siko

U.S. BMW 1-Series still two years off

BMW at the Geneva Motor Show told the Detroit News that the 1-Series is still about two years from coming to the United States. "Expect to see the 1-Series in America no earlier than the end of 2007, most probably early in 2008," said Richard Gaul, senior vice president Corporate Affairs, answering a question on the BMW stand at the Geneva motor show. At first glance, it may appear the U.S. introduction is four years behind the European launch, but in reality the rollouts will be much closer. That's because the 5-door 1-Series hatch — the only model currently on the European market — isn't coming to the U.S. at all. Instead, forthcoming sedan, coupe, and convertible variants are expected stateside. BMW officials said they were still undecided on what variants to bring over, but the 5-door hatch is out of the question. The 3-door hatch, however, remains a possible candidate.

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Porsche Guy

I'm liking the sound of this. If only M could pull off an M1 but in low quantities to keep it from being as common as SUVs in the US or what not. I just don't want M to get too big and common. The M1 should be something special and rare! 3 liter inline 6 with 300hp and M steer/handling? Any takers? I think we would have quite a few.

PS. if you're reading this BMW, just do it!!

Matt

BMW, listen to PG, he knows what hes talking about!

Merc1

Sounds good to me. I picture a 1-Series Sedan/Coupe/Cabrio pretty much taking the place of the E36 3-Series, which was the last lean 3-Series before the really starting pushing upmarket in size and weight. A 300hp M1 for like 40K would be a we-can't-build-enough-of-them hit. I just hope they change the headlights for the Coupe/Cabrio/Sedan versions and tone down some of the wierder elements like that sagging bottom cut line.

If done right, the 1-Series rollout could take BMW sales to the 350K mark in the U.S.

BMW is really taking their time with this and no doubt researching how customers would act to a "1-Series". They don't want a 318Ti type failure again.

I mean look at the proportions here, this thing has serious potential. Its like the perfect size and stance:



M

Deutsch

Frankly, at this stage in the game I'm growing very very tired w/ BMW. All this hoop la about their design and driving dynamics(both great/bad, all depending upon how you look at it), but the product offerings are slim and priced VERY HIGH for what you get, and sure, many will say "well Deutsch, you do get what you pay for" True enough, but why do I have to select a dozen pricey option packages to get what I want? Ok, beating around the bush aside, I don't know what's the big deal w/ the stupid product launches, it really should not be THAT hard for them to gauge the U.S. market and figure what it is that we as consumers want in an entry level luxury car, whatever the body style? People are going to want a freak'n 1 seires, it's a BMW.
To boot road feel(more precisely steering feel) adds to the quality of driving safety and experience, but in the real world this can become annoying, especially if you're a marketing V.P doing numbers crunching all day long, then to hop in your $50k 5er and feel every grain in the asphalt when all you really want to do is go home relaxed, you've served your bumps in the road for the day.
Lastly, I'm not very sure where all this techonolgy such as I drive is going? I mean, do I really need a stupid synthized voice telling me where to go? Don't you already begin driving in your car w/ a predestination already thought out? It's more complexity to driving, and on the streets of L.A. driving is hard enough. And I don't need to scroll trhough four to five sub menu's just to change a radio station. Lastly, I don't wanna spend a crap load of money on my car spending more time in the shop then on the road because of a faulty glitch from some overly complex electrical system , which I never really needed to being w/ but it was already there as a std. feat in car. Trust me, I've read many a horror story, but pawned it off as just a bad apple in the barrel situation, but in reality this is far from just an isolated incident.
So yes, I'm sure I'll get a proverbial tomatoe from one, or many members, but i could care less. At this point in time I'm begining to realize what cars are truly for, which is driving(Germans and other Euro brands add the adjective "pleasure") from point A to B and not all this other C-R-A-P inbetween. Cars are meant to be driven, not challenge(if a GT3 is too hard for you to pilot, then you're just not good enough a driver to drive it, period). How you get to where you're going should be a unique experience in itself, hence the reason why we have a ton of options to choose from. Please though, leave your "you really don't know where you're going but we do, so we're gonna hold you by the hand" humanoid made disasters out of it.
My rant is done. Kinda got off on a tangent, but hey, it's 11:30pm my time. Long day, lots of stuyding, lots of stress. Am I done w/ BMW? Um, no. Sick of BMW? Yes. So does this mean you won't buy a 3er Deutsch? Maybe...yes... maybe... no?

Imhotep Evil

Holy cow, Deutsch, what's the matter with you man ?!
Don't like the iDrive, buy one without it.
Don't like the style, buy something else.
Don't like those electro things, well, those things make the big euro cars handle like they do and not american muscle cars (= straight line but nothing else), and improve safety, and makes them consume less fuel and be more enviromental friendly.

warot

It makes perfect sense to me. Unless I'm totally wrong, the Audi A3 is not doing particularly well correct? If that's the case, why would BMW want to make the same decision? The other variants of the 1er is not even out yet. So if the coupe and convertible come out in Europe, it will naturally take some time for the cars to come to the US.

warot

The only way they can do that is by increasing the price... and if they do less, that means less customers. If they are going to do an "M1", I think it will automatically make ///M more common.

Porsche Guy

I doubt that BMW would price the M1 too close to the M3. I think that the second hand market for a low production M1 would be where you would see the price for such a car greatly exceed MSRP. It would be an instant classic! A modern day e30 M3.

Matt

Deutsch, you should have posted that in exhaust pipe. Although, If you dont like steering feel and good handling and the only importance of driving is getting from point A to Point B then you really cant consider yourself a driving enthusiast, but I know you really dont think that!

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