[Mazerah_]

Very smart of BMW and Porsche to try and tap into cult followings, This is how you stay above the curve and keep new clients coming in and building awareness to an already massive community

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by Stephen5242

We are no longer BMW's base. The SAV crowd is! The M3 and M4 do not financially carry the BMW operation.

The M3/M4 owners never were the base. As for me personally, I've fished from the BMW pools 14 times now. Half from the M pool, a couple of times from their SAV pool, a couple of times from their regular 3 Series coupe and sedan pools, etc.

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by Darth One

Everyone does collabs now. Ben & Jerry's has Nike Dunk sneakers that look like ice cream, and Home Depot has Supreme measuring tapes in aisle 17...BMW is just being a follower.

I agree with the person who said I don't care as long as the cars are good. Which I have my doubts about but we'll see

Following? BMW was doing collabs when I came to the brand twenty years ago.

[Darth One]

Originally Posted by Sedan_Clan

Following? BMW was doing collabs when I came to the brand twenty years ago.

News to me. Are you talking about streetwear collabs? 20 years ago pretty much the only collab I was aware of was with Williams F1, which is still the only collaboration that I've cared about - but not completely relevant to this discussion

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by Darth One

News to me. Are you talking about streetwear collabs? 20 years ago pretty much the only collab I was aware of was with Williams F1, which is still the only collaboration that I've cared about - but not completely relevant to this discussion

BMW was also doing things with PUMA way back then with their BMW PUMA M venture (...which is still hugely popular). It was a lifestyle line much like the KITH venture, targeted at the style focused youthful bunch (...who may or may not have been in a position to buy an ///M car, but who were made aware of BMW M through their love for PUMA attire)......albeit with no Puma inspired car. The PUMA ICON stores had entire sections dedicated to the BMW PUMA M venture and a lot of the jackets, hoodies, backpacks, shoes, etc. looked really cool. I even had some of that stuff back then. Prior to that it was with Nike. In addition, there was a Nike Air Jordan inspired M3 presented years ago, but I don't remember if that came from BMW or a third party.

[spuntyb]

I mean, they've been doing art cars since 1975. Those are collaborations as well, no?

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by spuntyb

I mean, they've been doing art cars since 1975. Those are collaborations as well, no?

I would say so.

[JeremyDFW]

After reading 5 pages I've come to the following realization...

...some of you have emotional baggage issues!

[Bimmermanforlife]

Originally Posted by KevinGS

100% agree. How many damn SAVs does BMW make? X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 and the list goes on, let alone all the M versions of these vehicles they make, totally watering down the specialness of the M badge. And this doesn't dissuade anyone from buying an M3 or an M8.

BMW wants a few more of their cars to show up in some hip-hop or pop videos, and as a business, they'd be silly not to go after this growing market...because videos drive purchase decisions, just like thin women walking down catwalks wearing crazy outfits drives women's purchasing decisions (no matter how ugly and audacious the clothes look).

BMW's a business, and they're going after every slice of the market they can get, because their Stakeholders demand it (mo' money, mo' money, mo' money! - Capitalism at its finest). They can't afford to do purity tests simply to please the BMW traditionalists.

I couldn't have said it better myself if I tried. I'm a Gen X'er and definitely a BMW enthusiast who is one of the 150 who pre-ordered the x Kith.

My partner in the purchase? My 19 year-old son who is as plugged in and cool as anyone else. We don't plan on driving the car [much], but I do drive the heck out of my 2020 m340i with flash and catted downpipes courtesy of Active Autowerke. I am one of these said capitalists and see what I consider marketing genius behind this effort. No need to hate - just posting our thought process and 2c to offer another perspective. This will become a collector's item, like it or not.

[Zam4su]

Isn't this common marketing like putting hot wheels in happy meals for subconscious tactics? Kids will get older and have the disposable income to afford their child-desired Porsches and bimmers? This is really nothing new is it?

[CCOWAN19]

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure plenty will chime in) but isn't the whole idea of marketing and advertising to reach as many demographics as possible? How are they in the wrong for trying to merge some different ideas with other brands? I'm 37 years old, have had 2 M cars over the last 4 years. I have a bunch of Kith hoodies and tees hanging in my closet. I think it's smart of them to have these collaborations. Look the other way around. There's brands merging with car manufacturers to support their vision of what their lifestyle persona is. Look at clothing Brand Aime Leon Dore and what they did with Porsche.

Not everyone has to like what they do but maybe that cause you're not the demo they're reaching out to with this. I think the KITH M4 looks amazing. Especially the leather.

Just my $.02.

