[georgere]

Originally Posted by GMe90

Agree 100 percent. Forum members have been saying this for years. By going more mainstream and turning into a German Toyota, BMW abandoned the very competitive edge that made BMW successful in the first place. Modern BMWs are soft, disconnected, and overpriced. That's a recipe for failure. $55k for a four cylinder 3 series, with no manual transmission, dead steering, and questionable reliability is crazy.

Yep, not just about 3 series but across the entire range they have been doing things that people don't like once tried. For instance putting m badges on regular series without giving those much of M anything, or wrapping mini coopers into bmw skin and selling it as a BMW.

They don't seem to learn from mistakes. They should look into what other people do with BMW, for example alpina - they take this half baked products and make them into very good machines. Or look into other tuners. For some reasons bmw have become unsatisfying machines unless you do something to them. Why not do this right from the beginning?

[MrPorter]

Originally Posted by ShawnPaul

So partnering with Benz, strengthening manufacturing in places like Mexico, having embarrassing recalls like the cracked engine blocks in the M5 and the fuse panel fires in an unbelievable amount of vehicles didn't keep his job safe? lol

Not here to agree or disagree with anything you just said, but I can't help but feel like your criticisms are misdirected if they're considering the head of production for his replacement.

[uniqueMR]

Had a feeling Krueger won't stay for long

[CP911]

Krueger is just the scapegoat here. As if this guy single-handedly is the reason there has been a "downturn in profitability" since 2016. Totally ridiculous. But I guess that's what you sign up for as the CEO of an automaker. Poor fellow!

And all this because of self-driving cars and ride-sharing technologies!

[DCG]

You must allow Designers freedom to express them selves to make cooler looking and more aggressive vehicles!

You can't be timid in today's market. The competition is catching up.

Cool and exciting electric cars sure. But first you got to FIX the fuggly looking grills!

*And BMW needs to STOP deleting the Mounting Brackets on the roofs!

[SweEngineer]

Obviously things have gone a bit soft with the brand, but this has also been going on for a good while.
Of course strategies are strategies and selling more cars are more favorable than selling to enthusiasts only.
But being a luxury brand like BMW, things shouldn't go that far as making the F-series completely disconnected. Some might disagree but completely my opinion.

Part of the BMW aura is the straight 6 cyl petrol engine. But making it such an expansive option (60k and up) comparing to the E-series era has actually made it hard to consider a BMW many times.
The 4 cyl petrol engines are actually no fun or good in a bmw no matter how punchy they are.
I wonder for how long people are actually going to pay for these low mark engines. I made the mistake to buy a 428xi and believe it or not I'm swithing to pure electric. I'd rather drive electric with more punch for the same money and get rid of the sewing machine. From now on, I'm only buying an ICE if it's a performance car.

Considering the EV aproach...well EV is obviously the future. BMW should introduce a pure EV model for every product in the range. BMW is actually doing this with the X3i and i4. Now the rest of the lineup needs this option also.

Also, please give us a good steering rack. This is getting ridiculous.

[hans007]

clearly the answer is more CUVs/SUVs and less sports cars / convertibles and coupes that almost no one buys!

And less combinations and colors that raise costs like red seats, and manual transmissions!

[N & M]

BMW achieved its luxury crown on the basis of product substance segment leadership and innovation. All these attributes especially the latter are lacking today.

The role of a CEO is to ensure the relevance and brilliance of the company’s product and service and to be frank that is lacking today.

Moreover, there has been a steady brain drain from BMW ranks of good people since his tenure and that is a sign of lack of inspiration and confidence.

Whatever happens, i hope things change for the better for this brand i trully love.

[clee1982]

EVs are inevitable and even if the car drives brilliantly the driverless system needs to be top of the class since that's where the industry is going.

Ride sharing is a real threat. If car makers don't do something, a lot of the new generation will just treat car makers as a hardware maker/manufacturer. Look at the smart phone, manufacturing the final phone is the lowest part of the value chain.

[MachinesWithSouls]

You don't have to look far to find the problem, it's right in the logo.

Ultimate Driving Machine.

That's a promise that no longer seems to make sense when you're talking about autonomous vehicles, but it's the very foundation of the company.

Regardless of what BMW you drive, the promise is that it'll be fun. As they waver back and forth between electric, petrol, luxury, M, i, and X, it seems that none of the products are getting the full attention they deserve.

[GOLFFRR]

had to chuckle at the grill comment. classic

[CntryClub007]

One thing I didn't hear yet...the model lineup incrementality & BMW service. Do we think that the model lineup is contributing to the overall price increase on all vehicles?

For example, I remember back in the good ole days, it was high volume 3/5/7 series, X5, X3. I'm not saying that it is wrong to grow beyond that as many vehicles have different design attributes, but these other lines tend to be of lower volume. 4GC, 1/2/6 series etc...

I can only assume it has raised costs, tooling capital, resource development, obviously people purchase the cars, but it seems like the entire brand (not just low volume vehicles) hit this "charge high prices" mentality in 2012-2016, and then went into ludacris mode from 2017-2020.

It's hard because for the all around player, I do believe that they make a great product (driving style, interior, design layout, infotainment). I am sick of having to mod to the moon and back to have fun in these cars though.

