RE: 2023 BMW XM prototype | PH Review

[andyvvc]

A new Beemer that looks so bad the even test-driver has camoflaged it

[martin12345]

Excited - No (the end, no discussion)

[oedipus]

Why so many words? Perhaps you could have traded on a picture being worth a thousand words and removed the images to save us from looking at this awful thing.

[MyV10BarksAndBites]

Dynamic obsolescence

[blasos]

Article said:

That's the round 1,000nm

A thousand nanometers is a generous amount of torque LOL

[1000 Miglia]

Article says...Weight TBC , they haven't got a set of scales that go over 5 tonnes.......

[ExPat2B]

blasos said:

Article said:

That's the round 1,000nm

A thousand nanometers is a generous amount of torque LOL

[myhandle]

rwindmill said:

So this is how ICE bows out, with a procession of oversized brick shaped SUV's with monstrous power outputs.

Whatever happened to style, finesse, sartorial elegance, having just the right amount of power to suit the capabilities of the chassis??

There are also the Murray T50 and T33, the new Boxster Spyder RS, the Ferrari SP3 and the upcoming V12 hybrid Aventador replacement. The fat lady is yet to sing.

[Honeywell]

Chinese millionaires with very poor taste will love this. Well done BMW.

[Andyt25]

Easy answer to you headline …… No…

[Hairymonster]

Bobby Lee said:

If the best defence you can make is comparing it to the Ford Scorpio that’s about as damning as it gets tbh.

How is it different to the 1000 identical massive grim SUVs launched in the last 12 seconds? Only thing I can think of is it’s slightly more pointlessly massive.

I would certainly prefer the fish-mouthed Scorpio with the 2.9 V6 24 valve Cosworth lump in it over this carbuncle. What a piece of crap.

[HighwayStar]

Bobby Lee said:

HighwayStar said:

E30KB said:

Do people who are the target market for this not care about how it looks at all ?.

If that is the answer what was the question?

Does it have even matter. Some people, want, appreciate something different. Not necessarily pretty, bold and brutal can be interesting.
I remember seeing the Ford Scorpio at the Motorshow in the mid 80’s. I thought it was hideous… a bloke peered inside and said that’s real luxury that.
Build it and they will come….

If the best defence you can make is comparing it to the Ford Scorpio that’s about as damning as it gets tbh.

How is it different to the 1000 identical massive grim SUVs launched in the last 12 seconds? Only thing I can think of is it’s slightly more pointlessly massive.

Hardly a defence. Stuff gets made and put out in the marketplace and the market decides. BMW have turned out cars with challenging looks for years. Each one met with, no one will buy it. This is the end of BMW. They are finished. It’s a risky approach which they clearly embrace and the company is bigger, more successful than ever.
I’m not a big fan of what they do but I find it intriguing. There is clearly enough customers who don’t just want a conventional looking car, acceptable to the PH massive, their neighbours etc..
I guess BMW don’t what to be just simply an AUDI, Merc alternative.

[barrycoupe]

Another ugly BMW. They really have lost their way. The lack of design coherence, and fussy detailing extends to 90% of the range. That grille…..yet another rendition! Ghastly.

[mrclav]

Magikarp said:

We all know where this is going. Will one of the manufacturers just stop the cock tease and just do a 2000BHP, 3 ton abomination with 30" wheels ?

It's kinda already happened:-



4.1 tonnes (the battery pack alone is 1325 kgs). 1000bhp. 20" wheels. 35" tyres.

0-60mph in 3 seconds, pulling around 0.74g in the process. Range is about 325 miles, charging is up to 350kw depending on model and it adds around 100 miles of range in 10 minutes.

[mrclav]

HighwayStar said:

Bobby Lee said:

HighwayStar said:

E30KB said:

Do people who are the target market for this not care about how it looks at all ?.

If that is the answer what was the question?

Does it have even matter. Some people, want, appreciate something different. Not necessarily pretty, bold and brutal can be interesting.
I remember seeing the Ford Scorpio at the Motorshow in the mid 80’s. I thought it was hideous… a bloke peered inside and said that’s real luxury that.
Build it and they will come….

If the best defence you can make is comparing it to the Ford Scorpio that’s about as damning as it gets tbh.

How is it different to the 1000 identical massive grim SUVs launched in the last 12 seconds? Only thing I can think of is it’s slightly more pointlessly massive.

Hardly a defence. Stuff gets made and put out in the marketplace and the market decides. BMW have turned out cars with challenging looks for years. Each one met with, no one will buy it. This is the end of BMW. They are finished. It’s a risky approach which they clearly embrace and the company is bigger, more successful than ever.
I’m not a big fan of what they do but I find it intriguing. There is clearly enough customers who don’t just want a conventional looking car, acceptable to the PH massive, their neighbours etc..
I guess BMW don’t what to be just simply an AUDI, Merc alternative.

