[X3paul]

Originally Posted by gvega702

They may be making more money than ever but I think he's referring to the lack of inspiring products. I went into the dealership yesterday and sat in everything. The only model that enticed me to want a test drive was the M3 but that's out of my budget (for now).

Everything else felt cheap even compared to my e46 which is now over 10 years old. Nor did they have the features of my 10 year old car for nearly 40 or more grand. I'm looking to replace my e46 as it is getting old but non of the current range of BMW's do anything for me and I used to be a huge fan boy. I don't even recommend the brand to friends anymore because I'd feel bad putting recommending them knowing their are lots of other good options.

Who made the cost cutting decision to get rid of the button to open the center arm rest in the f30? Now you have yank it out of the center console and slam it back in. All while making unpleasant noises. Did they take that little bit of savings and put it into something else like standard xenon lights? Higher quality plastics on something you touch regularly? Nope... they took that bit of savings and laughed to the bank. I that's just one minor instance of the cost cutting that went into the F30 I'm sure, and you can tell. Along with the rest of the current line up...

Higher quality interiors with better driving dynamics, please. Hopefully the new CEO knows that and he's axing extra models to get what we already have back up to speed.

I too feel my old E46 had a better quality than some new bm's - 1 ser for instance. There were 2 models I was keen on: i3 - pre ordered one for august next year and the 1ser 4 door to replace my loved E46. They moved to fwd i moved to porsche. Perhaps in the future the brand will focus again on core values and not just $$$
Dont forget lamp in the glovebox, cheap manual seat controls in new cars, cheap plastics on the lower levels, cheap air vents. Sat in an alfa giullieta today I was blownaway. Not to mention the merc c class looks better quality int than next 7. Even the paintwork is much much cheaper quality. They now use an all in one paint primer to save $$$ and it shows. Paint on my previous f25 x3 (replaced by macan) flaked off during wash!!! Poor sounddeadning - my 1st gen x3 sounded better and less intrusive than similar f25. I was ready to drop 100k on an i8 until I sat in the interior and found plastics that a basic renault clio would not have. I simply could not justif it. Than had to cost cutting the more and more sedated numb driving experience and blame me 4 going to porsche to get a propers driver machine