I’m not sure that I can entirely articulate BMW’s strategy as of late. The company still makes some extremely competent performance sedans, as well as numerous crossovers and SUVs that are at or near the top of their respective classes. There are electric cars, too, and those are much better than what either Audi or Mercedes is producing. There are even hybrids. In this way, BMW is a bit more like Lexus, albeit with a broader EV portfolio.
BMW simultaneously offers a wide range of electric cars while also not feeling like it’s gone entirely EV-pilled in the same way Mercedes and Volkswagen have. What the automaker has lacked is a kill-shot vehicle — something designed to absolutely dominate the market both at home and abroad. That’s coming soon, and BMW’s boss just admitted he can’t afford to screw it up.
The Morning Dump has been dominated by automotive screwups lately, so my plan today is to focus on the brighter side of the world. The Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair are not long for this world, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a decent deal on the two long-serving crossovers. If you want something a little bigger and more Franco-British, perhaps the now-cheaper Ineos is more your speed?
And Škoda news! I have amazing Škoda news!
The iX3 Or Nothing At All
Germany has decided to re-motivate buyers to purchase electric cars after cutting incentives at the end of last year, and the result has been a massive turnaround in EV sales in the country. After seeing EV preference drop for much of last year, sales jumped 35% in Q1 2025 to a record 249,155 vehicles. Who makes most of those vehicles? Volkswagen!
The ID.7 that we’re not getting was the biggest seller, but Volkswagen products (if you include Śkoda, Audi, and Cupra) made up eight of the top ten slots. The other two? The Tesla Model Y, which is free-falling, and the BMW iX1. Much of this is because BMW has a lot of good, yet expensive, electric cars, and just one quasi-affordable model in the iX1, which is still about 50,000 EUR out the door.
What the company has done over the last few years is invest more than a billion dollars into the Neue Klasse strategy of completely from-the-ground-up electric vehicles. The first one will be a two-door Model Y-fighter called the BMW iX3. This will offer over 400 miles of range (on the European test cycle) and try to compete on price with the cars coming from Volkswagen and also China.
It’ll debut in Munich early next month, and BMW calls it “one of the most significant new vehicles in its history.” More than just an EV with good range, BMW is attempting to make it ultra-modern and tech-forward in a way that’ll make it competitive in China and elsewhere.
It’s essentially an “all eggs in one basket” situation, and if the iX3 doesn’t work, then the company will have spent a huge amount of capital, both literal and metaphorical, on a failure. Could the company survive this not working? Probably not as-is. BMW is still a smaller, family-owned enterprise compared to other European carmakers and global players. If it works, there’s no reason why BMW can’t supplant Tesla in some European markets and make a dent in the United States.
Spiegel has a big feature on the vehicle that’s “supposed to save the German car industry,” and BMW boss Oliver Zipse puts it all out there, saying “You can’t afford to make mistakes in this industry” and that there’s going to be an evolutionary “selection process” in the industry that not everyone is going to survive.
BMW wants to survive.
Maybe An Escape Is In Your Future
The Ford Escape is going away, leaving the Maverick and Bronco Sport as the cheapest vehicles in Ford’s lineup. That’s weird. Eventually, Ford will fix this with cheapish electric cars.
In the interim, Ford is going to build enough Escapes (and Lincolns Corsair) to get through the rest of 2025 and 2026. That creates an opportunity for some buyers to grab a car that’s being discounted on the way out and that has a ton of parts support. As the Detroit Free Press points out, it’s all a matter of timing it out right:
“Much will depend on how consumers respond,” said Kevin Roberts, director of economic and market Intelligence at car shopping site CarGurus. “Historically, when a model ends production, demand tends to ease. That often means vehicles sit on dealer lots longer, which usually results in more incentives and discounts to help clear them out and make room for models still in production.”
But Edmunds’ auto industry expert Ivan Drury warns car buyers to not wait too long for that deal.
“As a consumer, you have a window of time to balance discounts and inventory available to get the right color and configuration,” Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. “Even if you don’t care about specifics and just want the best deal, don’t wait too long, at some point the automaker stops supplying discounts and the price you pay will be 100% determined by your negotiation skills and the dealerships willingness to sell at discount.”
Resale value will be lower, of course, but if you’re just looking for something decent and good that’ll last a while, then you could do worse than an Escape or Corsair.
