[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by ScottAndrew

The 2 GC (or 1/2 sedan for China, India, Mexico, Thailand etc) on the UKL platform will fix that.

Yes, just as I said, they will try to fix that next year. But, as I also said, it may be too little too late.

They are just now touching 300hp with the small vehicle platform, while the competition is about to blow past 400hp. They put all their M eggs in the the I6 basket, and they decided they only needed the M2 which is a great performance coupe that's trying to woo people who want a performance sedan or SUV. It doesn't matter how good the product is when its not the right form factor for a large portion of the enthusiast market.

Despite claims by and efforts from past M bosses to keep it from happening, they dogmatically thumbed their noses at high performance vehicles with east/west engines while their counterparts embraced them with open arms.

However it's not really a car for the US.

That's not correct. The 2 GC absolutely is a global vehicle with its sites set on the US small premium sedan market.

Perhaps there would be some interest in it in highly urbanised areas; but a conventional gas-powered 2 series with a 3 or 4-pot engine and 1.5 to 2 litres costing $40-45,000 will go down like a lead balloon.

It has worked for Audi and Mercedes. It may indeed be too late to ride that wave. We shall see.

I don't agree that BMW fell asleep with performance versions of the hatches.

You opened the discussion about the US market. We don't have the 1 Series hatchbacks here, performance versions or otherwise.

The current x40i is very competitive and will - as it should - remain more niche than very hot versions of shopping cars from others, assuming they build on a CLAR-based 2 series.

This part is unclear, but if I interpret you correctly, you are saying that the next 1 Series performance hatchback will remain popular if it is built on CLAR. Well guess what? It won't be. It is moving to UKL, and now what? The switch to this platform could have come with a silver lining if BMW had a true M chassis and engine ready so as to realize improved performance from the last generation. But they don't.

Of course BMW is capable of building a very, very hot "four". It's deep in their DNA, deeper than the others in fact. They didn't want to until now.

Nah. They didn't think they needed to. And they do not have a "very, very hot 'four'". They have a passable mid-range performance I4, that's it.

Be it the result of too much turnover in the leadership of their performance arm, or simple arrogance, they absolutely did drop the ball. If they hadn't dropped the ball, we'd have 300hp and 400hp small BMW sedans and SUVs on BMW lots today.

Besides, sales of the halo products are pretty small compared to the top models; as you say it's a small selection of vocal enthusiasts for whom the range revolves around the top end. (BTW here the x28i and x30i are also "top end" and quite rare.)

The entire point of halo products is to build credibility and get people into the dealership. They are not intended to sell in large numbers, they are intended to market the brand and get people excited which drives sales of the whole product lineup. The fact that you keep enthusiasts willing to reach for the high end models happy makes it a double win.