View Single Post
      11-29-2012, 09:39 PM   #88
aajami
Brigadier General
aajami's Avatar
United_States
430
Rep
4,567
Posts

Drives: Space Gray '09 E92 M3
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Manhattan Beach, CA

iTrader: (4)

Quote:
Originally Posted by Antares View Post
The discussion at BMW is going into the pricing bracket direction.

1er sedan: front wheel drive:
- cheaper (long term; RWD is in short term the same, since BMW has big volume on RWD parts shared with 3er, and current 1er)
- it can be placed in a lower price segment (direct answer to Audi A3 sedan and Mercedes CLA)
- more roomy interior
FWD is easy to justify for a Golf form (current 3 and 5 door 1er), for a BMW sedan? brand image is at risk

2er Gran Coupe - the price segmentation becomes a mess of its own:
-the price must be higher than 2er Coupe = to close to 3er price
-the current 1er RWD is fixing the price of the 2er Coupe, this cannot be moved lower to make room for a normally priced 2 Gran Coupe
-RWD requires a longer car if you want to stuff 4 doors and have a decent interior length
I agree with you about the pricing mess that this very granular segmentation is going to cause. The price deltas between all of these models is going to be in the hundreds of dollars in a lot of instances, I'm guessing.

As for the point that I bolded, this isn't going to factor into whether or not this car is the RWD M2 Gran Coupe or a so-called FWD 1-series sedan (which I don't see happening). BMW is already making a 2-series Gran Coupe, and making an M version doesn't have any impact on size at that point.
__________________
'09 E92 M3: Space Gray, Black, Carbon Leather | ZTP 2MK ZPP 2MT 6FL | link 1 / link 2
Mods: M Performance exhaust | ZCP retrofit | Euro airbox | GTS DCT flash | JPN 240 ECU flash | Euro LCI taillights | CRT lip | OEM alarm retrofit | Space Gray bumper plugs | BMW Performance: Mk. II spoiler / Mk. II non-electronic steering wheel / mirror caps / front grilles / side gills / intake louvers / emblem
Appreciate 0