The ‘Real’ Land Rover Defender Just Got Cheaper Because People Stopped Buying Them
I have a great fondness for our designer Adrian Clarke, so why would I write this subhead knowing that it’ll drive him to madness? Perhaps I’m just daring him to ship me the Ssangyong Rodius “piece by piece” as he’s threatened to do already this morning.
The Ineos Grenadier is a great off-roader, albeit a pricey one. The French-made truck got caught up in all this tariff business, but the incoming relaxation of trade barriers and the ongoing slide in Ineos sales have seemingly led to a price drop, as Automotive News reports:
“This adjustment reflects our commitment to meeting the competitive set and ensuring the Grenadier delivers exceptional value in its segment,” the spokesperson said in an email to Automotive News.
Pricing for the higher Trialmaster and Fieldmaster trims now starts at $80,600 , down 8.9 percent from the previous starting price of $88,500. The Grenadier in Trialmaster and Fieldmaster trims started at $84,700 before the new U.S. tariffs. All prices include shipping.
Pricing for the Ineos Grenadier Quartermaster pickup now starts at $86,000, down 9 percent from $94,500. The Quartermaster started at $85,500 prior to the tariffs, after a price cut from $96,500 in March. All prices include shipping.
A base price of $72,600 for the regular Grenadier isn’t bad, honestly — for all that style.
Škoda Has Been Reading My Dream Journal
While my love for Škoda may be well known and a little weird, everyone loves a Škoda Felicia Fun. The Czech version of a B.R.A.T., the Fun was a real truck that the company made. Could they make one again? That’s what the company is teasing with this render, which is just a render.
While Škoda’s history is filled with practical cars, it has also produced a number of cars purely for enjoyment. One of the most distinctive and truly original ones is the Felicia Fun pick-up truck, which followed earlier concepts such as the Favorit 781 Tremp and Favorit Fun. Unlike its predecessors, however, it took the “beach Škoda” idea all the way to series production.
The result was a cult automobile—one of the most unconventional production cars Škoda’s ever built. Now, French designer Julien Petitseigneur has envisioned how the Felicia Fun might look today through the lens of Modern Solid.
“The original car was pure fun. It didn’t take itself seriously and stood out, even by Škoda standards. For a light-hearted side project in my spare time, it was an obvious choice,” says the French designer explaining his choice. “I even got so immersed that I started thinking about buying the original,” he laughs.
I doubt Škoda will do it, given everything else, but I also think Škoda should do it.
C’mon, Škoda.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Have I not done a UGK song yet? That seems wrong. “Da Game Been Good To Me” is one way to fix that. RIP Pimp C.
The Big Question
What’s the most important BMW in the brand’s history?
Top photo: BMW
I love my BMW, but at this point, I’m done with them. I know this isn’t specific to them, but seem to emulate it to an extreme; once out of warranty, it’s a ticking time bomb of cost.
When they work, they are probably the best car to drive, hands down. But, then they don’t work. It’s the don’t work part that really gets me. Mine has rarely let me down, I will admit, but the cost of preventative maintenance to keep it that way is just not worth it to me anymore.
Great on warranty, a gamble off-warranty.
That’s what leasing is for. Give it back when the warranty is gone.
Most important BMW in the brand’s older history? Probably the 1602 and 2002, plus their variants. E30 and most of the 80s/90s cars really took that idea and brought it into the mainstream, but they were still fringe. Even the E39 5-series, which is amazing, was always a little on the rare side. These are the cars of “spiritual importance” in the foundation of the brand. But what about “commercial importance”? So I’ll say X5 and maybe X3 — both among their first in the segment, and both have won almost all comparison tests since then. They also taught people that you really can have a crossover that feels like a wagon, but with more headroom/space, easier entry/exit, and all the other stuff. The tradeoff in handling and efficiency has been minimal.
Most important BMW (to me), the E9. An early 70s 3.0 CS. I drool every time I see one on BaT
I say the 1982 320i for the same reason. Although my dad had a 1977 2002 that was magical….
The problem with BMW is the cars are so damn heavy. I didn’t even consider one because of how heavy they are and the fact I really dislike their current design language.
Regarding Ineos:
Is the model name really Trialmaster? I always see it spelled that way and wonder if it is a typo and should be Trailmaster. Because I’m guessing they aren’t building vehicles specifically for judges and lawyers?
at that base price, they might be.
