel's role in the AWD-ification are confirmed.
At the same time, right before our eyes, the M Performance Automobile line becomes nearly all xDrive-based, (i.e., M550i, M760Li, X3 M40i, X4 M40i, X1 M35i & upcoming M340i), with no RWD option except for the M240i.
BMW took the initiative to poach the head of a division (quattro) world renowned for its AWD systems and got what they wanted.
For me personally, I never saw Van Meel as a traditional/true BMW M type of guy, and to his credit he never really pretended to be.
It seemed like he knew exactly why he was chosen for the role and it was exactly what BMW execs wanted.
A necessary evil, perhaps.
But it'll be interesting to see where things go from here.
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This is so well written I literally got up and clapped at my monitor.