| Archive for The Motor Forum talking cars since 2006 |
| "him" |
A FWD BMW?Excepting the MINI, how do you feel about a FWD BMW?
http://jalopnik.com/5375496/bmw-to-build-mini+platformed-0+class |
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| TimR |
No feelings at all.
They're all overpriced, overimaged cars mainly driven by 'wannabees' who always head for the lowest spec model and get the badges deleted*. Nothing they do at the moment has any appeal to me at all. *Forum owners excepted of course 
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| Blarno |
Massive indifference. | ||||||||||
| "him" |
Much the same as me then... | ||||||||||
| Matt |
Even I couldn't care less. When M make a pair of SUVs and a bloody Rover 800 on stilts, what little credibility they have is waning anyway. | ||||||||||
| Nice Guy Eddie |
Not even a 135i or an M3 saloon? I'm not too fussed either. Its not as if an owner of a 116i or 318d is going to feel the benefits of RWD. A smaller less powerful car needs FWD for packaging reasons. |
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| woof woof |
We keep seeing wheels like that on design drawings and they always look unreal and shit IMVHO but they just keep drawing 'em.
FWD BMW, what's the old saying? Put a BMW badge on a dog turd and people will buy it, especially the British. |
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| Matt |
I have to admit that I do prefer the feel of being pushed through a corner, but I'd say the 306 and now the Astra are still worthwhile drives and the typical modern BMW buyer wants a sports saloon no more than I want a bullet in the head. | ||||||||||
| Frank Bullitt |
Not true - the sweet uncorrupted steering comes through irrespective of the power output. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
It's OK as long as they keep making a small RWD car as well (1 series or equivalent), and as long as they give it the same chassis capability as the MINI.
It does make sense for smaller cars, as you can maintain reasonable interior space by packaging the mechanicals in a smaller space - my objection is when manufacturers insist on using it on ALL their cars, even big-engined executive saloons. That said, given pedestrian impact regulations and aerodynamic requirements, a rear-engine might be a better solution. |
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| Nice Guy Eddie |
Do you think anybody who buys a 116i gives a shit about uncorrupted steering. If they cared how a car drove they wouldn't have bought something so slow. |
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
It might be all they're allowed on a company car list. I once had a 116i as a hire car for a weekend, and sweet and uncorrupted were very good words indeed to describe its steering. Very useful when you don't have a lot of power and want to get round roundabouts as quickly as possible. | ||||||||||
| TimR |
As I said MOST drivers are in the base model of whichever range they have picked. My bro-in-law has a 1999 316Ti Compact and it's predominant characteristic is understeer. I tried very hard to get it to oversteer on a wet roundabout and there was hardly anything. The steering isn't great either. My 2000 reg Punto HGT was a much more fun car to drive. |
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| Bob Sacramento |
Will they do a M version? The M0? | ||||||||||
| Dr. Hfuhruhurr |
And will the entry level version have a 700cc engine? | ||||||||||
| DradusContact |
Surely the mini serves this function perfectly well though? Its been one of THE great sales stories of the decade? The BMW badge is incredibly strong, but not in that area of the market. | ||||||||||
| TimR |
You'd think so but VW Group have made it clear that you can have competing brands sharing the same platform that can all happily co-exist without taking too many sales off each other (SEAT notwithstanding but that's more a marketing/design problem I think). BMW will be hoping to get people at the lower end of the market into something with that badge on it so that when they trade up they will go for, say, a 3 series then maybe a 5 series after that. They will presumably make the car a bit more 'mature', or less cheeky, than the Mini which will sort of put it into another segment of the same market. |
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| Twelfth Monkey |
Agree with the general gist that other things that it has produced dilute its 'ultimate driving machine' strapline by far more. | ||||||||||
| Frank Bullitt |
I had a 116i hire car a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it - no it wasn't quick but it felt lovely to drive and didn't put me off owning one over something more powerful. Some of us don't have the company car option to spunk £mega on a car, or indeed the desire to own a power-house; I'd happily choose a 'cheap' BMW over a similar priced hot-hatch et-al. |
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| Mark |
+1 - http://themotor.myfastforum.org/about6664.html Whilst it wasn't very fast, it certainly wasn't slow and was nippy around town from what I remember. And - there was never any doubt that it was rear wheel drive. Lovely...till I had to get out and look at the bugger. |
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| DB |
It will be interesting to see what happens with MINI long term. It seems to me that you can only go retro for so long. Unlike most others, MINI is as much a product as it is a brand, which means the opportunities to re-invent are limited.
Perhaps BMW recognise this and want to take a slice of the super-mini market via other means. |
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| Big TC |
I'll give any fwd BMW with the same level of thought I afford the other vehicles in its range, most probably. | ||||||||||
| PG |
BMW could by now have had a full range of front wheel drive BMW's called Rovers and MG's. But they decided to fu** the company over. | ||||||||||
| DarthBalls |
If BMW do go FWD they'd better learn how to package cars properly. The MINI and the 1 series both have the interior space of cars from the segment below. The 1 series felt cramped even compared to our Fabia.
Any FWD BMW will sell well in the UK at least. |
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| Martin |
+2, apart from the comment about the looks
You can tell even the lowest powered ones are RWD and the overall feel is quite different to similarly sized/priced cars. That might not be as important to some people as TLGP performance, but I wouldn't assume that everyone buys one just because of the badge. Quite a few do though....!! |
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| Roadrunner |
Indeed. The front wheel drive MG BMW which is parked in my garage is so good I have absolutley no idea how I am going to replace it with anything as good, this side of a Jaguar. A recent ride in a 1-Series felt almost as bad as an Audi A3 in comparison to the MG. |