# 4WheelNews Reports: BMW planning to reconfigure model naming strategy



## tim330i (Dec 18, 2001)

4WheelNews breaks the latest news about BMW's naming nomenclature. As many of us wondered, how is BMW going to manage the naming of all the new models they're producing. Here's the latest news -

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BMW is to reconfigure its model naming strategy across all group models. So says board member and Sales and Marketing Director Ian Robertson, speaking to journalists in London. Asked how BMW would name a new, smaller model that will slot below the existing 1-Series range, Robertson said, "There will be an evolution of naming across all brands." He would not say what the model would be called
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Read the rest of the article - http://www.4wheelsnews.com/bmw-planning-to-reconfigure-model-naming-strategy/


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## MikeTerp (Feb 3, 2007)

How about the BMW 0? Seriously, if BMW would stop growing every model each cycle they might not be facing this issue.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

MikeTerp said:


> Seriously, if BMW would stop growing every model each cycle they might not be facing this issue.


BMW is not unique in doing this. Nearly every manufacturer grows their cars every model cycle. Take a look at the original Honda Civic or Accord.


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## MsCaballoVerde (Apr 8, 2011)

You're right about BMW not being alone here in participating in the model bloat olympics, but that hardly speaks to the complaint. BMW _could_ go in the other direction, limited by regulations, of course, but _chooses not to._

Except the 1M, soon to be the M2, no doubt, and its new 2-series...
And the slight downsizing of the F10 M5...
And the two i-line models done so far...
And the 1-series we Yanks will never get to see...
And the X1, which I hate as I hate all SUVs/CUVs...
And the acknowledgment that certain 3ers are meant to fill a new market gap as 4ers...

A shame, though, that lots of other models are bloaty, like the 6ers & the 5ers...
But at least you can still buy the two of them with V8s, manuals, LSDs, in M-sport form.
:eeps:


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## Andrew*Debbie (Jul 2, 2004)

Bloat happens because manufactures want to keep customers as they get older. The larger 3er, Civic, __________, are exactly what the customer wants when they come in to replace their old one. Often manufacturers will then create a new "entry level" model to fill the slot. BMW isn't alone in this.

Quite a few of the "entry sized" models aren't sold in the US. BMW 1 series 3-door hatch, Mercedes A Klasse, and maybe the Mazda 2 are a few examples that come to mind. 

Some are sold in the US. Honda Fit (Jazz) and Toyota Yaris are two.


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## MsCaballoVerde (Apr 8, 2011)

Andrew*Debbie said:


> Bloat happens because manufactures want to keep customers as they get older. The larger 3er, Civic, __________, are exactly what the customer wants when they come in to replace their old one. Often manufacturers will then create a new "entry level" model to fill the slot. BMW isn't alone in this.
> 
> Quite a few of the "entry sized" models aren't sold in the US. BMW 1 series 3-door hatch, Mercedes A Klasse, and maybe the Mazda 2 are a few examples that come to mind.
> 
> Some are sold in the US. Honda Fit (Jazz) and Toyota Yaris are two.


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More than a bit of truth there. Certainly reflects quite a bit of the discourse flying around at the time of the 128/135's release in the US (then disappointed in actuality by price increases due to a poor economy, & an overweight model), with talk of BMW seeking to bring in the "younger demographic" by revitalizing a successor to the 2002, etc. - leaving previous implied strategies to speak for themselves by contrast.

(From what I hear, though, we're quite lucky not to have to contend with the excoriated Mercedes A-series, which seems to have beaucoup de problèmes...)

We also see it in two contradictory indicators - both the lack of and availability of purely manual transmissions (I'm not counting automanuals), which in the background grace a mere 5+% of all cars sold in the US. BMW may be tracking & modifying aging demographics with its 3er & to an extent 5er series, but allowances are still made for new & classic hoonsters in the 1er offerings, and in the performance-oriented versions of the 3er & 5er - although the 550, of course, restricts this availability to the purely RWD platform.

And then, of course, there's *///M*...after the 1M capable of just about anything, and after the M5, with coming X-Drive, PCCB systems, & Manual transmission (for the US market, anyway), capable of producing an iconic vehicle attractive to the young as well as the old, even if it likely prices most folks out of its range. (Likely an $86-90K MSRP, once BMW adds its 15% profit margin to the base price.

Which reminds me: one large thing BMW needs to work on is color selection, at least as far as performance models go. To offer a car in two shades of red, but make them unavailable when an M-package is added to that car is totally inexcusable. (I'm citing the 335i coupe & sedan, which offers both crimson red and vermilion metallic until the M-package is checked off.) Additionally, to offer the M5 with only one hot color (Monte Carlo Blue) is a sure mistake (despite the definite hotness of its Sakhir Orange interior). M ought at least to offer its three logo colors when it sells a vehicle: Bavarian Blue, Red-Blue, and Texaco Red. Interlagos comes close to Red-Blue, and any red comes close to the Texaco color, but there's not been a Bavarian Blue offered in recent memory.

Cheers!


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## jakesulivan (Aug 23, 2011)

I think their current strategy is also nice. I have E90 and I think it is a great model name.


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## MsCaballoVerde (Apr 8, 2011)

jakesulivan said:


> I think their current strategy is also nice. I have E90 and I think it is a great model name.


The E90 is the sad sister of M3s...Lots need it & love it because it accommodates families & is still an M3 (and a lot cheaper than an M5), but BMW gives it a less-aggressive acceleration curve than the E92 M3 Coupe, which is unfair!

BMW a great model name, or E90?

I agree with both, but I'd like a bit more raw styling in their sporting models. I'd like to be able to buy an M5 suitable for the Opera and the Autobahn, which the new one seems to fit as long as it comes through on the stick shift its mule was sporting around North Carolina, and not just the manumatics that lull me to sleep.

BUT.

IMNSFHO (and excluding the limited run 1M :thumbup, the Z4M Coupe was the last really raw rip-snorter a man could buy in this neck of the woods & still realize that BMW still means blast-ass :roundel: performance.

I'll get arguments on this by those who drive M3s, and well-deserved ones in some cases. But an M3 _in genera_l is too sophisticated in too many ways to be considered "raw." It's too forgiving. When things go hairy in a Z4M Coupe, it's your driving that better be up to par.


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