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BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

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251–260 of 351 posts

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#251

It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years. Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough…

The car driver doesn't fall far from the factory.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. Can confirm. BMW used to be quite innovative, at least on the scale of German automakers, with their connect services. We have a fairly…

BMW operate like a company that have given up on expanding their addressable market and now seek to extract as much value from it as possible. In a vacuum, this is common and makes sense, but not at the cusp of a revolution in that industry. I spent a long time sceptical about that other car company. But I've realised I can never overestimate how much the traditional companies will screw up.

I think it's the opposite problem, they're trying to expand to fill every niche and in so doing have lost focus on what made them appealing.

Just look at their model range nowadays, it's vast, confusing and insipid. Very little of it is inspiring unless you think 650bhp in an SUV is interesting.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#254

It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years. Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough…

>It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years.

BMW has always first and foremost been a logo marketing company. They exist so moderately rich people can show off how moderately rich they are by driving a car with a BMW logo on it.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#255

I remember reading an interview with BMW designer that the obnoxiously huge front grills are a nod to the Chinese customers. Chinese customers wanted the drivers in front of them to feel intimidated, as if the car and driver behind wanted to eat them. Other premium brands like Lexus followed with this trend.

Please send me the address of that interview and I'll post it on Weibo and see how the Chinese react to it...

There is no interview, GP pulled it out of his ass.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#256

I remember reading an interview with BMW designer that the obnoxiously huge front grills are a nod to the Chinese customers. Chinese customers wanted the drivers in front of them to feel intimidated, as if the car and driver behind wanted to eat them. Other premium brands like Lexus followed with this trend.

You don't have a source for this. Quit racebaiting.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#257

It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years. Now they’re just clueless assholes. I’ve seen it in their IT systems, their design teams are either on crack or got outsourced to 4 year olds and their product/sales gurus are a mix of bean counters incapable of producing an original idea and a bunch of lifers running on nepotism. It’s starting to happen and will get even worse, BMW will have a tough…

>It makes sense, BMW quit being a car company in the past few years. BMW has always first and foremost been a logo marketing company. They exist so moderately rich people can show off how moderately rich they are by driving a car with a BMW logo on it.

They have marketed well. But BMW also knows a little bit about making really nice, quiet, powerful, fun to drive cars.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Better for driving on snow Until you have to go up a hill, or steer and drive in several inches of slush. I guess it's marginally more stupid proof if you floor it at a dumb time but that seems like needless optimization of the worst case while totally tanking the average case. With the weight distribution and electronic controls available in modern vehicles FWD has no meaningful benefit other than cost.

>FWD has no meaningful benefit other than cost ... and lower weight, and no tunnel, and more boot space. If anything, it's RWD which struggles to maintain its significance and show its benefits outside of sports. Modern platforms can make the front wheels turn and spin at the same time without much fuss, with driving characteristics determined by other factors.

Weight is a wash. We're talking like a cumulative 100lb by integrating the front diff with the transmission and losing the drive shaft. Tunnel is nice but most cars still don't have a flat floor because they stick a tunnel in there for exhaust and the floor-pan is likely shared at least in part with an AWD crossover that puts a drive shaft there and it's usually important enough for floor rigidity so they don't omit it on the FWD models.

>Modern platforms can make the front wheels turn and spin at the same time without much fuss

Yeah they can prevent you from losing traction but you're fundamentally at a disadvantage to RWD because no matter how you cut it you're trying to spread the front traction budget thinner. Everything that makes RWD desirable for the track also makes it desirable for consumer A to B duty.

Don't get me wrong, FWD is great for bringing 0% no money down economy cars to the masses and creating bottom dollar van chassis for employees to abuse but even at its best it's still never going to make varsity in any context where performance actually matters

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#259
post #48

I remember reading an interview with BMW designer that the obnoxiously huge front grills are a nod to the Chinese customers. Chinese customers wanted the drivers in front of them to feel intimidated, as if the car and driver behind wanted to eat them. Other premium brands like Lexus followed with this trend.

I’m tired of trashy Chinese tastes gaining so much influence in the world.

I'm tired of whiny Europeans blaming everything on us. If one of your companies designs a shitty car that's your fault.

Re: BMW to shame out-of-warranty UK drivers with smart billboards

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not getting extra value in exchange for money Wait, if you're not getting extra value from the product every extra month you use it, then stop paying the subscription! That's the beauty of it!

It seems like you're trying to catch this guy out for cognitive dissonance but I'm not seeing it. CarPlay is offered in perfectly functional forms in the market right now for a reasonable upfront price that people will pay for a known feature set. A subscription arguably can make the product less valuable, because of uncertainty about continuing support, changes to the subscription model or software, and an unknown p…

But uncertainty about ongoing support is a problem anyway because Apple could change the protocol.
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