Last week, BMW chairman Norbert Reithofer confirmed a shocking rumor showing that the “ultimate driving machine” maker will no longer keep the front wheel drive temptation in MINI’s leash and is going to use it on some of its own cars.
Ok, we got the picture: Business is business - BMW wants to take full advantage of the growing small segment of the automotive market. That is why the company will introduce a new range, situated below the 1 Series, sharing the new architecture with MINI and throwing it in the Audi A1’s face. As long as the carmaker keeps giving birth to M versions and other goodies, we could live with that...maybe.
But here’s one thing we can’t take: during a conference call held last week, Reithofer told reporters and analysts that 80 percent of BMW 1-Series customers think that their car is front wheel drive, as autonews.com reports. The CEO added that the statistic surprised the company’s officials, but it came as a good news, as it shows that customers will not consider the upcoming entry-level model a renegade and that the carmaker’s plan to sell up to 1 million front wheel drive MINIs and BMWs by 2015 is viable.
Does Reithofer really expects us to believe that the information is just a statistic showing how complex the profile of the premium automotive customer is? Does he think that no one besides his employees has heard of the word “marketing” ? If you ask us, It looks like BMW doesn't know the meaning of the "trying to hard" expression...
Ok, we got the picture: Business is business - BMW wants to take full advantage of the growing small segment of the automotive market. That is why the company will introduce a new range, situated below the 1 Series, sharing the new architecture with MINI and throwing it in the Audi A1’s face. As long as the carmaker keeps giving birth to M versions and other goodies, we could live with that...maybe.
But here’s one thing we can’t take: during a conference call held last week, Reithofer told reporters and analysts that 80 percent of BMW 1-Series customers think that their car is front wheel drive, as autonews.com reports. The CEO added that the statistic surprised the company’s officials, but it came as a good news, as it shows that customers will not consider the upcoming entry-level model a renegade and that the carmaker’s plan to sell up to 1 million front wheel drive MINIs and BMWs by 2015 is viable.
Does Reithofer really expects us to believe that the information is just a statistic showing how complex the profile of the premium automotive customer is? Does he think that no one besides his employees has heard of the word “marketing” ? If you ask us, It looks like BMW doesn't know the meaning of the "trying to hard" expression...