[FogCityM3]

BMW rested on its laurels and essentially tried to be the brand of all things for all people. Sure it sells a lot more cars and makes more money in the short run. However it has abandoned its core performance roots, which is how they ascended in the first place. You don't see Porsche having this issue and even the SUVs are very fun vehicles to drive.

A lot of people believe the magazine opinions are driven by ad dollars, but just drive the cars over the generations and judge for yourself....there is a lot that has been lost and competition has caught up. Instead reinvestment occurred in the i-brand which is flailing with low sales relative to the investment in capital and talent. ///M is no longer a separate company, retains very little autonomy and the hardcore ///M engineers and supportive execs have pretty much left the company.

It is clear that the M2 was developed in a way that directly responded to the mistakes made and critical dis-acclaim with the M4, so at least there is some recognition of the issues internally, but question is will it continue beyond 1-2 good models.