Quote:
Originally Posted by ynguldyn
5GT is offered with two different engines and both RWD and AWD. E61 was only offered as 530xi and then 535xi. 5400 530xi's and 4450 535xi's were made. Pre-LCI F07 (I'm too lazy to look up the LCI numbers, they don't change anything anyway) made 2450 550iGT, 3400 535iGT, 1400 550xiGT, and 3000 535xiGT. That is, 10250 5GTs in four years of production vs. 9850 E61s in five years of production, and who knows how many extra sales would there be if we could buy 550iT here?
So, please tell me again, which year was that, when 5GT was selling at 3x E61 rate? (Desperately need a Willie Wonka GIF here.)
Oh, and by the way, the customers, who couldn't buy F11, didn't go to F07. They went to E-classe and A6 instead. F07 just took sales from F01/02. Even BMW execs acknowledge the mistake. Look around - no one's drinking that 2009 kool-aid anymore.
As for F31, in less than a year of production BMW has made more than 3000 of them for the NA market. Do your BMW NA bosses consider this to be a sales failure these days?
|
I had an 2007 E61 535xi and it was an incredible car. I was sad to give it up end-lease, and I was sad to hear that BMW only sold some 940 E61s in MY 2010. I very much like the F07, and I appreciate that the purpose of the car is slightly different than the E61. The fact of the matter is, few were willing to pay $55k base for a 535xi wagon that lacked premium content and features that much cheaper cars were offering. A fully optioned E61 wagon came in around $70k (like mine), and that was just too much for a car like that. Families weren't really spending $60-70k on station wagons at the time, so BMW decided that a car like the F07 would appeal to those for whom that price bracket was accessible. The packaging may not have been ideal--I venture a guess that the F07 would have done much better if its design was better sorted--but the interior was both useful and of extremely high quality. In this way, the GT is a success; it is at its core a truly luxurious, expensive feeling vehicle with a price to match. It satisfies its purpose completely and is a truly competent offering in an undefined segment. Maybe if it had competition, others would have appreciated it more. Who knows? I can say it sold well enough to warrant an LCI.