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BMW is set to introduce a new front-wheel-drive entry-level model, positioned and priced beneath the existing 1-series and using shared Mini hardware, according to the firm's chairman Norbert Reithofe.

The new model is being developed as part of plans to help increase parts sharing and bolster the potential for production savings between the BMW and Mini brands, thus bringing an end to the era of rear and four-wheel drive-only BMW models.

Speaking to Autocar at the last week's Gene...Read the full article

Goodness, first turbochargers and now FWD - what illusion of uniqueness remains for the badge whores to cling to?

I assume that those ads with the tricycle won't be dusted down any time soon, then?

 

http://www.nexusproductions.com/site/player/the-only-1-cinema-ad

 

Autocar:

BMW

Autocar:

front-wheel-drive

A true "Eli Eli, lama sabachthani" moment for the purist.

BMW seems to be falling into the trap that Mercedes-Benz found itself in a few years ago; attempting to cover every single market niche avaliable, to the detriment of the finished product.

Or alternatively they're just exploiting the "people will buy anything with a BMW badge stuck to it" theory.

 

IS NOTHING SACRED???

This is it boys and girls, the end of the world is nigh, bloody nigh I tells yer!!!

 

Wow, Tanned. Had I not been taught by Nuns at primary school, I wouldn't have got the reference... But I don't think God the father will be absolutely against a front-drive Beamer.

ThwartedEfforts:

Goodness, first turbochargers and now FWD - what illusion of uniqueness remains for the badge whores to cling to?

er, engines. BMW was and is at root not a car company but an engine company, at which it still excels:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Otto - co-founder of what became BMW and son of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolaus_August_Otto of 'Otto cycle', 4 stroke internal combustion engine fame. 

ThwartedEfforts:

turbochargers

 

BMW was one of the earliest users of the Turbo in a production car with the 2002 Turbo back in 1973.

Hang on a minute - am I missing something?

BMW don't want to pollute their RWD brand by making a FWD premium mini, so instead buy the Mini brand to keep as a stand-alone premium product.  The general public fall for it, buying the Mini at a premium over it's competitors simply because it's made by BMW and has an extensive options list.

So now BMW wants a FWD premium mini and thinks "Hang on, we could use the Mini platform".  Exactly how are they going to market and price this car so that it's not a direct competitor to their own Mini?  And why didn't they just build a FWD premium mini in the first place and save themselves the effort of re-creating the Mini brand?

 

Myk- My thoughts exactly. Supposedly creating a car to compete with the Audi A1. Err, isn't that the MINI??!!

 Maybe MINI will bring out a Midsize saloon to compete with the Audi A4...

The dilution of the BMW brand continues...