Quote:
Originally Posted by Cavpilot2k
I just can't find any sense in your whole premise.
You are saying that because we the consumers want better-performing cars, the manufacturers won't build them? Or at least not without charging a premium for the extra performance.
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Let me see if I can connect the dots for you. You say:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cavpilot2k
If the M2 lives up to its potential, the only reason anybody would buy the M4 is as a status symbol because it will cost more. And those kind of douchebags can't be helped.
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Translation: if the M2 is as fast as the M4, only idiots will buy the M4.
Now pretend you're BMW. You know the M3/ M4 is a cash cow. You know that many of your customers want a comfortable, refined, and yes, larger car. You also know that if that car is slower than a significantly cheaper BMW model, quite a few people will call those customers "douchebags". Your cash-cow customers won't like that, nor will they appreciate paying more for a slower car.
So what do you do? Do you a) make the M2 all it can be, as quick or quicker than the M4, and make that car "obsolete" as you call it? Or do you b) limit the M2 to "good enough", slower than the M4 but still faster than other cars at that price point in your lineup, so that it doesn't cannibalize M4 sales?
The answer is simple- you chose B, which is why the M2 will
not be allowed to achieve the potential it could easily and cost effectively reach.
Now imagine a different world, one where people like you didn't think the M4 buyer was a douchebag for buying the car. Instead you respected the car for what it is, a great compromise between performance and comfort, well targeted to what its buyers want, and worth, to many, the extra money. And those buyers in turn respected your choice of a smaller, less comfortable, less practical, but probably quicker car. Because honestly, neither of you are likely to use either car's full potential more than cumulative minutes over your entire ownership anyway, at least if you're not living next to the Autobahn or tracking regularly. In
that world, a world where people buy cars for how they feel rather than the numbers, BMW could sell a non-neutered M2 and
not cannibalize M4 sales.
But we don't live in that world- look no further than the mirror to know why.