Quote:
Originally Posted by F32Fleet
This has been BMW design for decades. Memories are short around here.
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Point taken. Thing is, the competition is much larger, more numerous, and more distinctive than it was, say, in the Exx years. Most of BMW's competitors differentiate between models better in both the styling department and the materials department -- including M-B and Audi -- and that has slowly worn down the BMW brand in this day and age of individualist statements (multiple meanings to that term as it relates to consumer vehicles).
Quote:
Originally Posted by F32Fleet
BTW... Germans are notorious for copying each other.
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Point also taken. But the greatest successes each major German brand has had -- ones that would define the direction of each maker for years -- have been with a new model that no one else was really making. Examples:
Original 3 Series
VW Rabbit/GTi
Audi 5000 (until unintended acceleration)
Audi TT
Porsche Boxster
Porsche Panamera
BMW Z3
M-B W201 (Remember the 190E?) and C-Class W202
M-B M-Class (the original mass-produced (i.e., no Gelandewagen) German luxury SUV)
Beyond the Gran Coupe thang (which I personally feel is hogwash because it's marketed so badly), what has BMW truly innovated with since the Z3 -- which, I might add, is a huuuuge stretch to even cite since it was the third of the three German luxury roadster entries to make it to market?