Quote:
|
I realize that I'm creating my own class of cars here (which I call "the 5-series is just too big for me" class), but that's me.
|
Actually, I somewhat like your category. Not because it happens to paint BMW in a more positive light, but because I think there is some value in saying "everything smaller than X". Generally, the smaller the car, the lower the cost, and the lower the cost, the more sales. In fact, when it comes to a luxury purchase, many people shop on cost as the biggest priority. And the jump from a 2 to a 3 (or CLA to a C, or A3 to A4) is generally something that could be taken much easier than jumping to the next class up (5/E/A6), so it's a logical "line in the sand".
Anyway, BMW
could potentially be doing even better here if they had a 1 or 2 Series sedan to sell. But I think the product planners and marketing folks are more concerned with SUVs right now though - not just at BMW, but at any manufacturer. Not that I disagree fundamentally. In fact, I have been surprised by how stubborn the compact luxury SUV class has been to really take off, contradicting the trends in the smaller non-luxury SUV class. In theory the X1 and its competitors should be tearing it up - a lot seems to be left on the table here right now. They are still largely outsold by bigger, more expensive luxury SUVS. But if you look at the comparable, smaller SUVs from Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, the Koreans, etc., they absolute clobber it in sales compared to the larger models from the same brand. Sure, you could say that for a luxury vehicle, people just want bigger and that's that. But if you look at luxury passenger cars, the smaller ones easily outsell the larger ones. And that's obviously due in some part (probably in large part) to price. So why doesn't the same thing hold for SUVs?