The M1 is the car that made me care about BMW, so it is the most important.
I’m shocked that they’re going to axe the Corsair. I was actually thinking this yesterday on my ride – I see a lot of Lincoln Corsair’s in my area, and it is not a particularly affluent area by any stretch of the imagine – and these aren’t old models either, I’m seeing good chunks of new ones. I can’t really say I see many Cadillac CUVs, nor a large amount of BMW or Benz models in that segment either. But I do see Lincolns. It makes me think that if they penetrated a market that doesn’t normally have that range of vehicle in it, it can’t be doing all that bad.
Yeah, I had basically forgotten about Lincoln because I never saw them much, but the new batch seem to be killing it. I couldn’t tell you the lineup because they keep changing names, but they seem to have a really good portfolio right now.
It comes down to them needing the assembly plant and the Maverick/ Bronco Sport plant in Mexico doesnt have the capacity
I’m always shocked at the number of Buicks and Lincolns I see when I visit Michigan. They are basically nonexistent in Oregon.
The mainstream BOF SUVs and pickups are really good. And for most people IFS is a big plus even though I’m still not sold on IRS. So someone has to be pretty desperate to play cosplay in a costume that is a bit off and has the wrong name on it to buy an Ineos.
I recognise the words and even the syntax of most of your comment, but I do not understand anything.
Edit: I’m not trying to be a dick, I’m genuinely curious. I think I’m missing context, might have glossed over a paragraph or two.
Edit edit: never mind, Google helped me. Bof = body on frame, IFS = independent front suspension, IRS != internal revenue service, but independent rear suspension.
That first Skoda image looks like a fever dream after drinking about three too many pina coladas.
Man, I haven’t listened to UGK in a while. There goes my day.
There’s an Ineos dealer by me here in Seattle, and holy bananas do they have a ton of them just sitting there.
Probably not a good sign I just said, “The hell is an Ineos”
They advertise the crap out of them in my instagram feed. Looked cool enough for me to actually check it out…. but then it became obvious I was not the demographic they were going after.
Still looks cool though, at least it’s just a big box and not a big bloated box.
Isn’t there a Japanese gas station company named that?
Wait, there is a current model iX1 and they’re releasing a new car called the i3x? Neither of those is a typo?
BMW is throwing shade at Tesla by naming their electric models after Elon’s kids.
That’s gold Jerry! Gold!
Thanx. I needed a good belly laugh.
You win, take your prize!
Isn’t it kinda’ of odd that the Germans, who love jamming six, seven, eight words together to form a new word have a bunch of car companies who refuse to name their models – instead assigning them letter and numbers?
Fluggaenkoecchicebolsen is your safeword.
Wolkenkuckucksheim runs through my head a lot.
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. Das, of course.
Or in this case – BMW Individual M760Li xDrive Model V12 Excellence THE NEXT 100 YEARS.
It’s what the password generator came up with. All the cool manufacturers are using those these days.
I’d argue that the original M5 is up there. BMW showed the world you could make a 4-door sports car and it would sell well.
Most important BMW? The E30. It was exactly the right car at exactly the right time and cemented BMW’s place (in the hearts and minds of US drivers especially) in a way that previous cars hadn’t quite done. The E30 took BMW from niche in the US market to mainstream.
This is the BMW that made me fall in love with them. Bangle wounded it and mole rat teeth grill killed it.
I still haven’t forgiven BMW for the atrocities to my eyes of the e60 5 series and e65 7 series.
I’ve own two e36s and an owned an e39, my parents are on their third e38. They just look good and garner a surprising amount of attention. The e38 in particular, a lot of non car people have asked if it’s a new model as they really like the way it looks.
I agree. Its yuppie reputation in the ’80s made it way more common to see BMWs on TV or in movies than any previous model, and put BMWs in front of people who probably hadn’t seen them before.
I agree about the E30, except the Isetta saved the company from collapse, so even though I like the E30 way more, the Isetta is probably more historically important for the company
The E30 is awesome, I still gawk at them when I see one roll past.
Strange how now that I’m old enough to afford any car I would want, BMW never comes up on my radar.
They’re taking on the Model Y with a 2 door? Good luck.
None of the pictures look like a 2 door, so that description baffles me.
I was confused too. Maybe it’s actually two-*row*?
