BMW Is Bringing The FWD 1 Series To The US - What Gap Are They Trying To Fill?

"...Is Bring..."?? Ghetto Detroit lingo???

With the CLA and especially the A3 finding homes, BMW has nothing at its dealers to compete with them. This should have been here from the beginning.

OH - MaTT - Come on- even YOU would have gotten this one

Obviously BMW is trying to cover the gap between their sales and Mercedes.

@TomM Isn't a bit early to be drinking your Jack Daniels?

While I don't drink any alcoholic beverages at all - I believe it was YOU who said that it was NEVER too early for Jack Daniels. Err - the "boot" in the TVR was designed to hold the bottles - or something like that!

They'll sell a million of 'em.

A woman on my street has an A3. Little car. Lots of $$$ in Canada. More car if you get an Accord. But if you wan German style and panache in a small package, there it is. BMW's offering will sell.

I can't believe it took BMW this long to have a competitor to the A3 and CLA. The A3 and CLA are low-priced and very high-volume sedans. Buyers looking for a small and more affordable sedan previously had no option at BMW.

BMW will have a lot of competition though. The CLA and A3 are very well established in the marketplace.

Given how horrible the sales volume of the 2 series is, that is not much volume.

The A3 argues against sales cannibalization. The sales of the A4 have been fairly consistent.

Could you not consistently cannabalise? Sales of the A3 are pretty close to the A4 and the A4 doesn't sell in the same numbers as the C-class and 3-series. Could easily argue that without the A3 they would push way more A4s but you could also say Audi is more successful with smaller, cheaper cars so, who knows?

Bob, I think a 1-series sedan will eat into sales of the 2-Series and 320i. The 2-Series market is already small but the price of a 1-series should be squarely in line with the 2-Series and 320i so around $33K-$36K.

Buyers could get a well-optioned 1-Series sedan for the same price as a near-base 320i. Buyers originally looking at a 2-series coupe, would get more practicality for the same price and more options in a 1-series sedan and won't have to jump up to the larger 320i the way they do now.

@firewombat The A4 has never challenged the C Class and 3 Series for volume.

@MD no it hasn't but it does compete in that class and if it were the their entry level model, with discounts and incentives that are already in place, I think you could convert some of those A3 sales to A4 sales. Same reasoning GermanNut has for the 1-series eating into 2-series and 3-series sales.

@firewombat IF ANYTHING, Audi increased their share of the sedan market by having a two-sedan approach at the bottom end. It you add the A3 and the A4 volume together, you're close to the traditional 3 Series volume.

Whoa, caps lock. It's a good point but then you have half your sales with the cheaper car and make less profit. Or maybe you convert some people shopping for golfs and get them to upgrade to the A3 increasing VWs profit? How long is a piece of string?

Matt, with regards to your point that the A4 hasn't challenged the 3-Series and C-Class in volume, the A4 is up 14% YTD whereas the 3-Series is down 20.1% YTD. I bet at least some of the A4's sales are to buyers who had or were considering buying a 3-Series.

While the A4 still trails the 3 and C, it is taking marketshare.

The new 3-Series might be the most important product launch in BMW history given how it accounts for such a large percentage of BMW's sales both in the U.S. and globally. Given BMW's continued struggle in the U.S. market and now slowing global growth because of the poor U.S. sales, if BMW screws up the new 3-Series it could mean complete disaster for the company overall.

Sorry - German Nut - But I would suspect that the sales of the traditional sized BMW sedans are down for the same reason that most sedan sales are down - because people are buying Crossovers instead - and those crossover sales are up for almost everyone. Obviously - Bmw wants to compete with Mercedes on sales - BUT the problem is - it can only do so when comparing direct vehicle sales figures - what makes Mercedes is that they sell far more higher priced and larger vehicles than either of the other German Manufacturers - where the real profit is.

Yes - there is an entry level market - where the CLA is - and they could sell a fairyly good amount of cars - BUT - the profit in those sales just pales - and it actually reduces the value of the brand to have a car that competes with lower level cars. Now - MALBA2367 has pointed out that they would have to keep pricing near $30,000 to snag some low end buyers - but that is NOT what a Premium brand is supposed to be. IF they have to limit profits already - where is the incentive to keep the cars value up.

Tom, all three German brands have been dragged into this move downmarket. While Mercedes does sell more high-end vehicles than both BMW and Audi, I don't think it could ignore going downmarket simply due to the high sales volume and ability to capture a new entry-level buyer. Yes, while margins are obviously lower on a CLA than an S-Class, the potential future benefit of getting a CLA buyer at a young age and having them stay with Mercedes-Benz to say an E-Class and eventually an S-Class is a gamble worth taking.

Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW are willing to sacrific profit now and brand image in hopes of securing long-term buyers that make the companies more profit as they move up the income scale and buy more expensive models.

Gnut, do you want to check those A4 sales figures from last month and then maybe check your comments? Happy to write an article about it if you want?

Oooh "complete disaster" are they still able to sell the A4/A5 in Europe at the moment because of failing emissions, haven't heard an update about that?

BMW should have brought this car here years ago instead of letting the CLA and A3 sell thousands of units each per month with no competitor. It's about damn time.

They will sell a lot of them if they keep the pricing near 30K. There are a lot of people who will take a smaller car with a premium label over a larger car for the same money. The vast majority of buyers probably don't even know or care if their car is RWD or FWD. It would be smart to have a AWD model for the northeast. They already have the platforms/engines that they can share with Mini is it won't be a huge investment to develop.

No idea what gap BMW's trying to fill. Other than whatever gap the CLA is filling. Not to mention amortizing Mini.

The A3 is a bona fide hit. BMW has nothing.

They should not bring a fwd sedan here at all. A slight stretch of the current rwd/x-drive 2 series to plug in 4 doors is what they need to do.

Would make sense to offer something other than Mini in this class. Could do well if it can compete at ~25k price against the Jetta, or even Civic and Corolla.