[dwells]

It really saddens me to see the direction that BMW has taken. I understand the idea of wanting to be a profitable company with a strong foothold in the market, I really do. But there's a point where expansion turns into brand dilution, and BMW has been flirting with that line for a while now.

BMW made their name as a car for car people. When you bought a BMW, you were getting a well-built vehicle with a good engine that sent the power to the rear wheels, a steering wheel that connected you to the road, and handling that did what you wanted. What made a BMW special was that unquantifiable aspect of bonding between the driver and the vehicle. Yeah, the luxury was there, the tech was there, and the styling produced lovely vehicles like the E39 and the E38. But you could get luxury and technology and looks from the competitors too. It was the bundle of those things, plus the bond with the driver that made the car truly special.

Unfortunately, we've seen these things dissolve slowly over the years as BMW has lost its focus. We've seen sport sedans fall into the shadow of five different crossover models. We've seen steering feel fade away and driver involvement fade with it. We've seen quality control slip, poorly handled defects and recalls, and production leaving Germany in favor of Mexico. Now, we see rear wheel drive, a feature touted by BMW as the only acceptable option, yield the floor to front wheel drive. We're seeing BMWs that lack the things that made them BMWs.

Markets change, consumers change, and technology changes; we know that. Companies are forced to adapt and make tough choices in order to remain competitive. Those tough choices can mean making major changes to what you sell and selling something new.

It's just too bad that BMW decided to sell their soul in the process.