BMW considering new 'X4'

Rover P6 3500S wrote:

Jon Hardcastle wrote:

Rover P6 3500S wrote:

As I said previously, just because you CAN make it, and sell it at a profit, doesn't mean you should.

P6 you baffle me, far be it for me to defend BMW with this design trend they are on but can you expand on your comment. When all said and done they are in the business of making money.

Sometimes I even baffle myself =)

What I am saying here is that the brand's reputation has to be considered. BMW are risking alienating their traditional customer base (which, let me remind you, is enormous) by continually whoring platforms, inventing niches that don't exist, all in the hope that they'll secure a few more sales. I mean, 80k in a year for the X6 isn't bad, but it isn't brilliant. This programme of BMW's just creates ever more baffling cars, that somehow don't do anything quite as well as their siblings - the X6 is no good as a sports coupé compared to the 6-series, it's no good as a 4-door sports saloon compared to the 5-series (high CofG will do that to a car!), the ride is poor, as they've tried to keep the handling reasonable, and it's NBG off-road. Oh, and it weighs the best part of 2.2 tons, IIRC. This X4 will just be another 'what-does-it-do' car that isn't as competent at anything as its sisters, but weighs more. Next thing, BMW will kill off all its manual gearboxes, move to V6s, FWD for most of its cars...