Quote:
Originally Posted by mkoesel
One other thing to consider is the sell-through rate on the Competition model. In the recent past it was, to my recollection, mentioned to be over 80% (and no I don't have a citation for that, sorry) during the period it was made available. If that's true, then not offering the base model with the automatic transmission would make sense. The demand for such a combination would likely be very small, with most people continuing to prefer the Competition model as before, while those who do prefer the base model in most cases doing so to get the manual transmission.
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Agree, that would be the significant driver in a decision to push all auto buyers to comp only. comp models seem to be the preferred setup across most of the M lineup
Thinking out loud through the product positioning/marketing side of things... BMW does seem to be making a relatively big deal they retained the manual in the M3/M4, and it kinda is considering the overall competitive offerings. Differentiating the auto and manual offering in more ways than just the physical equipment for changing gears on the interior would would allow manual buyers more obvious distinction on the road and provide BMW marketing a stronger credible position to zero in on manual buyers (and roadside droolers) with that distinct model. It provides near explict confirmation the manual is not an afterthought "Hey we built an entire model variant around it"
If BMW would kindly share the customer personas they built the business model for the M3/M4 line on it would resolve alot of the open questions being debated.... (other than actually revealing the cars in a month and a half)