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      05-30-2019, 12:53 PM   #200
hans007
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Drives: 2020 BMW M340i
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Los Angeles, CA

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Quote:
Originally Posted by SDRX View Post
A major attraction of the M140 was the excellent B58 engine. It have the car immense character and of course power, an engine I'm familiar with in my own 540.

To remove the engine, lower the power and change it to FWD shows a total lack of willingness to remain connected to a loyal fan base.

Some very bad judgements/decisions have been made by bmw and hit always driven by environment/economic/political concerns, they seem content to launch a V8 X5 M50i but have completely ruined the M140.

The new 1 series is aimed at a very different market to before, the only thing that matters is sales volume now.

I'd have to think they know what they are doing. As much as I would generally want RWD as well, I'd guess a lot of people don't care

I'd also guess if you wanted a hatchback you are looking for some practicality, and ultimately the RWD model was going to have way less space for a similar sized car (especiallly with a long inline 6) than a transverse 4 cylinder that doesn't have among other things a drive shaft tunnel.
And well a hatchback that isn't space efficient doesn't quite make sense to most hatch buyers.

It also costs more to build which means BMW has less margin on it (so they either have to price it higher to keep the same margins , or they can just not make money on it to be even price competitive with say the A3).


If anything theres probably a good number of people who didn't buy a BMW hatch because it didn't have enough space due to its RWD inline -6 option "compromise" and they probably will sell many more 1 series hatches now to non enthusiasts than they would have otherwise. If they really want to go for market share they could lower the price now given the new 1 series no doubt costs less to build than the roughly equivalent previous version.

Their core demographic for hatches as it is is like 120d 's and such in europe or whatever, probably a decent number of people who just wanted a hatchback regardless of RWD or FWD that will now consider BMW because "hey its got competitive space inside" to the A3 / A class . At least they are keeping the 2 series RWD , i'd guesson the assumption that someone who wants a coupe isn't exactly giving practical space inside as much of a consideration.
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