Bloomberg: BMW's Stalled Growth Engine Opens Way to Luxury-Car Top Spot

[DDD31]

     Featured on BIMMERPOST.com

Interesting article describing the current state of affairs at BMW:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...y-car-top-spot

Excerpt:
"After filling all the niches from the 1-Series compact to the 7-Series, BMW’s pipeline looks thin. Chief Executive Officer Harald Krueger, in the job for almost a year, so far hasn’t laid out a strategy that can capture the imagination of customers and investors."

[Sassicaia]

filling every niche vs sticking to what made them great to begin with is the obvious issue in my opinion.

[overcoil]

They quote analyst, so that gives the article gravitas. On the flip side, 'Car' magazine U.K. ranks the new 7-series higher then the S-class if your the driver.
And 'Car' is very impressed by the i3 which they find appealing for being a vehicle 20 or 30 years ahead of it's time.
'Car' is probably one of the more influential forces, maybe not what they were done years back and maybe a string British bias, but still I think influential.

[Flying Ace]

Well, it's relative here. The entire car industry is going through the same issues BMW is. Good read, but not enough details of what it means to be at the "worst point of its relative product cycle".

Maybe being at the end of a cycle is a good thing, as it appears the industry has already pivoted into PHEVs, EVs and semi-automation. To me, BMW is on pace to keep up. True, they haven't hedged and completely gone all out on PHEVs, EVs and auto, but that'll completely redefine a brand, something that is very risky and reserved for a company that is struggling and need to reinvent itself (Mitsubishi and a few GM Brands comes to mind). But I don't see MB being an innovator in the industry either.

Also keep in mind, BMW doesn't have the resources a Toytoa, VW, GM or Fiat group can throw at these new things, so BMW will always appear to be playing catchup.

Just to give you an idea of the relative terms here.... in 2013 the top auto sales (excluding commerical trucks and buses and such are as follows, rough numbers):

1. VW 9.3m
2. Toyota 8.5m
3. Hyundai 6.9m
4. GM 6.7m
5 Honda 4m
.......
12. BMW 2m
......
14. Daimler 1.6m

[martin mustang]

Not a surprise when both the 3 and the 5 series biggest selling models are both toward the end of the their current models life cycle, the C class new model was out in 2014 and the E class out this year, Merc also scored by going back to normal hatch back with the A class over the BMW 1 series.
On the long run I be the 1st one to admit I rather have BMW in 2nd place, I always believed that quality and identity tend to always be the victims of success, front wheel drive cars and the series 2 people carrier are a clear signs of a focus wider than what it used to be and should be, i.e. the Marketing guys calling the shots rather then the engineers, this can only be bad for what BMW is known for, the driving machines!
Plus Volume is always a killer for quality regardless of how good a company is, it is simply a human factor even the Japanese known for mastering performance at high volume due their culture they somehow managed to screw up, just check Honda big recall couple of years ago.

[E91WAG3N]

"Part of the reason BMW lacks near-term growth drivers is that it’s already occupying just about every segment it can, even pushing into people carriers with the van-like Gran Tourer. That creates a difficult challenge for Krueger, who at 50 years old is the youngest CEO of a major automaker, as he tries to shift the company from its roots emphasizing acceleration and handling to tackle the transformation of the car into a smartphone on wheels."

And this is exactly what's wrong with cars today and in the future. The best cars ever built are behind us, not ahead of us.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by Sassicaia

filling every niche vs sticking to what made them great to begin with is the obvious issue in my opinion.

well the issue is being a public company or have major investors asking for revenue, income, returns growth targets of "x". That's a lot of pressure for being a public company or a company with major private equity money.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by ubersteuer

"Part of the reason BMW lacks near-term growth drivers is that it’s already occupying just about every segment it can, even pushing into people carriers with the van-like Gran Tourer. That creates a difficult challenge for Krueger, who at 50 years old is the youngest CEO of a major automaker, as he tries to shift the company from its roots emphasizing acceleration and handling to tackle the transformation of the car into a smartphone on wheels."

And this is exactly what's wrong with cars today and in the future. The best cars ever built are behind us, not ahead of us.

yep, exactly. And to add, most car buyers in the world are not like us on this forum. They want every e-feature you can cram into a car and pay next to nothing for it in a nice and attractive design. That's why Kia and Hyundai is killing it in sale growth. Pretty soon, everyone will be fighting for a smaller overall pie. The numbers are troubling, millenials (at least in the US) are driving and owning less cars. Hell, many don't even have license. Car sharing/rentals/taxis are more popular now as populations are moving to urban, and the tastes have changed from "motoring" to a cushy office-on-wheels, driving itself type product.

[E91WAG3N]

Originally Posted by Flying Ace

yep, exactly. And to add, most car buyers in the world are not like us on this forum. They want every e-feature you can cram into a car and pay next to nothing for it in a nice and attractive design. That's why Kia and Hyundai is killing it in sale growth. Pretty soon, everyone will be fighting for a smaller overall pie. The numbers are troubling, millenials (at least in the US) are driving and owning less cars. Hell, many don't even have license. Car sharing/rentals/taxis are more popular now as populations are moving to urban, and the tastes have changed from "motoring" to a cushy office-on-wheels, driving itself type product.

We are absolutely in a 1% minority as enthusiasts. It's a blessing in disguise as driving a car as we know it today will only be done by people who truly want to drive. Everyone else can be whisked around in their iRobot cars while those of us who actually enjoy driving will have the roads to ourselves.

[Flying Ace]

Originally Posted by ubersteuer

We are absolutely in a 1% minority as enthusiasts. It's a blessing in disguise as driving a car as we know it today will only be done by people who truly want to drive. Everyone else can be whisked around in their iRobot cars while those of us who actually enjoy driving will have the roads to ourselves.

haha, that's just one vision, the complete opposite can also happen in which irobot cars and lanes will dominate the avialable space, the people operated cars and available lanes will have minimum space in today's urban areas.

IMO, I think complete automation will not happen in our lifetimes. Mostly b/c of the liablity issues, not the technology. Passenegers have to sign away liability for a computer program that decides it's in the best interest to kill one occupant over another in an unavoidable collision.

In our liftimes, we're probably moving towards pure EV ownership and semi-autonomous lanes to manage congestion and emissions. And the only fossil fuel cars remaining would be 100% fossil fueled-sports cars (b/c it's impossible to replace the experience, similar to what horseback riding is today), commerical trucks and PHEV for the rural suburban populations.

[Flying Ace]

haha, breaking news...
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-go...-idUSKCN0W22DG