BMW@Detroit (NAIAS)

[as7920]

BMW have an M event planned for China which will introduce the BMW 1 Series M Coupe to the Chinese market.

Hmmmmmmmm. Anyone know at which temperature blood boils? I swear mines close!

 

[bmwblog]

The M5 will be in Shanghai.

End of story.

These were actually staff cars brought down from New Jersey BMW North American Headquarters for official use to transport the BMW executives to and from the autoshow. Every manufacturer does this at every Autoshow.

This 7er was not intended to be on the show floor.

Although one BMW exec. quipped today "This is why I choose not to go to Detroit"
Over the past few years there has been incidents with executives being robbed sometime at gunpoint and of course the snow issue - The last time I went to Detroit I got stranded in Chicago due to the weather I had no intention of driving so just got back on the plane and went home.
Which I am surprised to see almost no existence of snow.

Don't be quick to dismiss Shanghai - as China has seen a very strong growth of BMW M products in the past year in fact China is the market with the highest growth for M Product in 2010.
Thanks to the X-M's. I hear that Pre-owned M5's are heavily sought after too.
So in fact With Germany being BMW's largest market with the US being BMW largest Export market , China has increased to come after the US.
In Order it is Germany , USA and China.
China has seen some World Premieres over the past two years such as in Concept - the Gran Coupe and CS Concept plus the BMW 760Li and BMW X5M had their world premieres in Shanghai.
BMW have an M event planned for China which will introduce the BMW 1 Series M Coupe to the Chinese market.

 

[Zafiro]

Nothing? give me a break

Look at all the hotties

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[dalab]

when I said bmw? news? nothing? detroit?, was because no one had opened a treath on bmw in detroit, or post pictures, or comments, not because there was no magnificent world premieres.

and the treath is open, nice video

 

[HighestOfHigh]

BMW did an outstanding job on both of them!

 

[Star&Car]

Good,i'll be there.

The M5 will be in Shanghai.

End of story.

 

[Betty Swollocks]

The M5 will be in Shanghai.

End of story.

I'm sure it will. But the question is whether it will be in Geneva.

If it isn't then I am going to be deeply disappointed. I have to make a decision ASAP as to whether to get the M5 and I can't wait until September in Frankfurt.

Could Scott explain why he kept saying the M5 was going to be in Geneva?

 

[Betty Swollocks]

I need to see the M5 ASAP in order to decide my future purchase. It means that much to me that I am prepared to fly to Shanghai to see it, if that's where the concept will first appear. But, I need to know for definite where it's going to be premiered. I'm going to Geneva and if it's going to be shown there then I won't go to Shanghai. However, if I am to go to Shanghai on the 21st April then I need to plan ahead in order to get the visa organised. I'm planning on spending a lot of money on the car, so I have to be sure. With that in mind I would hope somebody would be considerate and give me a definite answer.

 

[SCOTT27]

The original strategy for the M5 Concept was to unveil the car in Geneva like the previous E60 M5 and the E92 M3.
Switzerland has a very proportional market for M and of course the Salon has a huge influx of people from many countries which is why the M cars debut there for an international audience.

But before I left for vacation in December , they started to discuss adjusting the launch to Shanghai on the basis that M sales in China have shown the most growth for M product in any market ever since the US became the no1 market for M cars back in the early nineties.

The Market for M's in key markets over the economic crisis have fluctuated but China has been rising. Hence why the addition of the M3 Tiger edition and it's multi-million ad campaign and why there will be a special event to announce the BMW 1 series M Coupe to China.

Recently markets have been dictating the launch of new BMW's. With some models brought forward for launch.

The BMW 6er Convertible was originally supposed to debut in Geneva and in it's place @ Detroit was the BMW 1er Active E evaluation car for an all 1er show.

This was swapped to Geneva and the 6er moved to the US on the principle of that end of production sales , especially that of the Cabrio were very significant probably due to the discounts dealers were offering to clear the remaining stock of the car.

Whether they have decided on to launch the car in Shanghai is not clear to me yet as I went straight to Hamburg for location work for MINI, when I returned from vacation.
We did do some preliminary work for the M5 in December and the onus was for Geneva.
I believe BMW.CH are still pushing the request for a Geneva launch.
If the car is revealed in Geneva then it will be more and likely to end up in Shanghai for it's next introduction.
The Production car is expected around July prior to the IAA launch.

 

[Betty Swollocks]

Thanks very much for the information Scott.

 

[Bartek S.]

Police Recover BMW 750i xDrive that was Stolen During the Detroit Auto Show [with VIDEO]