Quote:
Originally Posted by SCOTT26
If you take the whole of the European market - Diesel outsells the petrol equivalent. In the US it is the complete opposite.
BMW does make sporty diesels but never has there been a road-going BMW performance diesel, and BMW knew this and so did M Division. They know there is demand for such a concept. I have been in rooms with many people and they have demanded such a concept as the M550d.
Which now offers the best of both worlds for European customers - Diesel economy and AWD and an exclusive badge and performance pedigree.
You may not like the concept, but for M this will be highly lucrative in terms what this can sustain for future developments. The competition are now beginning to catching up, but the M performance diesels show in engineering , precision and innovation that BMW M are still very much ahead.
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Hi Scott,
I fully agree on the "highly lucrative" part. And honestly, I have zero issues with diesels, it's actually really great. However there is a major aspect lost in this new strategy:
M used to be "top of the engineering line", it was Motorsport (a whole package). Now they went downstream (throwing M parts at the whole barn), which is fine; however they forgot to deliver something for the hardcore M crowd (the crowd that made M what it is today). Where is the e9x CSL? Where is the daily driver and weekend racer? The CRT is not it, and the 1M was produced 700 times, after it was hyped for months.
I hear only about how M division is expanding in "lower" markets with lots of ///Marketing hype and nothing is done to keep the heritage/soul alive. What has M Gmbh accomplished on the track in the last few years? Every M before the e9x used to be a force to be recond with by the Porsche, MB, Audi crowd both on the street and on track, to the point where the e46 M3 GTR had to be outlawed. M is no longer Motorsport, and it really breaks my heart. All this talk about the diesel, great, drop it into a race format and go after Audi's TDI, prove that there is ///Motorsport, not a bunch of parts with a logo.
Since the e9x is approaching EOL, BMW kept teasing us with, "wait you have to see what we have in store". Personally, and I think some of the people here, we were all waiting for some amazing machine, an M3 for Power Machine. We got nothing lighter, more powerful, nimbler than the current model (like in previous model runs), instead a bunch of M badges.
Bottom line, call the cars whatever you want but don't loose what M stands for.
Cheers,
.Mdrei