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Originally Posted by SCOTT26
Sales of the E65 were very good that they eclipsed sales of the E38 to make E65 the best selling 7er yet. It was hugely popular in Asia where it became the largest market.
The facelift for the 7er E65 actually came in early 2005 exactly half way through its Life Cycle. It was not facelifted early.
BMW Are no strangers to design controversy. And its malingned 2000's designs many which stand the test of time today.
The E85 Z4 is a good example. That car is perfect proportion wise and I am sorry that successive generations lose that seat-to-the-road feel and appearance E85 championed.
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I really don't think it makes any sense to compare sales figures from prior versions of a model from the same manufacturer. Design typically does not drive significant sales variances from each chassis.
World economies and macroeconomic factors are what drove the increase. If you look at the same years, car sales were at their absolute peak across all brands. The controversial 7 was a precursor to the great recession, the bubble was being formed.
Making a comparison between percentage of market share for this model's competitors through each generation would make much more sense if trying to determine a particular model was more successful or less successful.
The big issue here is that with this radical design change, we are also heading towards a simultaneous market correction, and the brand's previous growth driver (China) is now being impacted the most in the current climate.
We have already experienced the largest YOY decline in vehicle sales (larger than the great recession), and that was during a tremendous time of economic growth (2017-2018). Compound that with the fact that we have had enormous market corrections in 2020, the fact that less people are buying cars, and that this design change seems very radical, we may not see the same results as we did with the controversial 7 series.
I think there are several factors in car sale trends that would not apply to the typical new M3/M4 buyer here, but I do think one factor that does apply is that cars have been more reliable than they have in the past, leading to longer holding periods.