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      12-30-2011, 03:39 PM   #39
foxyman
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Drives: M2 LCI Manual
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JonF1982 View Post
Old enough and intelligent enough then you would have thought to have a sensible discussion.

I'm a 29 year old software developer/project manager. There's your target market; young, active, creative. People in design & technology, young execs, junior middle managers.

I took part in a focus group for BMW earlier this year and it was clear this was a market in which BMW was under represented, with most of the people there being 45+ 3/5/X drivers. I.e your average dentist is well catered for elsewhere in the BMW range.

The folks at BMW, armed with a hell of lot more knowledge and understanding about marketing cars than you, have produced a car to fit the data they were seeing about who they were and were not selling cars to.

Stick to your X3, am i on that forum slagging that car off? No.
The Dentist is missing the point, he is not the target demographic. The target demographic has the same level of professional qualification as he does and is probably the same age, but lives in China - an attractive market due to its high growth in demand and appetite for hatchbacks where premium brands attract a premium/margin that can't be achieved in the saturated and highly competitive US market. Check out the Geely LC Hatch and you get a sense of what the Chinese market seems to find appealing.....

I personally think the F20 looks much better in the flesh, photographs cannot pick up the surface detailing, particularly around the nose, and consequently it looks bland and clumsy when photographed compared to real life. We have quite a few on the road here and it's growing on me, looks much better with xenons and rim upgrades.
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