I think the actual most important BMW in history is probably the X5. There really wasn’t anything like it when it first hit the scene and it changed the market forever. It showed that it was possible to make a big crossover that was stylish, luxurious, and still had car-like sporty driving characteristics. Since then luxury crossovers have more or less become the default vehicle of the well to do.
The X5 wasn’t the only one (the Lexus RX was pretty influential as well) but it set the bar that luxury crossovers are measured against to this day. Through multiple generations it’s remained the gold standard of its class as well, and whenever people tell me they want an SUV and cost is a secondary or tertiary concern the X5 is always the first thing I recommend.
I’ve driven the current 40i as well as my dad’s X5 50e plenty of times and they’re delightful vehicles. They’re comfortable, they’re built like Fort Knox, every single surface feels high quality, they’re effortlessly fast, and they have more than enough space for whatever you need. Plus the standard engine is a B58, which has a resume that speaks for itself and sounds delightful.
Anyway as a bit of a fanboy I’m nervous about both the iX3 and the future of BMW. Over the last few years they’ve really changed their strategy. Abandoning enthusiasts to the extent they have disappoints all of us, but unfortunately it’s a sound business decision. That being said they’ve leaned so hard into appealing to the conspicuous consumption crowd and a Chinese market that wants the loudest, ugliest, most tech addled cars that can be manufactured that I think they’re in a precarious place.
The conspicuous consumption crowd is fickle. BMWs may be hot right now, but that can change at the drop of a hat in the social media era. Those people also lease cars and crave something new every 2-3 years. The second some doofus on Tik Tok or whatever is posing in front of the latest and greatest shiny object that’ll be that. Look what’s happening to Tesla.
2-3 years ago they were status symbols that the voracious consumers lusted after. Now they’re a pariah and you can get a used one for 20 grand. With regard to China the issues are twofold-there can always be uglier, more obnoxious, more expensive cars to crush the poors with and the Chinese government heavily subsidizes their homegrown manufacturers. I don’t think anyone is going to be able to compete in their EV conspicuous consumption arms race much longer.
At the end of the day I think the BMW brass is correct. They’re going to need a hit and for better or worse they’ve decided to put all their eggs in the EV basket. They took a more cautious and gradual approach to getting there, which has prevented the disasters that are going on at Mercedes and VAG currently…but this is it. They’re almost fully moving away from ICE at this point.
We’ll see if it works. I think something that’s lost in the current culture war septic tank is the fact that EVs are getting pretty damn good now and as a result some can compete with ICE vehicles on their merits and price alone. I know it’s not necessarily an enthusiast vehicle, but look at the Cadillac Optiq. You can get a nice one in the mid 50s, it has 300 miles of range, an NACS port, a gorgeous interior, and interesting styling.
If I was looking at an X3, Q5, etc. I’d absolutely go check one out, and I think people will. If the iX3 can stand on its own merits at a fair price I think it will succeed…but with the way BMW is talking I doubt it will. Ze Germans have quadrupled down on technology despite no one really wanting it other than China and they’re already talking about how this will be a tech tour de force.
I don’t think people want that anymore. I think they want regular cars that happen to be electric. I swear I’m not here to hype up the Cadillac EVs but take a look at their interiors. The screens are normal sized, there are normal buttons on the steering wheels, there are physical controls for AC, the materials are nice, and it’s not some stupid overdone tech arms race with mood lighting everywhere.
I think that’s what people want and I believe the market will speak very soon. The reasons not to get an EV are decreasing very quickly, and I think people will keep buying more and more. To be honest this is probably how it should’ve gone…don’t force them down peoples’ throats, take your time fully baking the products, and let the market decide.
X5? I think that was the start of uglification of BMWs. Did they share designers with SsangYong, or was it just the times?
The OG X5 was probably the last BMW designed before Bangle and leans heavily on a taller E39 design. SsangYong never had a design team, just a budget photocopier.
I’d argue the W163 M Class was the first mover in that space. Definitely got affluent people out of their cars and into upscale SUV’s.
Jeep and Rover had been doing what the ML did for 15 years before Mercedes tried it, and the Japanese marques had all put out similar vehicles a few years before the ML came out as well (Mercedes even initially went to one of them with the idea of codesigning it before striking out on their own). BMW and Lexus were the ones who caused the paradigm shift in the segment towards what it looks like today.
