07 Auto Show

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Members Express VIP Club:
What makes this Auto Show different? For one thing, we went on Friday evening on the weekend the show ended, and the crowd was considerably more mellow than going on the first weekend. I also opted for a $25 "Member's Express" Card, which paid for itself quickly. If we had driven in, it gave a few dollars off parking. One membership allows two people a $2 ticket discount each, and allows both into a little resting area with light refreshments, kind staff, a bathroom, discount coupons for food and other things we may actually need, a goody bag and most of all- a private place to sit down and regroup any time during the auto show. This is quite a bit more than BMW NA offers club members for a few minutes upstairs in their otherwise empty client area for those who are willing to show up an hour before the show starts for some special restricted tickets, pay full price for show tickets as well only to get to their special area- with light refreshments but no access except for those few early morning minutes on the first Saturday, no discounts, no nothing, and their disaffected staff .
Yet they seem surprised that attendance is low.

BMW Report Card:
Seeing all those concept cars from previous years come to life, and remembering well how BMW let us know that they knew so much better than we did what the future of car styling and enhancements would be, I referred to the Z3 Owners online Marketing Survey. This survey was undertaken by Z3 enthusiasts (Tim Cullis, UK) in 2001 after attending what seemed to be a poorly organized BMW Marketing Survey at the BMW Factory in 1999- and then hearing nothing from it. (I attended with the survey author. ) As usual, Z3 owners took it upon themselves to fix what BMW won't. Other BMW owners ask us why we love our cars so much if we have to do so much to compensate for what the car lacks. I think this car show- and the survey data-provides the answers. I refer to the Z3 Owners Survey from 2001, because that data is available, whereas the BMW Survey data from 1999, if it exists, is not available.

Briefly, the results of the survey showed that the number 1 item Z3 owners wanted to see in the next generation was to KEEP RETRO STYLING and the absolutely lowest rated concept was to drop the retro styling. So this year's Auto Show proves that it was more than just Z3 owners failure to move with the times, or love of the familiar, or model protectionism at work: there is absolutely an intrinsic attraction to certain design elements across the board- from small cars to vans, US made family cars to ultra high end luxury race cars- proven by time that will continue to be desirable into the future: e.g. Gills. Curves. More curves.

Retro design elements can easily co-exist with technological improvements, in fact, that is their purpose and it is well appreciated by the car-buying public, including Z3 owners. Put your foot on the gas, that means go faster, and let the car beneath your foot do more than it would have ten years ago. Put your foot on the brake, and the technology beneath it will stop the car better. Top 20 desired survey items included a better convertible top- but a convertible hard top (which I personally favor) was bottom of the list. Stiffening options that we add to the car like strut braces were in the top 20 along with basic safety issues, quality issues, stone chips, rattles and the like- but convenience issues were at the bottom. We were saying YES YES YES to technological advances and quality improvements but no no NO to abandoning what works.

No- to adding clutter to the cockpit, where less is certainly more. On the one hand they understand we would rather have a heads up display on the windshield than a screen added to the console, but they seem to forget the rule when they add a knob where a passenger would rest their arm on the console. Head's up or head's down? Owners wisely say no to technology for technology's sake, no to following a design vision departure, yes to design evolution. Also in the top desire category were audio and lighting improvements- interior lights and headlights, and more color choices. This is pretty basic stuff: Keep the styling, improve the functionality of the car and give us some options. Five years later the other car manufacturers have done all of this, while BMW keeps turning their backs to the public demand.

BMW presented no concept cars, no alternative energy cars, it's taken them 6 years to begin to implement Z9 design concepts, they have a couple safety options that are good ideas (presented with superficial allegory instead of interactive demonstration), they have some beautiful new cars they are hiding instead of extolling, and they are snobbier than Lamborghini- whose staff was happily tending to the crowds, taking close up pictures for little kids who couldn't reach over the velvet ropes. BMW has decided to swim against the current for nearly 10 years in terms of design, both exterior and interior . BMW is adding the iDrive knob to the cockpit, no other car manufacturer has found the need to introduce a new widget to the cockpit. None. Apparently BMW decided that they know better than what a whole world of car buyers want, so much so that they don't need to speak to us at all or hear what we have to say, even after a decade of experience to the contrary.



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