What Does The BMW 1-Series Sedan NEED To TOP The Audi A3 And Mercedes CLA-Class?

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very true, but the poise of the GTI would be nice as well.

A new game changing design theme which it doesn't have. BMW's are becoming boring and common place. Years ago BMW changed styling direction every third generation. Today you cannot tell not only one model from another but one year from another ! Time to move in a different design direction for both the exterior and interior.

RWD, but that's not going to happen.

RWD won't work. It would decrease interior space, increase weight, and raise the price.

It needs good styling, a well packaged interior, and upscale options if it wants to be a success. It has to be a good practical daily driver, yet still offer upscale features that the customers want.

7 Speed Auto(No DCT Lurch-Box!). Electric Turbocharger(or just no Turbocharger). Ability to put 15 inch steel wheels with 70 series tires on it so I can actually drive it to work in the Winter(so I can make the lease payment). Since it would be a business lease, I don't really care if it gets winter salt/slush, it just has to drive.

I agree on RWD. it is sad to see BMW and MB chasing VW, Toyota et all with these new front wheel drive models. I think it will work for a while but a big part of what built BMW was enthusiasts sharing their excitement about BMW cars. They are going to loose that and it will filter through eventually (I give it 5-7 yrs) and BMW will be thought of in the same way people think of Honda, Toyota, VW, Kia etc… IMHO BMW should be using some of it's many British brands it owns the names of to chase that, Triumph. Mini etc…

Audi have been flogging FWD for decades, as far up the range as the A8, and I'd be willing to put that the majority of their global sales come from FWD models. They offer the cheapest entry level of any of the big German three's brands with the A1.. and yet, they are going from strength to strength at the moment.

Mercedes has been offering FWD cars for nearly 20 years now, and it doesn't seem to be hampering their image as manufacturers of powerful luxurious vehicles - I still hear more people bemoaning the popularity of the E-class as a taxi than I do Mercedes' FWD models (which I see as kind of a compliment given the starship mileage of some of the E-class Taxi's I've ridden in!)

So, will FWD hurt BMW? No, not at all. Will keyboard warriors get butt-hurt over it? Yes, they already are. Either way, BMW cannot keep everyone happy, they are not using FWD because they want to make a great handling small car, they're using it to offer the benefits of FWD to customers that might otherwise be buying A3's or CLA's.

They could have ignored the trend towards SUV's and never made the X5 (and the subsequent X family of models), they could never have gone "down-market" with introducing the 1-series... they could have tried to exist selling the same three models that they have done since the 1970's... but where would that get them? The fact is, that every time BMW do something new, a bunch of their "enthusiasts" start to whinge like little children, then they fade away, and yet the enthusiast fan-base grows, because it brings a wider variety of people into the group of enthusiasts... rinse and repeat. Sure some people move to Merc's or Audi's, but inevitably, the competition is going to be up to the same kind of tricks - it's the one that stops evolving that will die the quickest.

In answer to the question though, it just needs to be about the same price as the competition, about the same speed, comparable handling, and look like a BMW... then the sales will come. It is inevitable.

It may be a reasonable business plan but there has to be a lot of enthusiasts that think that life is too short to drive boring FWD cars.