Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls
The problem with all these new entries is it's too little too late. First, and this is the main factor, is that the go-to brands have been established. Second, these new entrants are building cars like it's still 2000 and unfortunately for them, the segment has evolved and moved on.
Companies like Cadillac and Jaguar are in this for the sales and money, anything else (exclusivity right Cadillac?) is pure bullshit because they can't move units.
I hate when reviews say stuff like this is the 3-Series killer or "game over for everything in the class". What constitutes it as a "killer"? I'm sure they said the same thing about the ATS and how's that doing? It's going to be the same for the XE. I'm not saying that BMW is the be-all-end-all car in this segment but numbers don't lie. You don't "kill" the 3-Series because you got a hard-on when driving it. You kill when you're on top and the only way you get on top is if you outsell it.
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I have to add some more to your comment. Being an owner of several 3-Series and having extensive driving experience with them since the late 1970's I think what you fail to understand is the Roundel mystique has much to do with sales numbers for the 3-Series. Yeah, it's a good car in the current company it keeps with the Lexus, Benz, Audi, and Infinity. But if you've experienced the downturn in driving experience since the E21 as I have, you'll come to understand that Lexus and Acura had more influence over the 3-Series than those two cars had been influenced by the 3-er. Lexus and Acura brought the "luxury" connotation to the 3-Series class.
The E21 and E30 were far far from luxury vehicles. They were the ultimate driving machines to coin the phrase (they earned that phrase) but had little in the way of luxury (outside of electric door locks and power windows - in the USA versions at least). Neither had adjustable steering wheels, in fact it was BMW's adage at the time that the design of the car was such that the placement of the seat (throughout its adjustment range) in relationship to the steering wheel was such that it dictated the correct driving position. Lexus and Acura have driven the 3-Series to the soft, degraded driver's car that it has become.
It was BMW's engineering principles in the 70's and 80's that the design of the car and the handling dynamics were developed to make you a better driver and a safer driver because the thought of day was to avoid accidents in the first place rather than survive them as an afterfact. It was through design of the greenhouse for excellent visibility, mirror placement for excellent situational awareness, use of the proper color and light temperature of the gauge cluster to avoid eye fatigue, and intuitive design and placement of the controls to lesson distraction from the driving act, and braking and handling to allow for decisive avoidance movements without losing control of the vehicle. It went even so far as to place a clock in front of the driver so as to avoid the need of looking away from the road to read your watch. None of these principles are present in a modern day BMW. Fuck around with the I-drive all you want and hope the airbags save you when the automatic braking and cruise control fail to avoid an accident (caused by your inattentiveness to the act of driving...).