📰 Auto News 80% of BMW 1 Series owners think their car is fwd

[Bru]

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/23/the-craziest-damn-thing-youll-hear-today-80-of-bmw-1-series-o/

No, this isn't a joke. Really. Automotive News reports that BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer shared this statistic during a call with analysts last week. It is unclear where this information came from within BMW, but it still comes as a staggering surprise that 80 (eighty!) percent of 1 Series owners believe that they are living with front-wheel drive.

As we reported earlier, BMW is planning to bring front-wheel-drive vehicles to market in the near future, and the automaker is worried that it might confuse customers by adding these new products to the rear-drive-only lineup.

Guess not.

We firmly believe that all current 1 Series owners who think their car is front-wheel drive should hand over their keys immediately... to us.

Click to read more...

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

that is sad!

 

[Riski]

 

[radioguy6]

wow...how can you not know the difference? Just proves to me 80% of BMW owners buy the car for it's NAME and dont care to know anything about the car other than its a "BMW".

 

[Turk]

Wait, aren't they FWD?

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

I'd like to know how many of the base models are sold compared to the TT version. Is it the 128 and 138? WTF are they called?

 

[EmersonHart13]

LMAO

 

[Turk]

128 and 135

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

Stupid names for cars. It's only 7 better?

 

[Turk]

Stupid names for cars. It's only 7 better?

The first number designates the model, the 2 last numbers, traditionally, designate the size of the motor. 128 is a 1 series with a 2.8L motor, 328 is a 3 series with a 2.8L motor. You would think the 135 would have a 3.5L motor, but it doesn't, it has a 3.0 turbocharged motor.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

I see. Why not name it the 130 then? Or put 5 turbos on it.

 

[Turk]

Mostly because BMW used a 3.0 for a very long time on the 3 series, when the 335 came out, it actually replaced the 330. It went from a NA 3.0 to a TT 3.0, so they wanted to change it to a 335 to signify that this was a better motor than what was in the 330.

 

[andcbii]

that's funny but i bet there are a lot of people who don't know if their car is FWD, AWD, or RWD.

 

[Bob Kazamakis]

I see. I guess their chassis caught up to their engines. Thanks for the clarification though!

 

[radioguy6]

I would love to see poll results of 3/5/7 series owners too.

 

[Bru]

BMW hasn't consistently used that naming convention tied to engine size in years. Hell, a 1997 540i had a 4.4 liter V-8.

 

[Turk]

BMW hasn't consistently used that naming convention tied to engine size in years. Hell, a 1997 540i had a 4.4 liter V-8.

For the most part, though, they stick to it.

 

[Bru]

Not really. Just the base models for the most part.

135
335
535
550
650
750
760

 

[Turk]

760 is a 6.0L So they mislable 2 engines.

 

[Bru]

That's right with the 6.0. Still not as widespread across the lineup as what MB does.

 

[Bru]

Things will likely change as displacement gets smaller but don't want to lose brand recognition with current nomenclature.

 

[sickmint79]

they stick to the latter numbers fairly well, although deviate for marketing reasons.

interested in a poll of other people too but yeah. 80%? license to confiscate should be granted for all bmw enthusiasts

 

[YoushallgoFo]

so according to bmw a turbo counts for .5 a litre? anyway, I've bumped into people that don't know what they're driving. For a while I thought the infiniti J30 was fwd

 

[The Broken Regal]

wow...how can you not know the difference? Just proves to me 80% of BMW owners buy the car for it's NAME and dont care to know anything about the car other than its a "BMW".

ding ding ding winnar

 

[sickmint79]

i wonder how this compares to the average person knowing what they have, or what kind of engine etc.