[Bimmermanforlife]

Originally Posted by CCOWAN19

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure plenty will chime in) but isn't the whole idea of marketing and advertising to reach as many demographics as possible? How are they in the wrong for trying to merge some different ideas with other brands? I'm 37 years old, have had 2 M cars over the last 4 years. I have a bunch of Kith hoodies and tees hanging in my closet. I think it's smart of them to have these collaborations. Look the other way around. There's brands merging with car manufacturers to support their vision of what their lifestyle persona is. Look at clothing Brand Aime Leon Dore and what they did with Porsche.

Not everyone has to like what they do but maybe that cause you're not the demo they're reaching out to with this. I think the KITH M4 looks amazing. Especially the leather.

Just my $.02.

Well, CCOWAN, your 2c and mine make 4. I'm 46 and rock my blue Supreme zip vest every day the mercury's in the 50s. I showed a friend of mine, who likes the finer things in life and can afford them, the bmwusa.com page of the car and his take is: I have no idea if it's a good investment or not but it's a gorgeous car.

Again, the intent is to provide the purists on the board a layperson's perspective. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Staszek]

Originally Posted by CCOWAN19

Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm sure plenty will chime in) but isn't the whole idea of marketing and advertising to reach as many demographics as possible? How are they in the wrong for trying to merge some different ideas with other brands? I'm 37 years old, have had 2 M cars over the last 4 years. I have a bunch of Kith hoodies and tees hanging in my closet. I think it's smart of them to have these collaborations. Look the other way around. There's brands merging with car manufacturers to support their vision of what their lifestyle persona is. Look at clothing Brand Aime Leon Dore and what they did with Porsche.

Not everyone has to like what they do but maybe that cause you're not the demo they're reaching out to with this. I think the KITH M4 looks amazing. Especially the leather.

Just my $.02.

I agree although I spend money like no tomorrow but, I will never understand $80 for a plain T-shirt or $180 for sweatpants.

[Darth One]

Originally Posted by Sedan_Clan

BMW was also doing things with PUMA way back then with their BMW PUMA M venture (...which is still hugely popular). It was a lifestyle line much like the KITH venture, targeted at the style focused youthful bunch (...who may or may not have been in a position to buy an ///M car, but who were made aware of BMW M through their love for PUMA attire)......albeit with no Puma inspired car. The PUMA ICON stores had entire sections dedicated to the BMW PUMA M venture and a lot of the jackets, hoodies, backpacks, shoes, etc. looked really cool. I even had some of that stuff back then. Prior to that it was with Nike. In addition, there was a Nike Air Jordan inspired M3 presented years ago, but I don't remember if that came from BMW or a third party.

Oh, I see what you're talking about now. You're right, of course.

There is a bit of a nuance to this new effort beyond having a merch line, though. There's this crazy rinse-repeat cycle where literally any company partners with a hot designer, releases a rebranded/not really different version of a product, drops them at a specified time in extremely limited quantities, and sells them all out. And the hype is worth far more than any direct profit.

It's crazy how you can sell out literally any kind of shit out there with this method. It's as if the product doesn't really matter - it's the rush of kopping and being able to have what no one else has. Like i wasn't kidding about the Home Depot x Supreme tape measure.

BMW wants in on this, and understandably so. The Kith clothing they put out is also pretty great IMO.

[codestar]

I'm not sure what constitutes the "younger" demo, but having just turned 30 I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.

In the roughly half of my life that I've been driving, every single one of the 7 cars I have owned has had three things: a stick, 2 doors, and the sportiest trim I could afford at the time (more than a few civic and prelude Si's). Landing a great job out of engineering school allowed me to upgrade to something better and I splurged on a lightly used 435i xdrive 6mt. In a pure comparison to my other "fun to drive" cars, this one blows them out of the water. I would say that my priority wasn't in the brand at the time, but in the car itself and how it drove and made me feel.

I'll be honest and say I had never even heard of Kith before this release, and I definitely do not want a giant ass decal across my beautiful exposed carbon fiber roof for a 40k price premium, but this 150-unit worldwide car isn't drawing me to the g82 in the slightest: the 6MT, 2 doors, and my "fun to drive" factor are what is going to make me a repeat customer.

I love nice clothes just as much as I love driving my car on some nice twisties, but even if there was a bigass arcteryx or Canucks logo in place of the kith logo I still wouldn't buy it. I'd just laugh at whoever paid the premium for it and continue enjoying my car that cost substantially less and has the exact same performance. (On second thought if the Canucks ever did this...... : : )

If a car like this helps bring in all of the tik tok and Instagram influencers, then kudos to BMW for recognizing that. 150 units out a global platform of 100's of thousands of units does pretty much nothing for them financially, but just maybe keep the cash flowing into the BMW brand in the future so BMW and M can keep doing what they do

[Stephen5242]

Originally Posted by codestar

I'm not sure what constitutes the "younger" demo, but having just turned 30 I guess I'm somewhere in the middle.

