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Are BMW going downhill ? I don't think so but they are changing and so are Americans.
The big focus in Europe and therefore Germany and therefore BMW is about green issues - sustainability, fuel efficiency, adhering to ever more stringent emissions and remaining profitable and doing that as a responsible employer in a country which gives great emphasis to social issues.
For a very long time and indeed if you listen to many who write on this very website, it was all about power and speed and handling. So what you have is cars which have got more and more powerful and more and more fuel efficient, but because the average American/European/Human has got so much bigger and we all carry so much junk with us these days, the cars have got heavier and much bigger in the process. At the same time we expect the handing to get better ? Why ? All that happens is that the heavier and bigger the car, the harder and more firmly damped the car needs to be in order to get round the track in the same time. At the same time, the ride deteriorates. So because the guy driving the car has got fatter, the overall car has got bigger, which means it needs a bigger engine, which means it needs more technology to make it more efficient which makes it more expensive....
In Europe there is legislation which mandates that the AVERAGE CO2 emissions for a manufacturer will soon have to be 130mg CO2 per kilometer. Car makers exceeding this figure will attract fines on every car.
In the US, people are just getting used to $4 per gallon. So in sterling that is £2.20. The price in the UK at the moment is £5 per gallon or $9. Ok there's a lot of tax in there but it does rather put things into perspective. The US still has cheap fuel, is still a very cheap place to buy a BMW (why else would a 21 year old high school kid have a new 335i - probably bought by his dad).
So against this backdrop - has BMW got better ? Well yes ! It makes cars which are fun to drive - well balanced and sporty. Cars which are fuel efficient and getting more so. Cars which offer more space and have better crash performance than ever. That protect pedestrians (remember in Europe soon, most cars will start having pop up bonnets to protect the heads and bodies of pedestrians in the event of an accident) better than ever. And they are investing in the future of the car in much bigger numbers that many rivals. Hydrogen fuel cells, hybrids, hybrid diesels are just around the corner.
The only thing I really lament is that the paint is poorer - softer because there is less solvent in it (water based green paint) and some interior items - headlinings for example are much poorer so that they recycle better.
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