RE: Alpina XD3: Review
Discussion
300bhp/ton said:
But when will someone put an engine like this in a sports car??? 
.
The sportiest vehicle your will see that magnificent engine in will possibly be the D4. i.e. the 3 series coupe. Its already made it from the D5 to the X3D and now to the D3 saloon and touring.....
http://thealpinaregister.com/forums/viewtopic.php?...
I'd love one of them as a daily s
tter.
Fast, comfy and drives well.
Never saw the point of a 4X4 before I was loaned one when my car was in for a service. Now we run one as a family bus, much prefer it to the BMW estates of the past.
Would imagine the depreciation will be horrendous for the first 5 yrs
tter. Fast, comfy and drives well.
Never saw the point of a 4X4 before I was loaned one when my car was in for a service. Now we run one as a family bus, much prefer it to the BMW estates of the past.
Would imagine the depreciation will be horrendous for the first 5 yrs
Is that the worst score I have ever seen for a PH car article?
Personally I love Alpinas and have a yearning to acquire a touring, probably 5 series. This though misses for me, but then the x3 misses for me too. Think this would work much better in he X5 where money no object buyers are more likely to shop.
The great thing about Alpina is exclusivity. Luckily we will never see very many of these!
Personally I love Alpinas and have a yearning to acquire a touring, probably 5 series. This though misses for me, but then the x3 misses for me too. Think this would work much better in he X5 where money no object buyers are more likely to shop.
The great thing about Alpina is exclusivity. Luckily we will never see very many of these!
The Spruce goose said:
BMW have lost the plot with looks. People say Bangle ruined it but they didn't need him to do the st they are coming out with.
This car looks stupid, but the stats look immense.
They don't really care what Europeans think their cars look like anymore I am afraid, because we aren't buying (many of) them. You'll probably find the Chinese think it looks great.t they are coming out with.This car looks stupid, but the stats look immense.
Leebo310 said:
Not exactly a "review" is it. More just describing the pictures and then comparing it to another car that the majority of PH's hate.
High quality journalism...
That's what I thought, and most of what they write about is good in terms of power, figures, performance, then they ask if there is a saving grace, but all they have sl@gged off is the way it looks really, which is subjective (though I happen to agree). Very odd, EVO drove it and gave a much more balanced review whilst still saying that in effect it wasn't very tasteful and yes it went like stink but there was no hiding the fact it was an SUV.High quality journalism...
zebedee said:
They don't really care what Europeans think their cars look like anymore I am afraid, because we aren't buying (many of) them. You'll probably find the Chinese think it looks great.
BMW sold about 1.5M cars last year, 400K of them in China. I don't know who came up with this particular notion, but I doubt car makers catering primarily to Chinese taste is what's driving market patterns.Especially since I doubt which car is found attractive differs significantly across China or US and Europe. At least given a particular type of car. I could understand most Chinese buyers not being interested in coupes or roadsters, but that's a very different matter. If a Chinese buyer is looking for a 4-door, I doubt they'd find a Peugeot 407 better looking than a Citroen C5. This doesn't mean Chinese makers can introduce attractive cars, but I'm reasonably sure Chinese buyers would still judge cars like their American or European counterparts.
As far as how much Chinese tastes affect the cars we get over here; I've seen it suggested that since they don't care for handling or manual transmission, handling is not given priority anymore or manuals are getting rarer. Does the average US/Euro consumer care about those anymore? BMW did offer manual M5s in the US, didn't they? BMW already caters for the chauffeur-driven Chinese buyer with their LWB 3- and 5-series and I don't see those offered over here or even in other developing markets.
Maybe I'm missing something and there is actual proof for the claim, but IMO this is simply an oft-repeated lie. People everywhere are getting fatter and want larger cars. Most people are driven by fashion and follow the herd. Perhaps it's the kind of people I am unfortunate enough to observe closely, but most people simply know what they should aspire for and never care to wonder why that should be the case. The end result is very well summarized in the Audi A6. "Desirable" options cost as much as the base price of the car. Audi is the best-selling premium maker in China by a small margin, BTW.
Edited by ptopman on Wednesday 11th September 14:34
ptopman said:
BMW sold about 1.5M cars last year, 400K of them in China. I don't know who came up with this particular notion, but I doubt car makers catering primarily to Chinese taste is what's driving market patterns.
Especially since I doubt which car is found attractive differs significantly across China or US and Europe. At least given a particular type of car. I could understand most Chinese buyers not being interested in coupes or roadsters, but that's a very different matter. If a Chinese buyer is looking for a 4-door, I doubt they'd find a Peugeot 407 better looking than a Citroen C5. This doesn't mean Chinese makers can introduce attractive cars, but I'm reasonably sure Chinese buyers would still judge cars like their American or European counterparts.
As far as how much Chinese tastes affect the cars we get over here; I've seen it suggested that since they don't care for handling or manual transmission, handling is not given priority anymore or manuals are getting rarer. Does the average US/Euro consumer care about those anymore? BMW did offer manual M5s in the US, didn't they? BMW already caters for the chauffeur-driven Chinese buyer with their LWB 3- and 5-series and I don't see those offered over here or even in other developing markets.
Maybe I'm missing something and there is actual proof for the claim, but IMO this is simply an oft-repeated lie. People everywhere are getting fatter and want larger cars. Most people are driven by fashion and follow the herd. Perhaps it's the kind of people I am unfortunate enough to observe closely, but most people simply know what they should aspire for and never care to wonder why that should be the case. The end result is very well summarized in the Audi A6. "Desirable" options cost as much as the base price of the car. Audi is the best-selling premium maker in China by a small margin, BTW.
