Quote:
Originally Posted by pissclams
Quote:
Originally Posted by m34m
I don't get comments like the two above. Obviously the majority of cars sold to the public are automatic. But we are not talking about ALL cars we are talking about high performance cars. What percentage of cars sold overall are performance cars? I'd wager it's a small number and those are the cars we enthusiasts believe should offer manuals. Who gives a shit about minivans, family SUVs and rental cars being automatics and representing 95% of auto sales? These are the justifications of DCT lovers. For those who don't get it understand this; as long as there are performance car enthusiasts there will be a strong market for manual transmissions in PERFORMANCE cars. If a manufacturer is stupid enough to stop offering what's demanded by the market that market will migrate elsewhere, namely Porsche. I hope that's crystal clear to people who like automatic performance cars.
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I think I understand your point. Your argument is that a small number of the cars BMW sells are what you're calling "performance cars". And we know that within that category, the majority of the cars BMW sells are DCT. And yet still- as a company BMW should do what makes less sense financially and continue to cater to a tiny subset of their buyers because of a non-measurable "connected feeling" you get when driving a MT?
To your own admission, the market potentially leaving BMW is a small one, and it's getting smaller each day. At some point, the loss in margin with that small market leaving will be outweighed by the savings gained by only supporting one transmission. We may already be there, but BMW has to do what's best for its shareholders.
And by the way, if you don't think that these same discussions are being held in Stuttgart, you'd be mistaken. |
No I don't think you do understand my point. Thanks for the financial analysis and explanation about shareholder value. However let's talk marketing and value proposition now. The three core elements being target market, differentiation and positioning (in the mind of the customer). I won't give a big analysis because I suspect you'll refute anything that is said. At a high level what I will say is that BMW has changed its value proposition in favor of the mass consumer market. Yes that's probably good for shareholders. In so doing however they have not stayed true to their roots and have somewhat abandoned their core target market and sacrificed them in favor of the masses. BMW has forgotten what it once stood for and how it had been positioned in customer minds for a long time. This is what built BMW and they forgot. As a simple example the BMW 3 series is no longer the clear cut bench mark in that category. It's one of many relatively generic products and isn't well differentiated nor is it positioned as the performance alternative as it once was. Who's the target market? Enthusiasts? Not a chance it's the mass market. As far as I'm concerned BMW has taken this approach with their entire line up and is now letting this approach infect M division. Not to mention watering down the M brand by using M in Sport packages of lesser models.
Overall the M2 is a good car I think they salvaged the M brand with it to a degree but I doubt it will last. I'm keeping the E92 M3 forever because well...read above. Porsche offers almost every sports car it makes in manual in addition to their brilliant PDK and I think Porsche execs are far more connected and in touch with their customers, their history and their value proposition. Argue away but is there really an argument?