[Outlaw 06]

BMW of North America has long since gone mainstream and shifted its focus and mass marketing/leasing strategy towards attracting low monthly payment car users (note that I’m not using the term “drivers”). Walk through any BMW dealer lot and you'll quickly realize that the North American car-using masses clearly prefer leasing BMW’s with soft suspensions, all-wheel-drive (with all-season run-flat tires), rattling turbocharged motors (with unresponsive “comfort mode” default settings), granny trannies, free maintenance, and a plethora of overly complex techno-gadgets.

There’s no doubt that BMW’s mainstream marketing/leasing strategy has worked out well during the ongoing “Great Recession” with people who can’t afford to buy or maintain expensive cars. Unfortunately for BMW, there are now plenty of similar mainstream cars being offered by rival brands for the fickle car-using masses to choose from for their next lease. The staunch enthusiasts of yesteryear are becoming disgruntled with BMW’s overpriced offerings and are looking elsewhere too.

As a final point, with BMW Financial Services holding rapidly depreciating assets as collateral while collecting low monthly payments from the over-leveraged customers of BMW dealerships, this whole creative financing car bubble is doomed to eventually collapse (just like the creative financing housing bubble collapsed). In fact, the entire US economy has been limping along for over a decade based on massive levels of unpayable debt and artificially low interest rates with monthly payments in perpetuity. It’s not a matter of “if” it all collapses, but “when”.

[Tomahawk]

Originally Posted by scoobysaurus

Last time I checked the X1 and X4 are pretty new so BMW's SUV lineup isn't exactly stale. Even the X5 and X6 are new compared to the GLE and GLS which are basically a face lifts of really old models. What's surprising is that the oldest SUV in BMW's range is selling better than their newer models and this contradicts your statement.

from a customer perspective the GLE is a brand new vehicle. and GLC is massive change from GLK. X5/X3 have been around a good bit, long enough for new to where off. BMW goes through this every few years.

[Laki021]

Guys, what are you talking about, what crisis for BMW sales?
Look at the bigger picture, look at the worldwide BMW sales, they are record breaking with almost 10% gain over the previous year.
This means that BMW has to struggle to ramp up production capacities and produce more cars since global demand is high. In this case, it is logical for them to try to sale and deliver as many cars as possible in high profit margin areas, which USA is certainly not.
It makes much more sense to sell as many cars in Europe as possible since prices and profit are significantly higher, while at the same time there is no reason to offer discounts and promote sales in the USA at the moment. Just part of the business strategy.
In the USA, X models are particularly popular, and their availability is limited by production capacity at the moment. Two months ago delivery time for X5 in Europe was almost 6 months... they are selling like hot cookies since X5 is by far the best SUV in its class on the market today. GLE is just the face-lifted model and is years behind X5. New X1 is also extremely popular and is selling great.
Of course BMW is well aware of this and they have been working on expansion of their production capacities, factory in Spartanburg (X models are produced there) has been expanded and in the second half of the year we can expect this bottleneck to disappear and sales and deliveries of X models to speed up.

Also BMW 5, one of the bestsellers is at the end of its life cycle, so it is normal that sales are lower, but let's see sales figures for the new series 5 in the next year... Similar story for X3.
Introduction of new "semi M" models is, I think very good thing for BMW as well.

Bottom line is, I think that BMW is doing fantastic job, and they know precisely what they are doing, no reason to be worried for the future of the BMW.

[zstoja]

BMW luxury car sale is down.

More BMW cars are for riding, not for driving(electric steering wheel, turbo engines, no manual transmission,...).

BMW interior is worse than Audi and Mercedes.

BMW future is not so nice.

[zstoja]

Originally Posted by bigjae1976

I leased a 2013 328i which I returned earlier this year. It was a nice car and spent $0 on it except for fuel and insurance.

It makes you want to drive economically and maximize gas mileage. It does it really well...42mpg on the highway which is better than any other car I've driven rated in the mid-30's on the highway.

It was fast, comfy, handled well...but it was the most uninspiring BMW I've ever driven. I had zero desire to keep it. It was my first BMW appliance that I owned.

That is reason I do not know to buy M3 or not. It seems that it is boring car for me. I think that some BMW man says: "Electric steering wheel is here to stay."

Really? I am here to stay away from BMW.

If I want so boring car, I would buy Lexus, S63. Simple.

[bb1857]

Originally Posted by zstoja

BMW luxury car sale is down.

More BMW cars are for riding, not for driving(electric steering wheel, turbo engines, no manual transmission,...).

BMW interior is worse than Audi and Mercedes.

BMW future is not so nice.

your -17 rating should be worse....have you looked at Audi and Mercedes....lets see...both have electric steering because 95% of the worlds cars have it today for fuel economy...turbo engines...yup they have those too for performance and fuel economy....they both have manuals and so does BMW so do everyone a favor and shut up

[bb1857]

Originally Posted by zstoja

That is reason I do not know to buy M3 or not. It seems that it is boring car for me. I think that some BMW man says: "Electric steering wheel is here to stay."

Really? I am here to stay away from BMW.

If I want so boring car, I would buy Lexus, S63. Simple.

Good go buy a Lexus or keep driving that Buick you have because i seriously doubt you could afford an M3, S63, or Lexus...BMW nor the enthusiasts on this page would want someone as ignorant or misinformed driving a BMW anyway....electric steering wheel??? really WTF are you talking about???

[Laki021]

US sales in June are down 10%, but I think they know what they are doing

BMW Group global sales achieve best-ever June result
227,849 automobiles sold worldwide, up 9.1%
Year-to-date sales up 5.8% with 1,163,139 vehicles delivered BMW sales up 9.7% in June: 189,097 vehicles sold
MINI delivers 38,282 in June, increase of 6.3%
Double-digit growth in Asia and Europe
Over 6,000 new BMW 7 Series sold in June
BMW iPerformance records strong sales in Europe

http://www.bmwusanews.com/newsreleas...d=2705&mid=243

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by zstoja

That is reason I do not know to buy M3 or not. It seems that it is boring car for me. I think that some BMW man says: "Electric steering wheel is here to stay."

Really? I am here to stay away from BMW.

If I want so boring car, I would buy Lexus, S63. Simple.

How in the fuck do you get a negative rep rating?????

[Sassicaia]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

How in the fuck do you get a negative rep rating?????

He is a troll. Look at his post history.