Currently reading: 1-series owners 'think it's FWD'
BMW's CEO says 80 per cent of 1-series owners think their car is front-wheel drive

Four out of five BMW 1-series drivers think their car is front-wheel drive, according to the firm’s CEO Norbert Reithofer.

Reithofer revealed the statistic in a conference call to journalists following the announcement of BMW’s financial results. He admitted the company found the 1-series survey results to be “quite a surprise”.

Reithofer was justifying BMW’s decision to start producing BMW-branded front-wheel-drive cars on the next-generation Mini’s platform, which is due in 2014.

The platform, covering front and four-wheel-drive models, will be used for both the third-generation Mini and for a range of BMW models between 3.8m and 4.3m long.

According to industry reports, there could eventually be up to 20 individual BMW and Mini-badged models based on the new BMW-engineered platform. The dual length of the platform would enable it to cover models sized from a typical supermini to a Golf-sized car.

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disco.stu 20 December 2010

Re: 1-series owners 'think it's FWD'

Gold.

rodenal 20 December 2010

Re: 1-series owners 'think it's FWD'

That's brilliant - though in fairness they "could" have been going inside to get the rear set too.

On another note that road looks perfectly drivable without chains, especially in a 1er, the TC on newer models is quite good for snow / ice driving.

Casanova 20 December 2010

Re: 1-series owners 'think it's FWD'

This photo may reinforce the title of the article!