True!
but MB did it well, unlike Jeep (not upscale enough) and Rover (piles of crap)
The Geländewagen came out in 1979
And isn’t relevant to the conversation until the 1990s when the W463 came out; well after the SJ Cherokee and Range Rover had been repositioned on the market from farm and ranch vehicles into high end luxury cars.
Well there were a lot of privately imported first generation Geländewagens in NYC and Long Island in the 80s, although they were more a sort of Land Rover series 2 thing. A remarkable number had foreign plates but they were all over. I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that they are “luxury” cars.
Tesla is a special case with Elon getting involved in politics the way he did. Nothing like angering two of your company’s important markets to tank sales. The vehicles themselves are generally brilliantly engineered. They would probably be selling just fine if Elon had shut his trap.
I think there’s ample evidence to suggest that “brilliantly engineered” is a bit of a stretch
Range figures that other companies are catching up to only recently, much better space utilization than other Western EV’s, and a charging ecosystem that works darn close to 100% of the time the first time is pretty brilliant to me. Now build quality, on the other hand….
That’s what I was getting at. The batteries, charging, motors, etc…top notch, not even I will deny that. But the roof might fly off without warning, the panels won’t fit properly, and if you’re dumb enough to use autopilot it might eviscerate a child.
I get ya. Build quality is not a Tesla strong suit.
Often, brilliantly engineered means trying to solve all the problems at the same time with all new technology. Those tend to be a failure, one way or another because there are so many ways to fail the original Shadow Can-Am car for example or the Tucker Torpedo or the Corvair.
Elon was spending so much effort trying to reinvent the automobile factory that I think the car itself was an afterthought sometimes.
Oh, that reminds me the Chevrolet Vega, brilliant engineering, enormous effort into reinventing the manufacturing process, new casting processes and alloys, and even redesigning the trains that shipped them So many ways to fail.
Since when was it a crossover? It is an SUV.
The X5 was the progenitor of the premium car-based SUV; designed hand-in-hand with the L322 Range Rover and built off of a lot of the bones of the E39 5-Series. Whether or not being with a longitudinal engine disqualifies it as being a crossover vs the more “typical” FWD transverse descendants of the Toyota Harrier/Rav-4 depends on what hairs you want to split.
I guess I am wrong in technicality but I never understood the whole BOF argument for SUVs.
I recall GM doing a drivers day thing where they set up a huge lot full of GM and the competitions cars and let you drive them side by side. I recall the X5 being lightyears more fun to drive than the comparison vehicle, an early Escalade. But, I also recall the strangely large number of complaints about Air suspension quirks, transmissions that shifted hard or not at all and of course Variable Valve timing failures. All seemed like I dodged a bullet pre-2006. but then GM went ahead and did the AFM thing and followed down the ruinous design flaws route as well.
Right, nobody knew about BMW until X5 came out.
The only reason X5 sold well is BWM was already known because of making other great cars and they wanted a crossover with BMW badge
I hope this is successful for BMW. We need BMW. They still sell cars that are fun to drive. They sell cars in a wide array of great colors, and if you don’t like the colors, they offer a bunch of additional custom colors that can be ordered. Their electric stuff is also fun to drive and some of their electrified models don’t scream “I’m an EV” in their design (see the i4 and i5). They make EV cars, not just SUV’s.
That said, I’m always shocked with the breadth and depth of their model line. Few others offer that many options. They have 19 car and suv models in the US, plus the M versions. I don’t know how they are profitable doing that.
Agreed! It used to be “one sausage, three length” for BMW & Mercedes. BUR for a manufacturer who gave us the beautiful old 3,0 coupe, the fabulous shark nose first gen 6 series coupes, the 2002 (not enough love for it in the comments; I was in college in the 80s and for those whose parents weren’t spoiling them with the 320i or the brand new e30, there was the 2002), the iconic e30, the super powered M3 line… why did they hit most all of their current cars with an ugly stick?
I saved up and bought my 1988 325i convertible after college. Kept it 17 years. Cost me a lot in maintenance. Donated it to church when I finally needed a 4 door; the secretary bought it and kept it at least another 13 years.
Ford Taurus, Flex, Edge, Fusion, and now the Escape enter the graveyard of Ford recent great products that were killed because of profits or not putting the neccesary effort into them. Are they going to survive selling F150s, Mavericks and Broncos?
