CAN BMW KEEP IT UP FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS?

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. The big news in the industry this week is that BMW is celebrating its first 100 years, while preparing for its next century in business. Big deal? Certainly. The history of this business is littered with the abandoned carcasses of car companies – and brands – that didn’t survive.

And accompanying those failed companies are the countless dreamers – and dreams – that didn’t make it either. As I’ve often stated in my columns, the designing, engineering and building of automobiles is one of the most complicated endeavors on earth. It is fleeting moments of elation and exuberance over jobs well done and product executions that actually work out, punctuated by long periods of endless drudgery, abject product failures and rampant marketing mediocrity.

When everything comes together, there’s nothing like it. Genuine success rejuvenates the fire in the True Believers’ hearts and keeps them pumped and ready for their next assignment. When things go bad – and even in this era of allegedly “no bad cars” they still do – it makes the participants reevaluate their choice of careers, and on a daily basis too.

Given where BMW started in this country, it is truly fantastic what the brand has achieved. Though it had been a presence for years in Europe, it wasn’t until the 2002 arrived here in the late 60s that BMW emerged from the fringes of this business in the U.S.

Remember, back then the historic muscle car era was still going strong in this market, dominating enthusiasts’ conversations. So a simple (and slightly innocuous) two-door sedan powered by a little four-cylinder engine wouldn’t seem like an ideal car for the time. But there was something about that little BMW. It was pure in its mission as a driver’s machine, and its overall efficiency was an almost shocking counterpoint to the V8 horsepower wars of that era. I found the entire package to be almost heroic in its execution, and it changed a lot of enthusiast minds about what performance meant, or could mean going forward.

I vividly remember my first experience with a BMW when I took my friend’s ’71 2002 out for a drive on the roads in and around Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, in northern California. At first I couldn’t quite see the appeal of the boxy and seemingly underpowered sedan, because it seemed sluggish and not very responsive. But then, we came across a sports car running ahead of us and through that unspoken communication between enthusiasts we started to go for it, attacking the road together with verve. And all of a sudden, that funky little BMW came alive in my hands. The harder I pushed it, the better it felt. The “sluggish” steering became just right, and the overall feel of it was a revelation. I remember saying to my buddy, “Oh, I get it now!”

Another anecdote? I recall taking my brother over to see a brand-new 1975 BMW 530i parked in the paddock one weekend at Mid-Ohio. I had only seen pictures of the car as it had just been released in the U.S., but it had been brought to the track by members of the factory BMW team that was racing there that weekend. The 530i was so desperately different from the American sedans of the day that it was shocking in its purposeful stance and functionally sparse and unadorned design execution. And I distinctly remember saying at the time, “That car is going to transform the American market.” A little premature, to be sure, but eventually that’s exactly what happened over time. (I myself went on to own many BMWs over the years, starting with the successor to the 2002 - the 320i – and on and on from there. And by the way, in case you’re wondering, when you’re talking about BMW cars the shorthand terminology is “Bimmer.” When you’re talking about BMW motorcycles it’s “Beemer.”)

When the word spread among enthusiasts about the hot driving machines from Bavaria, the reputation and desirability of the brand grew right along with the overwhelmingly positive word of mouth. By the time I arrived at my first – and still favorite - ad agency in early 1980 (MacManus, John & Adams, in Bloomfield Hills, MI) to work on the Pontiac account, the talk of BMW dominated every single client product briefing and marketing discussion.

Pontiac desperately wanted to capture some of that BMW magic. The designers and engineers talked about it constantly, in fact it was safe to say that they were flat-out obsessed with everything BMW. That Pontiac tried to emulate BMW from that point forward was no secret, but then again so did the rest of the automakers too. In fact BMW was the buzz of the entire industry.

And the auto journalists of the era only fueled the fervor over BMW. Car reviews compared everything to BMW, as in steering mechanisms being “not nearly as good as a BMW” or the overall driving feel being “a poor imitation of the goodness of a BMW.” And all of the manufacturers took note, trying to capture the BMW steering and suspension feel in particular, while redesigning their cockpits to be “more like BMW.”

In short, BMW transformed the automobile business in this country, redefining what true performance meant, what it was supposed to feel like and how it should look. And when BMW’s U.S. marketing team green-lighted one of the most evocative auto advertising themes of all time – “The Ultimate Driving Machine” – it only served to underscore what enthusiasts already knew, that BMW was the standard by which all manufacturers’ cars would be judged.

BMW’s success here in the U.S. helped power the “Germany Inc.” juggernaut in the luxury-performance segment to new heights, a segment that the German automakers dominate to this day, despite the best efforts of myriad competitors. The High-Octane Truth is that BMW’s success lit a fire under Mercedes-Benz, pushing that brand to new heights. And the BMW playbook was studied and dissected by Audi every step of the way in its upward trajectory as well. (Lexus aimed more at the Mercedes persona, but make no mistake - BMW’s influence was felt there too.)

Has it been all bunny rabbits and rainbows for BMW here in this market? Oh, hell no. This is the automotive business after all, remember?

A few years ago the bonehead marketers at BMW headquarters in Germany tried to shove the European ad campaign revolving around the concept of “Joy” down U.S. dealers’ throats and the dealers pushed back. Hard. Only disconnected and misguided German marketers – and believe me that’s a traditionally accurate descriptor and there are plenty of them still running rampant today - would think that walking away from one of the most powerfully memorable automotive advertising themes of all time was a good idea. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed and they walked back from the brink, and the “Ultimate Driving Machine” is still the signature of the brand today.

No, keeping BMW from going off of the rails hasn’t been easy over the years, but it has been especially difficult over the last half decade. The True Believers within BMW are haunted and harassed by the burgeoning ranks of the dreaded VPH secret society, aka the Volume-Profitability Hacks. These are the bureaucrats within BMW who emphatically insist that there really is no ceiling for the brand, that the company can chase every product niche – both real and imagined – with impunity and that the ultimate goal is a BMW in every damn garage in America, and everywhere else too.

That BMW has gotten dangerously close to the fire on this cannot be denied. Its forays into questionable product niches are a glaring sign that they’re not infallible, that they’re but one lame-ass product away from embarrassing themselves at any moment. Thankfully, the abject stupidity of such products as the 3 Series GT and 5 Series GT are more than balanced out by such glorious machines as the new M2. At least for the moment, anyway.

The big buzz for BMW as it embarks on its next century? According to the carefully worded press releases, BMW will be a part of the future of mobility, wherever it may lead. Ahem, how is that different from every other car company saying the exact same thing?

It's not different at all, as a matter of fact, and I guess it’s a giant “We’ll See” at the moment, but given BMW’s illustrious track record, I will certainly give the company the benefit of the doubt.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.

(BMW images)

(BMW)
BMW embarks on its next century.