The Chinese people are likely to have a certain aesthetic taste I think, think how long it took Americans to go for euro/jap styled cars because they were used to massive square things, and bigger was better for status etc. If you look at the style of Chinese cars, and the (sometimes very) subtle changes that they make to the oft-derised rip-off cars they come out with over there, there seems to be a certain gaucheness to them, i.e. they look clumsy to us but to them they probably look 'right'. I can't think of any other reason why BMW changed the 1 series from something that was quite handsome and well proportioned, to suddenly have a big gopping squared off front end. Especially since I doubt which car is found attractive differs significantly across China or US and Europe. At least given a particular type of car. I could understand most Chinese buyers not being interested in coupes or roadsters, but that's a very different matter. If a Chinese buyer is looking for a 4-door, I doubt they'd find a Peugeot 407 better looking than a Citroen C5. This doesn't mean Chinese makers can introduce attractive cars, but I'm reasonably sure Chinese buyers would still judge cars like their American or European counterparts.
As far as how much Chinese tastes affect the cars we get over here; I've seen it suggested that since they don't care for handling or manual transmission, handling is not given priority anymore or manuals are getting rarer. Does the average US/Euro consumer care about those anymore? BMW did offer manual M5s in the US, didn't they? BMW already caters for the chauffeur-driven Chinese buyer with their LWB 3- and 5-series and I don't see those offered over here or even in other developing markets.
Maybe I'm missing something and there is actual proof for the claim, but IMO this is simply an oft-repeated lie. People everywhere are getting fatter and want larger cars. Most people are driven by fashion and follow the herd. Perhaps it's the kind of people I am unfortunate enough to observe closely, but most people simply know what they should aspire for and never care to wonder why that should be the case. The end result is very well summarized in the Audi A6. "Desirable" options cost as much as the base price of the car. Audi is the best-selling premium maker in China by a small margin, BTW.
Edited by ptopman on Wednesday 11th September 14:34
I have no idea about numbers of car sales per country but a single market taking more than quarter of your cars is going to be quite influential (especially when probably gearing up to try and get more and more market share there...)
I don't know though, maybe the new designers are just crap after all.
Many Europeans love those American classic monsters and devote hours and pounds into restoring them so I don't think the difference in what cars were sold were so clearly driven by taste. Petrol not as cheap and roads not as straight or wide as those in the US, an American car was often a difficult proposition to justify in Europe. Likewise, 30 years ago, you'd be far more likely to find Volvos or BMWs in Eastern US where roads and cities are more like what you'd find in Europe than some place like Texas or California.
Also, most people are afraid of losing too much money on their car. Given doubts over resale, consumers are cautious and companies presume the models won't sell well, so in the end some models may never be brought to some market, or sometimes even if the model does get introduced, the marketing budget is small and the model never gains traction so the manufacturer skips the next revision, etc.
Chinese designs are awful, because they are novices at it and they are probably driven by goals such as projecting certain values because the brands do not stand for any given values yet. And their efforts are quite blunt. A current Volvo does not have to be so square to be considered safe and sound because decades of past models were sufficiently square. One day, soon I suppose, Chinese brands may become confident enough to let the product speak for itself. Chery has just nicked a designer from Porsche for example.
Also, most people are afraid of losing too much money on their car. Given doubts over resale, consumers are cautious and companies presume the models won't sell well, so in the end some models may never be brought to some market, or sometimes even if the model does get introduced, the marketing budget is small and the model never gains traction so the manufacturer skips the next revision, etc.
Chinese designs are awful, because they are novices at it and they are probably driven by goals such as projecting certain values because the brands do not stand for any given values yet. And their efforts are quite blunt. A current Volvo does not have to be so square to be considered safe and sound because decades of past models were sufficiently square. One day, soon I suppose, Chinese brands may become confident enough to let the product speak for itself. Chery has just nicked a designer from Porsche for example.
300bhp/ton said:
.
A Z4C with a 350hp diesel motor and 50-60mpg would be an appealing package to many I'm sure.
Not really, because the Z4C has appalling steering and a terrble ride the only saving grace is the creamy straight 6 (and the looks) so putting a diesel lump in there wouldn't improve it. A Z4C with a 350hp diesel motor and 50-60mpg would be an appealing package to many I'm sure.
Edited by Wills2 on Thursday 12th September 23:20
Does PH stand for PistonHeads or Predictable Hatred? More howling about a car nobody's actually driven - not even the writer in this case, from the sound of it.
Well I had a current X3 for a year albeit only a 2.0d, and it was a fantastic car - absolutely nothing like the crappy original model (which I also had). The idea of my car Alpina'd up sounds fking fantastic. Petrolheads ARE allowed to love SUVs too you know, especially when they perform the way (the stats suggest) this one does.
Perhaps not in white though...black definitely suits it better.
Well I had a current X3 for a year albeit only a 2.0d, and it was a fantastic car - absolutely nothing like the crappy original model (which I also had). The idea of my car Alpina'd up sounds f
king fantastic. Petrolheads ARE allowed to love SUVs too you know, especially when they perform the way (the stats suggest) this one does. Perhaps not in white though...black definitely suits it better.
If you want a SUV rather than an estate, surely you go for the standard XD3 in anything but white; £55K, no bodykit or options, 20 inch wheels and ask them nicely not to put on the Akrapovic pipes, unless they sound particularly amazing...
Plenty of space and faster than the Cayenne Diesel S...
Plenty of space and faster than the Cayenne Diesel S...
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