Quote: "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers."
Bob Lutz , GM Corp. Vice-Chairman | Discuss.Source : http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...6003_mz044.htm A very interesting article, if you have the time, don't miss it. |
| Reply » "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers." |
The 7 Series diminishes the brand in the eyes of this M driver.
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| Reply » "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers." |
Robert A. Lutz, General Motors Corp. vice-chairman for product development, says Cadillac will not follow the path of German luxury brands in the march to obtain higher sales volumes: "After a couple of 1 Series, they'll have to bring in another brand on top to add prestige," he says. "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers." Panke is adamant that future growth won't tarnish the BMW badge. "We are not competing with the mass market," he says.
Yeah Caddy has already gone down that road a few times though - the "Cavalier with a Caddy grill" Cimarron was probably the worst offender.
I don't think it is that big of an issue at BMW, or Lexus for that matter, since they both use a similar range of cars. There is usually enough differentiation between the vehicles to avoid too much band overlap; however I agree that the 1er could canibalize sales for 3ers here - that is if the 1er ever comes here. The 1er shares 60% of its parts with the 3er? Wow.
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| Reply » "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers." |
3 series owners out number 7 series owners by almost 6 to 1. I'd venture to say that if the 1 series becomes as popular as the 3 series... (I doubt), the execs at BMW would then say 'who cares what the 7 series owners think!'. 
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| Reply » "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers." |
I don't think it's the 1er/7er relationship that's going to get BMW into trouble. BMW is trying to juggle a LOT these days. New product launches. New technologies. New customer demographics. New markets. Not to mention all the money and effort it takes behind the scenes; like the article mentions, R&D dollars, etc. All while trying to maintain (hopefully improve) existing things: Quality. Customer Service. Value (resale/residual value, perceived value). Performance. Durability. Availability. Styling. And integrate as much of these existing values into the new areas.
That's a LOT to juggle. And we're already seeing slippage in some areas. The more and further BMW allows these things to slip, the worse off they're going to be when they finally realize they've bitten off more than they can chew.
It's not as bad as the downward spiral that the Big3 went through in the late 70s/80s when they seemingly decided that they just plain didn't want to maintain and improve in any of these areas. And 15-20 years later, they're still suffering.
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| Reply » "The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers." |
Lutz's statement ignores the obvious: Cadillac is not a car manufacturer; it is just one brand/product line in the GM group. They currently repackage vehicles from GMC, and they have used Chevy, Opel, and Olds components in the past. As a result, GM needs to maintain artificial limits on the product lines and even on the marques that dealers can carry in order to support the Cadillac pricing.
IMO, this is symptomatic of GM's problems, both in the US and in Europe.
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"The 1 Series will diminish the brand in the eyes of 7 Series buyers."