got the new Motor Trend this week, some interesting and suprising words by the Chairman of BMW AG... though all would enjoy...

BMW WILL NOT LOST THE HORSEPOWER RACE
We recognize that others are outperforming us, but we will not settle (for that). We will do something to improve the performance of our vehicles, but we will not sacrifice agility. You have to be in control of the car in all situations, not just leave some rubber marks on the road and your friends at the traffic lights.


WE NEED A REPLACEMENT FOR THE Z8
We will have a replacement for the Z8, but I dont know whether it should be a coupe or a roadster. There is a segment out there we should be in, but it has to be something that has longevity. The SL has done that well for Mercedes--it basically has a segment where no one else is. But I wouldn't go for copying Mercedes.


iDRIVE IS HERE TO STAY
In the 1990's, we just kept adding buttons and switches to the interiors of our cars. This was a trend that just couldn't continue. We can debate whether it was the best execution or not, and we made a huge mistake calling it iDrive, because its not used for driving the car. But no one will go back to having 150 buttons in a car.


WE'LL NEVER DO BORING BMWs
Journalists wrote that BMW was boring, that the 7 Series looked like the 5 Series, which looked like the 3 Series. We had to spread out the positioning of those models and with more new models coming, we couldnt stick to one design. We've sold more 7 Series in the past three and a half years than we did of the previous generation, but I'd much rather have the market success without the critical debate. I'd be much happier if we had the same sales figures without being told we are deserting our core customers.


LEXUS ISN'T TRYING --YET
Lexus is only a competitor in the U.S. But Toyota is using the success of Lexus here to explain why someone should buy a Lexus in Tokyo or Europe. An indication it's serious will be when it separates Toyota and Lexus dealerships in Europe and begins offering large-displacement diesels.



--suprising he even talks about LEXUS... for those outside of US, LEXUS is a 'high end' Toyota, some have said its an acronym for Luxury EXperiment in the United States...
i say they did what GM had done for so long, chevy's and Cadillacs are the same cars basically, they just throw some more options, a hell of a lot of marketing, and oh yeah, charge $10K - $20K more for the same cars, just nicer appointments... wait its a camry, no its an ES330 or in Infiniti's (Nissans version of Lexus) its an altima, no its a g35, no its a maxima, no its a m45...
its a ...

 

BMW and most other German makes have more useable HP than their Japanese counterparts.

 

Very true!!!
When I sold my 240 hp Dodge Intrepid a couple years ago and bouight a 180 hp 525i, it felt like I had doubled my hp!!! The 240 hp felt more like 140 hp...

 

Very true!!!
When I sold my 240 hp Dodge Intrepid a couple years ago and bouight a 180 hp 525i, it felt like I had doubled my hp!!! The 240 hp felt more like 140 hp...
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This seems to be true and has been occasionally commented on by auto journalists for years. Do you think this is because BMW measures hp at the real wheels and others measure at the engine? My Sales rep told me this, which didn't make sense to me. It didn't make sense that, if true, it was not a well known fact or at least exploited by BMW. It may be that BMW's are lighter and thus seem more powerful.

 

bmw = boring ? i think the journalists themselves are boring . there are many car manufacturers doing the same thing. look at mb. does c class look like a baby s class and slk look like a baby slr? how about a4, a6 and a8? cts and sts? s40, s60 and s80? the list will go on and on. what the #$%& are they thinking ?

 

I'd rather have 325 BMW horsepower than 400 American horsepower.

 

This is true, but not the entire picture. It is a combination of the nimble handling and last but not least the torque and the its curve when measured against RPM.

If you have 240HP at the flywheel (translates to 200hp where the rubber meets the road) and its torque mostly available above 4000rpm, you are going to have a hard time competing with a car that delivers high torque through out the curve.

This is what sets BMWs apart. They are not about paper stats, its about real world driving conditions.

 

I'm glad you said that.
If I would post something like that, ppl would ask me if I work for BMW, because I'm so pro-BMW...