If YOU Were In Charge Of BMW - What Would You Do To Navigate Through The Troubled Waters Ahead?

Send the 1 Series FWD sedan to the USA with a price conscious sticker to generate new sales to the brand.

Do a GTI competitor called the 2002tii to generate sales.

Revamp the 2 Series into a 2+2 aimed squarely at the Mustang/Camaro price/performance spread to generate new sales to the brand.

Fold the 4 Series into the 3 Series with the 4GC being the new 3 Series sedan. Kill the GT, coupe, and wagon nonsense.

Enlarge the 5 Series, but produce only a sedan.

Recast the 6 Series as a Tesla S fighter.

Kill the 7 Series.

Kill the i Series

X1/3/5/7 is a good strategy, but hybrids and EV versions cannot come soon enough.

"Hyundai" 10/100 warranty

Price control to the point of lowering prices to increase affordability.

or just let Toyota swallow them whole which is the likely outcome

You're serious?

10000% BMW has completely lost its touch with getting buyers into the brand.

The 3 Series used to be the "sport" that drew first-time buyers in and from there the were encouraged to go up the ladder.

BMW is now seriously missing that draw. For Audi to have the enjoyable A3 and BMW to have NOTHING to compete with it is stupid. With Mercedes planning an A Class sedan along with the mechanically identical CLA and BMW to have NOTHING to compete with them is stupid. The $30-50K performance coupe market is big, but the 2 Series is a total footnote. Reimagining the 2 Series as a "challenger" to the market that gets tuner guys driving out of BMW dealers would do wonders for the brand.

I'm not a BMW fan. Still, I believe they'll figure it out, without our help, and they'll do just fine.

By show of hands, how many of us at one time believed BMW was the best thing since sliced bread... and then we just grew up, not to idolize them anymore?

I honestly think Toyota will swallow them whole.

I am afraid it is already too late but building on MDarringer's recommendations here are mine:

-Yes, revamp the 2 into a better car but not to compete against Mustang/Camaro (two completely different types of cars).

-Fold the 4 Series into the 3 Series and stop the lease galore.

-Kill the horrible GTs and coupes

-Make the 5 drive again like a 5

-Yes, the 6 should be a Tesla S fighter.

-Don't throw the towel with the 7 Series even if the S remains king. Lexus and Audi aren't giving up and I think there's space for the four of them.

-Yes, hybrids and EV versions cannot come soon enough. Add two more SUVs to the mix.

-Yes to Korean long warranty

"-Yes, revamp the 2 into a better car but not to compete against Mustang/Camaro (two completely different types of cars)."

The Mustang/Camaro/Challenger market is (1) huge, (2) lucrative, (3) spans the same range as the 2 Series. The 2 Series simply is not alluring enough to get in the game. BMW has to think outside the box and the lock-step nature of its lineup needs to be unlocked.

If BMW did a muscle coupe, people would take notice. As it is, the 2 Series is what you buy because you cannot afford the 4 Series and it's a rolling testament to that shame. That is a disincentive to buy one. And the only way to get past the stigma of owning a 2 Series is to buy an M2 which a GT350 can dispatch...hell probably even a 5.0 for $20K less.

"Honor thy error as a hidden intention" indeed

IF I were in charge today and tasked with making BMW the brand it once was in the early 1990's, I would fire myself and my board and find people to run BMW that understand that commandments and torture of my staff, dealers and suppliers will not sell cars. Next the new people will have to understand that style means something, people want forward thinking and sexy style, not an accountant's version of a BMW.. uninspired design and cheap interiors.
But the Quants are rich and insulated and do not care about daily operations, the richest family in Germany runs the dying BMW into the ground, so, they will still be unimaginably rich.. but driving boring cars, so there is no fix for the company that once was... there is no inspired leadership... the changes on the horizon will not kill BMW but it will wound all the dealers and suppliers that have be forced to invest in bad leadership and poor planning... they are the true losers in the BMW world... Fire the Boss... If I am him, I know I suck at my job.

'Quandt'

Firewombat knows about "The Family" :-)

Quite a few people do :)

It all comes down to product and price. BMW has made costly mistakes in these two areas:

1) Design - There is barely any change from one generation to the next. Even Audi, which many criticized as not doing enough, has done more with its new A8 compared to what BMW did with its new 7-Series.

2) Re-focus the model portfolio - The gap between a 3-Series Sedan, 4-Series Gran Coupe and 3-Series GT is too small. Same goes for 5-Series Sedan, 6-Series Gran Coupe and 5-Series GT. The GT models need to be killed off due to their ungainly design, poor sales and lack of differentiation between their other very similar counterparts.

3) Interior Design - BMW has widely trailed Audi and Mercedes-Benz in interior quality and design.

He can be funny but when he's in bot mode

The "Ultimate Driving Machine" (inspiring driving dynamics, design etc.,) doesn't not apply to BMW anymore which is unfortunate and this is their problem. I've owned 4 and after my recent experience, switched back to Porsche which puts a big smile on my face every time I drive it.

I agree BMW should have brought the 1-Series sedan over here to compete with the A3 and CLA years ago, rather than splitting niches with GT's and GC's and SAC's, etc. And it appears in this newest go round, that's occuring, as cars are being folded together.

With that said, this "problem" people are referring to is falling U.S. sales, and it's not a "problem". Globally BMW's profits are up 13%. Sales are up. Every year brings record sales and profits.
They've fallen behind Mercedes, but that is cyclical (Benz makes great cars, too), and for all the "rah rah Audi" articles we read every day, they've put more space between them and Audi at #3. The problem here isn't dipping sales, it's that BMW had created artificial growth by whoring out the cars with subvented leases and incentives, which flooded the market with used cars, which lowered resale values, and caused them to incentivize the new ones even more now order to maintain similar lease payments. That cycle is unsustainable, and thankfully they seem to be doing away with it. This dip you're seeing is a market correction, sales are normalizing from the aritificially high levels they never should have been at in the first place. And I am glad, the brand will be better off for it.