BMW Service obviously makes a shitload of money, do we anticipate that profit center to be reduced as they make a shift to pure EV? As a non-EV owner, what requires servicing on these EV's?

[Nahlem]

I guess they can blame they CEO if they want, but it is the board of the company that sets the strategy with the owners interest in mind. The CEO is just there to enforce it and run the day to day operations to reach that goal which has been set by the board and owners.

This is nothing new. They are using the CEO as a scapegoat for some of the failures of BMW recently, although I think BMW has been going strong with their game. But, as of late, they might have lost some touch.

For example, I hardly think BMW's approach to the electric market is fast, they are actually quite slow in adapting to this market. Only now when the regulations have become tougher and tougher do they realize their mistake in not going for electric cars earlier. Reality is going to start to sink in more as more people start switching over to EVs, for better or for worse.

Companies that said not too long ago that there is still a future for their diesel and petrol cars now paying the price and have to admit defeat. History once again repeats itself with the big brands too slow to react to an ever changing market. The BMW board went on about keeping the diesel and petrol engines while watering down its premium brand by introducing so many models that it is ridiculous (this by all means has been their biggest mistake so far). "Hey lets slap an M badge on it, and call it a day."

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Try fooling me a third time and well this is the result we are seeing now.

[MParallel]

Originally Posted by Pyrat 2

Agree. It took years for the full impact of this to hit. And here we are. I've been exclusive BMW since 2000 and as time progressed it's been harder and harder to find a model that hits their old roots of the ultimate driving machine. ...

I'm so glad I bought my (Euro) low mileage E36 M3 3.2 back in 2013. Driving that car still feels special every time, even though by today's standards, it's not that fast (not that it is slow either).

Seeing that M3 badge on the back is nice, although the barrage of M logo's, have diluted this in a pretty big way.

[Wills2]

The car industry is going through change, it's not just BMW. Yet, VW aren't in rude health, neither are Tesla or JLR or Ford, etc.

I'll guess this board issue is being driven by the Quandt family no one else has the power to push for change at that level.

But it's rarely about one man/woman at the top, too many variables for one person to be held accountable for success or failure.

If he's struggling to command authority then I suspect he's never had their full support in the first place.

[Zirenz2006]

With some of the comments its almost as if some didn't read the article.

[Fuller]

Originally Posted by phantom7835

Maybe this can mean a return to exciting cars.

Sure, if you get excited about electric vehicles, autonomous driving, ride sharing, and partnerships with other big corporations to invest in these areas.

[MarcWinNJ]

It not hard to see how this has happened. In fact if you're a BMW loyalist, I have been since 1999, the decline was predicted. It started with the change in service scope. I remember when you could pull up to a BMW dealer and get your oil topped off if you were under warranty/service coverage. Then they dropped the wipers blade replacements to one per lease. Recently the change that service plans don't follow a change in ownership - stupid. Follow this with way too many models. Moving to a 3 and 4 series for 2 and 4 door differentiation only to make a Gand Coupe 4 door version of the 2 door series. WTF. BMW is trying to be too many things to too many people. I just turned in my M4 couple and took over an M4 convertible lease - shorter term. When its up who knows. I also have a 2001 M Roadster S54 in the garage. Does she stay or go, time will tell.

[clee1982]

Originally Posted by CntryClub007

One thing I didn't hear yet...the model lineup incrementality & BMW service. Do we think that the model lineup is contributing to the overall price increase on all vehicles?

For example, I remember back in the good ole days, it was high volume 3/5/7 series, X5, X3. I'm not saying that it is wrong to grow beyond that as many vehicles have different design attributes, but these other lines tend to be of lower volume. 4GC, 1/2/6 series etc...

I can only assume it has raised costs, tooling capital, resource development, obviously people purchase the cars, but it seems like the entire brand (not just low volume vehicles) hit this "charge high prices" mentality in 2012-2016, and then went into ludacris mode from 2017-2020.

It's hard because for the all around player, I do believe that they make a great product (driving style, interior, design layout, infotainment). I am sick of having to mod to the moon and back to have fun in these cars though.

BMW Service obviously makes a shitload of money, do we anticipate that profit center to be reduced as they make a shift to pure EV? As a non-EV owner, what requires servicing on these EV's?

BMW makes money on service? Or is it the dealer? I would think the latter.

[CntryClub007]

Originally Posted by clee1982

BMW makes money on service? Or is it the dealer? I would think the latter.

Both, if dealers aren't servicing as many vehicles because they don't require it, dealers are going to need to know how that money comes in elsewhere. I'm sure they could walk outside and uncover a few rocks and find something...or shake the tree out front / get a bucket of water from the waterfall etc...

Service is probably the last thing to think about here, but more curious.

[Cortexiphan]

Originally Posted by phantom7835

Maybe this can mean a return to exciting cars.

Actually it's the opposite. BMW are making exciting cars now.

But some are concerned that they won't adapt well into the new era of electric cars and ride sharing.

[Cortexiphan]

It's time for everybody to take this as confirmation for their own bias.
"That's because of the huge grills"
"That's because they're moving away from Manual"
"That's because they use hard plastic under the door"