I just don’t get Ford. You can only buy a Bronco 2 door V6 in the Stroppe Edition at 76k. They don’t have a EREV F-150, no hybrid Bronco, and got rid of the hybrid Explorer. What are they trying to do?
Who the fuck is the buyer for a $76,000 non Raptor Bronco anyway? Similar things you can get for that money include but are not limited to:
1). A G Class, including a nice enough used AMG
2). A Lexus GX
3). A Grenadier
4). A well equipped Defender
5). A well equipped X5
6). A sparsely equipped Cayenne
7). Not my cup of tea, but a Hummer EV
…or a special edition Ford. Okay…
None of those are American, nuff said.
The Hummer EV sure is
It is, but it’s a $100k american car. So, IMHO, falls into another category. But, yes, you are right.
The X5 is very American – go check out the factory in Spartanburg, SC
It is very much, and I get what you are saying. But, my point is that “Americans” buy American cars, if that makes sense.
The Passat I had was built in Tennessee, by American labor.
Since many “American” cars are built in Mexico/Canada, when people “buy American”, I wonder, are they shopping specific models that they know get built in a US plant or just devotedly going to the big 3, like it’s the 70s and buying cars built by foreign labor?
Sell you an $80k F150, that’s what they’re trying to do.
American manufacturers think they can survive on the Truck Industrial Complex alone at this point. It’s dumb. No one can actually afford massive body on frame vehicles at their current prices, so in order to charge even more, sell bigger and more optioned out trucks, and make the line go up they’re having to offer longer and longer loan terms.
With the economy one social media rampage and a couple of impulse firings from Trump away from collapse, you don’t need to be a financial advisor to see that this is a very bad idea that will backfire. But the Fords of the world don’t care. We’re more or less in the second Greed Is Good era. All they care about is their next earnings call.
I personally hope we don’t bail them out this time, but that’s just me.
We didn’t bail Ford out last time. GM and Chrysler, yes, but Ford had secured enough credit through a restructuring effort prior to 2008 to not completely collapse.
Yes, we did. Even Ford admitted that without GM and Chrysler they would have been up a creek. All of their suppliers would have gone out of business.
Ford got more than $10 billion in loans to keep operating. That qualifies as a bailout to me.
You know, I too thought that exact thing back in 2018 when Ford axed all their cars except the Mustang. I’ve also thought that we’re on the precipice of a huge crash for the better part of a decade. Yet here we are. Seems that the markets don’t give 2 craps about the potential tidal wave of stuff. I’m certainly not saying you’re wrong but it seems to world just keeps spinning no matter what trump says or does (which is troubling in its own right).
The majority of americans are pretty dumb when it comes to money. They don’t care about the cost of things, only the payments.
It wasn’t so long ago that a 42 month loan was ‘long’. Now that’s just half a loan, and leasing is huge.
Who cares how much something costs if you never plan on owning it and just make payments forever?
All of those were killed because of needed production capacity for new products that sell at higher margins. Taurus was killed for more Explorer, Edge was more Super Duty, Fusion was Bronco Sport/Maverick. Focus was for Bronco/Ranger. LAP is the only plant where the Escape/Corsair is made at. It’s the one that’s getting re-tooled for the new affordable EV Ford to launch new EV platform and pickup at Louisville Assembly Plant | Business | wdrb.com
Both the Escape and Corsair are made in other assembly plants around the world. In normal times Ford would just import them.
Maybe? They didn’t do that with the focus, fiesta, Mondeo or taurus when those were killed off. IMO the Escape fills that Fleet niche, but retail customers prefer the Bronco Sport. Anecdotal but I see almost 2-1 Bronco sports vs current gen Escape, and I used to work at Ford Plant until March of this year, so my data is heavily skewed towards seeing Fords.
Ford planned to import the Focus Active from China when they stopped making it in the USA (To free up the assembly plant to make the Bronco) Trump’s tariff war with China in his first term killed that idea. (It also killed Cadillac’s plan to continue importing the CT6)
In normal economic times you import niche models from their primary market and focus domestic production on the most popular models in a country. If you are are limited by tariffs to domestic production those niche models just get canceled.
There is also a limit for niche models due to the cost of homologation. That could change in the future if the US and EU really do start accepting both standards.
The e30 3-series is the car that truly made BMW. It took what was started with the 2002 and honed it too what it needed to be to have broad appeal.
Funnily enough it was the Isetta that truly made BMW!
