BMW to build a 2019 M2 Gran Coupe (F88/F89?) to do battle with the Audi RS3 - Spyphotos

[Sticky]

As you know, the Audi RS3 is kicking ass and taking names. BMW has no answer for it but BMW does not have an answer for most performance cars these days. It seems BMW is considering an M2 Gran Coupe to compete with the RS3.

Now, that poses an interesting entry into the segment. Why? Because the RS3 is all wheel drive with a dual clutch transmission. The M2 Gran Coupe would be rear wheel drive and have a manual option. That is where BMW traditionally shines. That is, by offering the best driver's car.

The powerplant is a question mark. To put it simply, the Audi 2.5 TFSI is going to trounce BMW if they continue with the N55B30T0 from the F87 M2. Maybe a detuned S58 will be utilized? That would be the ideal BimmerBoost choice or else the M2 Gran Coupe will get embarrassed.

Either way if BMW M intends to really offer a serious challenge to the RS3 they better bring the best they can do. Today's BMW will likely just be happy with entering a new niche though.

[93siro]

Look at the front brake caliper.. Its nose side, not tail side. Its a FWD-based car.

[maxnix]

One can also tell it is FWD by the aft front axle placement close to the front door opening.

[Sticky]

It could be the next platform is FWD based as the X's did with the Mini's.

[yandizzle]

Im trying to give bmw a chance....but the RS3 is bad ass. Bmw really can't afford to miss with this one

[leveraged sellout]

I've had enough of this FWD cancer at BMW. And I was just at the NAIAS and was reminded about the fact that the 6 series is becoming a fat 5 door SUV-wagon-hatchback horror show.

I don't know what the hell is going on at this company but I don't get what they don't effing get.

This is how it should be: Make as many of the SUVs as you want, I don't care. Hell make the X1 and X2 FWD, I don't care. No one cares. The people buying them don't care. No one in history will care. No one gives a hot eff.

Hell, make a FWD 1 series. That would be terrible, but I can concede that. However, everything else *needs to remain RWD* - it's their defining trait, and they're throwing it out. All variants. RWD based. The end. Period. Done. Do they really think switching to FWD will help sales? Especially when they offer AWD on everything now and sell most of their cars that way anyway? You'd have to be developmentally challenged to even come across that idea and kick it around your head.

They should have kept the 5 GT as the 5 GT, and not stuck the 6 series badge on there. Again, I don't know what crack-addeled brain was in charge of this moronic decision but it makes the least amount of sense of anything they could have done. They could have released the M5 as a CVT hybrid CUV and it would've made more sense than axing the 6 coupe, keeping the GC and convertible for a while, and then building a new 5 GT and sticking a 6 series badge on it. Just impossibly, impossibly stupid. I don't effing get it.

They should have kept all 3 variants of the 6, and done them properly as variants of the new 5 platform, you know, like always. What's so hard about that? They sold as many of these things as they could make. Was that not enough?

I know the 8 is the new 6, but that's also offensively stupid. Is it literally impossible that they could have had two separate coupes at two separate price points? I think not. The 8 should be a step up from the 7. It should compete with the S Class Coupe...but instead it will be some weird 'tweener that's obviously a good car but has no real segment to compete in. The 6 should have stayed where it was, the 8 should have been a no-holds-barred flagship. For god's sake, you people make an X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 and will likely make an X7. Is two GD sports coupes at two vastly disparate price points too much to ask? I bet we won't even see a V12 8 Series because every gov't in the world is so thoroughly enchanted with the idea of beating the ICE into nonexistence. And BMW seems happy to not only comply, but push things right along.

The i-performance range is pathetic, the i8 is overpriced, slow and doesn't even look that cool. The i3 actually makes sense, but who gives half an eff about the i3? Not me. I drive an M5, I'm not interested in driving a literal appliance. And frankly given how expensive they are, I don't think many other people are interested either. They depreciate faster than a half-eaten 7 day old banana, and so does the i8 for that matter. The sales numbers are already not where they wanted them to be, and we all knew this would happen. The i range was just a virtue-signaling ploy to show how "woke" and "conscious" they were, that's it. Sure, they got some great tech R&D out of it, and that will be useful. But instead of building out a lineup of impressive, cool vehicles that people actually wanted, they built a weird little people-mover box on wheels and a faux supercar that's slower than an M3. Who the hell wants any of that.

The 7 better get a kickass facelift, because the W222 was a better car 2 years before the new 7 was even launched. The new 5 actually seems great, and hopefully the next 3/4 are great too. Honestly that's all they have left that I care about. The M760i I suppose is nice, I hope that sticks around. The M2 of course is genius, but it seems like the current 2 series is one and done...which is the GD stupidest decision they've made next to the fat, lame 6 GT.

And by the way, for several years now, they've been some of the least reliable cars on the road. They have a reliability issue that makes British Leyland look like they knew what the bloody eff they were doing. You've got a better chance of going a year without a problem in an 80s Alfa Romeo than you do in anything with a BMW badge on it built in the last 10 years. It's absolutely effing unreal. I have a friend who was offered a job at several large BMW dealers, after running the service department at a prominent luxury car dealer for decades. Every single one had a warranty repair rate several times what you would see at any other dealership, including all other German brands. He used to DD an E39 540i and daily drove old Jags for years. He won't even buy one even though he could do the work himself at his own shop. All of this collectively tells you a lot. Christ, you can't go 5 miles around here without seeing a BMW on a flatbed somewhere.

If I see a single FWD BMW ever branded with an M badge I am never buying a single thing with the blue & white roundel ever again. And I mean that. I'm honestly mulling over the idea of selling my M5 once it actually strings together a full effing week without breaking down and costing another mortgage payment in repairs and buying an AMG. Just because.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm sick and tired of what was up until very recently one of the world's greatest car companies, and at times *the* greatest, turn into a giant woke marketing hype machine run by sh*thead MBAs who know less than f*ckall about cars, automotive culture, driving, what it means to design, engineer & build some of the finest vehicles in the world. These people should all be taken out into the street and flogged, and then banned from doing anything other than sweeping floors ever again. And I bloody mean that.

[FRD135i]

^ Legit

[Sticky]

If I see a single FWD BMW ever branded with an M badge I am never buying a single thing with the blue & white roundel ever again. And I mean that.

https://www.bimmerboost.com/content....Tourer-M-Sport

[Sticky]

Sorry for the rant, but I'm sick and tired of what was up until very recently one of the world's greatest car companies, and at times *the* greatest, turn into a giant woke marketing hype machine run by sh*thead MBAs who know less than f*ckall about cars, automotive culture, driving, what it means to design, engineer & build some of the finest vehicles in the world. These people should all be taken out into the street and flogged, and then banned from doing anything other than sweeping floors ever again. And I bloody mean that.

It's a good rant and I agree with it.

I thought the whole point of the SUV flood was so they had money? Well, profits are up so what's the problem?

Porsche used the Cayenne to keep the 911 alive. BMW uses the X range to print money and doesn't give a $#@! about throwing their hardcore fans a bone.

BMW is never coming back. It's done. It's a hard pill to swallow as they'll still have a couple good cars here and there but it is the German Toyota now.