In the roughly half of my life that I've been driving, every single one of the 7 cars I have owned has had three things: a stick, 2 doors, and the sportiest trim I could afford at the time (more than a few civic and prelude Si's). Landing a great job out of engineering school allowed me to upgrade to something better and I splurged on a lightly used 435i xdrive 6mt. In a pure comparison to my other "fun to drive" cars, this one blows them out of the water. I would say that my priority wasn't in the brand at the time, but in the car itself and how it drove and made me feel.

I'll be honest and say I had never even heard of Kith before this release, and I definitely do not want a giant ass decal across my beautiful exposed carbon fiber roof for a 40k price premium, but this 150-unit worldwide car isn't drawing me to the g82 in the slightest: the 6MT, 2 doors, and my "fun to drive" factor are what is going to make me a repeat customer.

I love nice clothes just as much as I love driving my car on some nice twisties, but even if there was a bigass arcteryx or Canucks logo in place of the kith logo I still wouldn't buy it. I'd just laugh at whoever paid the premium for it and continue enjoying my car that cost substantially less and has the exact same performance. (On second thought if the Canucks ever did this...... : : )

If a car like this helps bring in all of the tik tok and Instagram influencers, then kudos to BMW for recognizing that. 150 units out a global platform of 100's of thousands of units does pretty much nothing for them financially, but just maybe keep the cash flowing into the BMW brand in the future so BMW and M can keep doing what they do

Spot on and the right attitude to take. Not sure why some get so bent out of shape over such things that are not at all directed towards them. Or maybe because it is not about them that it upsets them...Hmmm

[gds52]

Originally Posted by F82PRETEND

None of this will matter when Elon releases a 500 mile range, full charge in 5 minutes, 500 hp, 0-60 in 3 sec for $30k monster. None of it. I am not a Tesla fanboy, but Tesla will surely get there. If they do it before the big legacy brands are ready, those brands are toast.

Full charge in 5 mins ??
500 mile range ???
Those batteries don't deliver full capacity even if driven moderately. I've friends who drive real aggressively and ones who drive normally, the slow guy never got above 70% of the range.

I don't know how people are falling for these wrong numbers. The build quality is so bad. Roof glass cracks on its own under stress.

But I do like how the model 3 drives, it's heavy but still feels very agile. The electric steering in T3 is much better than BMW 3-Series, not talking about M. So driving wise it's really good.

[///M4ster Yoda]

Originally Posted by Stephen5242

Spot on and the right attitude to take. Not sure why some get so bent out of shape over such things that are not at all directed towards them. Or maybe because it is not about them that it upsets them...Hmmm

What you and a few others are missing is people are really just pissed at BMW for other things like say a Fat Heavy Ugly ZF8 AWD "///M" car and this is just the straw that broke the camels back

[Fugly M3]

Originally Posted by gds52

Full charge in 5 mins ??
500 mile range ???
Those batteries don't deliver full capacity even if driven moderately. I've friends who drive real aggressively and ones who drive normally, the slow guy never got above 70% of the range.

I don't know how people are falling for this nonsense. The build quality is so bad. Roof glass cracks on its own under stress.

But I do like how the model 3 drives, it's heavy but still feels very agile. The electric steering in T3 is much better than BMW 3-Series, not talking about M. So driving wise it's really good.

That's why I didn't buy one. I knew that I wouldn't see more than 150-200 miles to a charge. Unacceptable and no road trips (at least not without insane stops).

[Saphirschwarz]

gross

[Stephen5242]

Originally Posted by ///M4ster Yoda

What you and a few others are missing is people are really just pissed at BMW for other things like say a Fat Heavy Ugly ZF8 AWD "///M" car and this is just the straw that broke the camels back

That does not explain why people are pissed over their specialized marketing. It has nothing to do with the people pissed over the car design. It is so insignificant to be concerned about.

Being pissed all the time is not healthy so vote with your dollars and move on to something you will really enjoy. There is a lot of wonderful choice out there. Even within the BMW line.

[///M4ster Yoda]

Originally Posted by Stephen5242

That does not explain why people are pissed over their specialized marketing. It has nothing to do with the people pissed over the car design. It is so insignificant to be concerned about.

Being pissed all the time is not healthy so vote with your dollars and move on to something you will really enjoy. There is a lot of wonderful choice out there. Even within the BMW line.

Actually there aren't any good choices within their lineup anymore. That's the problem. Maybe Maybe ///M2 but that's about it. They just completely ruined their bread and butter Halo. Not with this Kith BS but everything else that's already been mentioned 100s of times.