Quote:
Originally Posted by gPiplay
hmm, if it were up to me, the money would go towards broadening up the asian market (like ferrari and GM). Though bmw would definitely not get as much of their money worth, the current exponential expansion of countries like japan, china, and korea are a much better investment than the impending (or already) apex of US economy.
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You are right. But unlike America most Asian countries have very high tariff on import specifically cars. Here in the America we are very lucky to have somewhat of a free market that allows all kind of choices for consumers. In Asia most government are still growing so they have a very tight control over import.
BMW is not in the same market as GM or Ferrari. GM is trying to make cheap cars for everyone while Ferrari is trying to sell its cars to CEO. BMW focus customers are upper middle class who are growing in numbers and most people in that segment are familiar with the BMW brand. German brands as a whole are very highly respected in China. BMW is investing lots of money in Asian market (read China) and holding its own very well there. In China BMW biggest competitor is Audi. For some reason Chinese loves Audi. (SRC: google BMW China or Audi)
Also, the Asian market specifically Japanese market is very hard to break. Check BMW Japan you would be amazed at the standard tech in those cars as compared to US cars. In Japanese they tend to buy ~90% local cars versus imports.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/...ness/31bmw.php