Saved them post WWII certainly. But it’s not the Isetta that comes to mind when one thinks of the “Ultimate Driving Machine” and made them the darling of the Yuppie set.
The E30s were everywhere in the 80s, and they looked amazing compared to the mundane offerings of the time.
I love e30s and owned a pair of them back in the day, but I don’t know that I would call a very plain inside and out German box “amazing looking” (I do love Germain plain though). But they are damned good cars and worthy of the reputation. They were expensive cars and looked the part in a very understated way.
I always thought the New Class cars really got the recipe down, and the 1600 really was probably the best looking. The 2002 was about the best, then they started the various E models, and they seemed flabby in comparison.
I think that pulling the engines out of used 2002s and making 1,100hp F1 engines out of them was pretty audacious.
There was nothing flabby about a six-cylinder e30. Only in the US was the e21 (we never got the sixes) and early four-cylinder e30 a step down from the 2002 due to our emissions laws of the time. The 1600/2002 have their vintage charms, but the succeeding generations moved the game on considerably.
I was referring to to the styling.
The 2002 is so much prettier.
And there it is. The Germans, and BMW especially, have shown that they simply do not know when to stop. Doesn’t matter how good the drivetrain/tech of the car is, if you make it look and drive like some kind of Venusian intergalactic transport vessel it’s going to be DoA. Tesla, for better or worse, has set the standard when it comes to an EV and people have shown that they prefer simplicity.
You seem to be mistaking simplicity and stupidity. Literally no one I know who has owned a Tesla LIKES the user interface. They put up with it because there used to be no good alternatives. And despite knowing nine people who HAVE owned them, none of them own Teslas currently.
Not that I expect modern BMW to do anything much better, but at least it will probably have *some* buttons and knobs along with the screens, screens, screens, screens and more screens.
I’m not really referring to the interface, more so just the overall design.
The engineering was great – they were better than anyone else for a long time – but the rest of the industry has caught up there. The design in terms of looks is boring (3 and Y) to terrible (Cyberturd), to just kind of stupid (X)with the exception of the Model S, which while a good looking car is just a pastiche of EVERY European luxury sedan of the time blended together. And now really, really old hat.
I would have been perfectly comfortable using the terms “ultra modern and tech forward” to describe Tesla’s for the first many years of their sales. Thats why Tech Bro’s bought them in droves originally. Those are also factors that really resonate in the Chinese market in particular, which is why Tesla was so strong there for a while. But the Chinese domestic market has surpassed Tesla in “cool tech in cars”.
Tesla got the basic car right. they are constantly getting the interior wrong. Turn signal stalks, gear selectors, steering yokes etc.
Agreed with your last point. The rest of the car makes up for the touchscreen-centric interface. Which is fine with a smattering of stalks and buttons for everyday things. Hard nope on having steering wheel controls for turn signals or headlights. GM kind of did that in the pre-airbag era by covering the steering wheel hub with lots of small buttons for things on some more expensive models. They kept the stalks, though. Everyone hated it then too! The buttons changed position and being 1980’s GM didn’t work consistently.
*sigh* “Ultra-modern” and “tech-forward”. Great. Two things are guaranteed to push up the price and screw over future owners. I wonder if they’ve ever actually connected “what people say they want in a car” with “what people are willing/able to pay for”. I think that BMW, like pretty much every other car company, has not done that comparison.
Can I pay an extra $10K and get a “tech-backward” car where the money is spent on durability and usability?
This is one of the best suggestions I’ve seen. I am very happy to spend extra for quality and simplicity.
If any modern manufacturer can make a vehicle to compete with Tesla, it’s BMW. Sure, their current stable is fuggly as hell, but if anyone can do it, it’s them. This also opens the door to a modern reinterpretation of “The Ultimate Driving Machine”.
If they don’t pull it off, then they’ll likely have to take on new investments in the company to keep them operating. On the other hand, Hyundai/Kia have one hell of a great electric vehicle platform, who will likely be able to compete on price, and most certainly on volume as well.
i3x? 2 doors? Is this the iX3?
I mean, don’t get me wrong, a 2dr BMW EV focused on range (and driving fun) sounds like a great time. But, that’s never happening from the BMW that exists now.
In VW’s convoluted ownership structure, the Porsche family still holds a massive stake. And likely a many Porsche-related people through their Sr management still remain after the diesel gate sweep.