Fully agree with you Highway Star and I absolutely love the apoplectic raging on this thread. People can negatively opine, moan and bellyache all they like but the fact is, BMW sales are at record highs, profits are very healthy and the PH forum categorically do not know better than the market. BMW haven't lost their way, lost the plot of any of the crap I see spouting from those refusing to accept reality - the market overall just doesn't doesn't care small, lightweight, manual sedans; they want large SUVs and seeing as BMW are, essentially, the inventors of the "soft-roader" with the first X5, they more than anyone else know exactly what they're doing which is responding to the markets demands and not living in the past.

The idea that people (mostly of European descent) on here are the arbiters of taste is simply laughable to me but I think really that deep down, they just don't want to admit the fact that their opinion is becoming less and less relevant on a world stage as cars like this aren't aimed at them but at people who have more money to spend (like the Chinese) who have different tastes and are far more important to BMW as a market than a former colonial power...

I'm not in the market for an SUV at all but if I was, I think I'd drive one of these solely to piss people off!

[HighwayStar]

mrclav said:

HighwayStar said:

Bobby Lee said:

HighwayStar said:

E30KB said:

Do people who are the target market for this not care about how it looks at all ?.

If that is the answer what was the question?

Does it have even matter. Some people, want, appreciate something different. Not necessarily pretty, bold and brutal can be interesting.
I remember seeing the Ford Scorpio at the Motorshow in the mid 80’s. I thought it was hideous… a bloke peered inside and said that’s real luxury that.
Build it and they will come….

If the best defence you can make is comparing it to the Ford Scorpio that’s about as damning as it gets tbh.

How is it different to the 1000 identical massive grim SUVs launched in the last 12 seconds? Only thing I can think of is it’s slightly more pointlessly massive.

Hardly a defence. Stuff gets made and put out in the marketplace and the market decides. BMW have turned out cars with challenging looks for years. Each one met with, no one will buy it. This is the end of BMW. They are finished. It’s a risky approach which they clearly embrace and the company is bigger, more successful than ever.
I’m not a big fan of what they do but I find it intriguing. There is clearly enough customers who don’t just want a conventional looking car, acceptable to the PH massive, their neighbours etc..
I guess BMW don’t what to be just simply an AUDI, Merc alternative.

Fully agree with you Highway Star and I absolutely love the apoplectic raging on this thread. People can negatively opine, moan and bellyache all they like but the fact is, BMW sales are at record highs, profits are very healthy and the PH forum categorically do not know better than the market. BMW haven't lost their way, lost the plot of any of the crap I see spouting from those refusing to accept reality - the market overall just doesn't doesn't care small, lightweight, manual sedans; they want large SUVs and seeing as BMW are, essentially, the inventors of the "soft-roader" with the first X5, they more than anyone else know exactly what they're doing which is responding to the markets demands and not living in the past.

The idea that people (mostly of European descent) on here are the arbiters of taste is simply laughable to me but I think really that deep down, they just don't want to admit the fact that their opinion is becoming less and less relevant on a world stage as cars like this aren't aimed at them but at people who have more money to spend (like the Chinese) who have different tastes and are far more important to BMW as a market than a former colonial power...

I'm not in the market for an SUV at all but if I was, I think I'd drive one of these solely to piss people off!

And yet… pop over to the Cadi Escalade-V piece and there is a lot of love for an SUV as equally ridiculous and bigger. The Range Rover Sport thread. Too big, too heavy, only driven by school runners, white socked gym going medallion men, drug dealers and… wkers. Not one sold to a regular Jo/Joe who just thinks it covers all the bases for them/their family.
I’ve never wanted an SUV either, Ms Star has an Evoque which she thinks is a wonderful thing. To me it simply fulfils its basic requirement, getting from here to there. If we had the necessary and she wanted an XM… hell yeah, I’m with you… I’d post it on PH, kick back and revel as veins popped in the thread.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

mrclav said:

t's kinda already happened:-



4.1 tonnes (the battery pack alone is 1325 kgs). 1000bhp. 20" wheels. 35" tyres.

0-60mph in 3 seconds, pulling around 0.74g in the process. Range is about 325 miles, charging is up to 350kw depending on model and it adds around 100 miles of range in 10 minutes.

Seen that before and I'm sure nobody in the history of mankind has said this about a Hummer but that looks nicer than whats vaguely hidden under the XM camo.

But is this what cars are becoming? 4 tonne bricks with 1.5 tonnes of batteries needed to push them along?

[cjcf]

WHAT??

[Evercross]

PH said:

it’s the most ‘proper’ M car since the M1

Pardon me if someone else has mentioned this already, but I was under the impression M stood for Motorsport. So, is the intention to take this racing, or does M now stand for Mendacious?

[SidewaysSi]

Evercross said:

PH said:

it’s the most ‘proper’ M car since the M1

Pardon me if someone else has mentioned this already, but I was under the impression M stood for Motorsport. So, is the intention to take this racing, or does M now stand for Mendacious?

Let's be honest...M actually stands for Motorway. Most M cars are hardly sporty at all.

This is just a natural progression.