Comments on: BMW puts fourth brand on hold — for now

By: jackjimturkey

jackjimturkey — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 18:11:38 +0000

BMW should start up a non-luxury brand, to compete with “L—s” and “A—a.”

By: angelo

angelo — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:50:22 +0000

BMW picking up a Chinese brand and bringing it to US is nice, but it’s illegal for a foreign company to own the majority of a Chinese car company.

With this in mind, there is no right choice (hence why they’re doing nothing).

By the way, the Pontiac idea is a horrible one too.

By: Commodore

Commodore — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 21:41:38 +0000

sharpie – you are right. The domestics (well, mainly GM) have started making better cars and therefore their reputation is on the rise. Also, yes, domestics have always made the best pick ups and have been building them for nearly 90 years so it makes sense that the Titan and Tundra were largely failures (bought only by import-humpers or those drawn in by the $1000s in discounts).

CTS – but the crazy thing is that Tata might actually aquire Jaguar and Land Rover…

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:42:33 +0000

they can improve their quality by buying tata motors.
sarcasm intended.

By: Veda

Veda — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 03:30:18 +0000

What would be truly interesting is if BMW buys a Chinese company. Heck the sales in China alone should be extremely high, and with their backing those cars should be decent and safe enough to be exported to other countries except for US. BMW’s fourth brand should really be a money making global mass market manufacturer. Screw heritage and prestige… Mini and RR don’t make enough $.

By: RicardoHead

RicardoHead — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:10:47 +0000

BMW should buy the Oldsmobile brand from GM and resurrect it. It’ll give the idiots and secretaries who buy bimmers now something worthwhile to aspire to besides taking their hunk of garbage to the dealership for service.

By: 1c3d0g

1c3d0g — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 00:19:06 +0000

I still have a feeling BMW is going to bring the Triumph nameplate back…

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 22:58:46 +0000

madcapp the only mention of land rover was when i said bmw did a bad job with them, read more carefully bro.
.
“can they really say the managed land rover good, hell no this guy is the german lutz.”

Comment by CTS DRIVER, posted on November16 at 12:35

By: C6Racer

C6Racer — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 21:21:38 +0000

Go Pontiac! Wait… isn’t this article about BMW? lol

By: murphy1

murphy1 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:39:50 +0000

CA36GTP, have been a pontiac man also for 30 years and believe that this could be done…the oldmsobile debacle and the subsequent lawsuits are the only reason gm is keeping buick and pontiac alive…..so i think for the right price gm (er, chevy) would LOVE to talk about selling pontiac. as a pontiac man, THAT would be very sweet, knowing the cars would have some passion instead of always being labeled a chevy me too. besides, saturn has that locked up now! ive always said chevy should have been a corporation unto itself,gm1, & the other divisions gm2. both corporations would be completely seperate from each other, thereby insuring chevy could not interfere with ANY of the remaining divisions, their designs and policies. i think with that approach gm would have been much stronger and in better shape these days.

By: ///m

///m — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 20:32:45 +0000

Hate to piss on your parade GTP but exactly how is the G8 an example, its not even out yet, has altezza taillights, and its a rebadged Commodore. GM is back on track but they still have ways to go

By: sharpie

sharpie — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:53:27 +0000

“Heritage is not such an important issue here. Therefore if you were to bring a new brand the US could be a location where you could do that pretty successfully”

Well, that’s only because the domestics are still having bad reps because of subpar products in the past (mainly in cars, not trucks). Once they produce something people actually want to drive, the heritage returns.

Try to get into the pickup segment instead, BMW. Then you will learn that heritage IS an important issue here.

The lesser of the arrogant statements BMW made is still arrogant!

By: CA36GTP

CA36GTP — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:45:41 +0000

That’s a far-fetched yet intriguing idea, murphy. As a Pontiac enthusiast, I’ve long lamented GM’s refusal to allow Pontiac to regain its performance roots, instead choosing to use it as a place to dump rebadged Chevrolets.

However, Pontiac is not a clear-cut independent entity like a Jaguar or Land Rover, and there’s no way it will ever be divested from GM. Nor am I sure that I would want the German kings of unreliability to take Pontiac on. I can’t imagine BMW would let them shine anyway. The G8 proves that once you let Pontiac’s potential out, it’s very capable of competing with BMW’s style.

By: murphy1

murphy1 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:34:49 +0000

one company would fit perfectly…….pontiac. they (bmw)want to launch the new comapny in the u.s., well, its roots are already established here!! pontiac has ALWAYS been held back by chevy and is a waste in the gm stable. split grille, performance, excitement…..c’mon, its a no brainer…

By: Madcapp

Madcapp — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:05:52 +0000

Why the hell would BMW aquire Land Rover from Ford? BMW unloaded Land Rover to Ford just a few years ago. That makes as much sense as Mercedes-Benz re-aquiring Chrysler.

By: CA36GTP

CA36GTP — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 19:01:25 +0000

Heritage is important to Americans….the Consumer Reports zombie heritage.

By: 67_L-88

67_L-88 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:48:24 +0000

Perhaps BMW should get an economy brand to help them meet the up coming 35 M.P.G mandate?

By: Fletch

Fletch — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 18:24:53 +0000

BMW is good at jacking up the price on existing brands.

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:37:48 +0000

well commodore he just explained why guys like asstin are jerks, they would rather drive a **** bucket and call our cars crap.

By: Commodore

Commodore — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:35:44 +0000

whatever. I don’t think they should create a new brand entirely, but rather buy an existing one.

Also, it’s really sad that the guy is right about America – heritige does not matter here. Just because a brand is American does not get it more sales. In fact, currently, it gets less sales.

By: CTS DRIVER

CTS DRIVER — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:35:30 +0000

He said BMW is good at managing brands, but at the moment its best opportunity is to “further expand the three brands we’ve got.”
.
can they really say the managed land rover good, hell no this guy is the german lutz.

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 17:16:23 +0000

Good article about nothing – kind of like a Seinfeld episode.