I agree with JRobUSC. Globally (despite having fallen behind MB in sales) BMW is still doing reasonably well. There is no reason to panic.

And some corrections are in the pipeline. New X3 is much improved. X2 and X7 will add to sales. Next 3/4-series (assumed it's a good step up, which I expect) will retake the lead in its class. The new 5 (which I own), while conservative, is at or near the top of its class. Electric versions of X3 and 3/4 are coming. And the combo 7/8/X7 may be better at challenging the MB S/GLS.

Easy...go back to mechanical steering instead of this disconnected electric steer. BMW's used to have that magical driver to road connection which disappeared after electric steering was introduced.

The problems will remain (as mentioned above) really until buyers feel like they are getting into a new car. If you can't tell the difference between it and the car you at trading in, it cheapens that experience. It is no longer special or different enough. You need to be a little excited when getting a new car/suv. It should be no surprise buyers are going elsewhere as the market is flooded with choice, with more on the way. Styling (exterior and interior) in my view, is the biggest weakness at BMW and it needs to change in a hurry.

BMW has maintained sales by heavy discounting, while that is okay for the time being the big problem happens when the car sales slow down and the economy cools and the other brands start discounting....then they will have to discount even more and the losses will start to mount.

Fix the interior, make real leather standard, do not nickel and dime every option, and put decent looking wheels on the lower end versions of each model. These are the things that keep me out of BMW. Making the 3 and 5 a bit larger would help too.

I hate to make this simplistic, but in my opinion it comes down to one simple thing: exterior design. You can't keep recycling essentially the same exact design with barely enough changes to distinguish generations. Car buyers at any tier want fresh and new and especially luxury buyers want to know that you're looking at them in something fresh and new. They want to get into the office and yell out, "check out my new ride!" and not have everyone looking around the parking lot for the new car. Not to mention, when these cars are on the road, I would bet that very few people would even know these are new models. No way these repetitive design themes are attracting new attention to the brand (same with Audi).

Can you imagine if say, Pink Floyd released 10 albums, all with almost identical album covers, but completely different music inside? If they were all lined up on the shelf at the music store and people who already were familiar with the first 1 or 2 would walk right past thinking it was older material and not getting to experience the newness inside?

No, but I can imagine listening to the same Pink Floyd album for almost 45 years and it never gets old. Why change a good thing when you don't have anything better?

Not the same thing. If Pink Floyd promised a new album every four years for 45 years and rehashed the same music, would you still want to listen to it? Wouldn't you be disappointed that it wasn't really new, as promised? That's the right comparison.

Redesign the i3. Dump the GT's. Make sure the new 3-Series is a home run.

The lease on my '14 535xDrive recently ended and I was in the market this time for a small SUV. I didn't like the X1 and did like the X3. The reality is that, with the exception of the GLC, which is similarly priced and overall a more up to date vehicle, the competition is as or nearly as good in most respects, is as stylish or more stylish, and costs $5K to $10K less, similarly optioned out. In addition, having bought from 4 different area dealers, with one exception the dealer experience has been closer to Acura than Lexus or MB. They eventually got me to choose the X3, but only after significantly discounting it, throwing in tire and wheel coverage and giving me a break on my last couple lease payments. Not an effective long-term business model.

For BMW it's a product issue more than a leasing issue. BMW's products just don't have the edge they used to. The exteriors are no longer fresh, but instead look just like the previous generation (7-Series and 5-Series make this obvious). The driving dynamics are no longer representative of the Ultimate Driving Machine slogan. The model portfolio is bloated with the poor selling and ungainly GT models. The interior quality and design are far behind what Mercedes-Benz and Audi are doing.

BMW has a long way to go to fix its problems and simply charging more per month to lease its vehicles is not going to work.

Just keep saying it, people will eventually believe you, they must because you don't sound biased, uninformed, and insecure.

Don't mind him Firewombat, Nuttie will not miss a single chance to bash BMW and try to pair up Audi with Munich and Benz.

Worldwide Sales:
Year BMW MINI
2005 1,126,768 200,428
2006 1,185,088 188,077
2007 1,276,793 222,875
2008 1,202,239 232,425
2009 1,068,770 216,538
2010 1,224,280 234,175
2011 1,380,384 285,060
2012 1,540,085 301,525
2013 1,655,138 305,030
2014 1,811,719 302,183
2015 1,905,234 338,466
2016 2,007,204 360,542
Dunno, but with record breaking global sales volumes in each of the past 6 years, it may be a bit too early to throw in the towel.

Whoa 2.007 TRILLION that is amazing

Except those BMW global sales figures are not happening in isolation. There are other competitors that are also doing things. When you look at what Mercedes-Benz has done over the last 6 years in terms of sales growth and overall sales, all of the sudden BMW's numbers don't look so great anymore.

Mercedes-Benz sold 2.23 million vehicles in 2016. In 2015 Mercedes-Benz sold 1.871 million. That's a year-over-year increase of 19.1% for Mercedes-Benz between 2015 and 2016 whereas BMW's growth rate from 2015 to 2016 was just 5.35%.

So, while BMW might have record-breaking sales volume, it fell to second place in global sales in 2016 and it's growth rate was almost 4x slower than Mercedes-Benz.

If BMW executives think all is okay with those global sales numbers and the major decline in the U.S., the will lose their jobs.

I know another German car company where a lot of people have lost their jobs, also arrested in some cases, over the last 2 years or so...

LOL!

Stop trying to be a German Lexus.