The Sad State of the Automotive Industry

Walking through the UNHM parking lot, my keen eye focuses on two BMWs mixed in with the rest of the cars.  One is a blue 3 series coupe.  This is BMW at its best.  The company has built its reputation building sporty luxury cars such as this.  The 3 series has been a staple to BMW’s lineup for decades and has cemented the company’s reputation of building “the ultimate driving machine.”  On the other side of the lot is another BMW.  This one is a white X5 M.  This car attracts my attention much better than the 3 series.  For one thing, it is an M car, factory modified by M GmbH, BMW’s in house tuning arm.  These are considerably rarer than common variety BMWs seen en masse on the streets.  It also serves as a testament of the sorry state of automobile manufacturers in today’s world.


I remember when the M SUVs first came out.  There was the X5 M and its sibling the X6 M.  The X5 has been BMW’s full size luxury utility vehicle since 1999.  It was a money grab by BMW, who owned Land Rover at the time and wanted to capitalize on the world’s growing appetite for SUVs.  The X5 has since grown into a profit generator for the brand due to its sporty driving character and cavernous interior.  It consistently ranks third in sales within BMW’s lineup behind the 3 series and 5 series sedans.  I’ll believe it since I have seen tons of them on the roads whenever I am out and about.  The X6 is derived from the X5 albeit with a more coupe like profile.  Seeing such a big car with such a steeply raked roof is unnerving at first glance.  At best you might think it is some sort of dune buggy.  At worst you might say that it looks like a toad.  In 2010, BMW saw fit to produce sporty M versions of both SUVs.  The first one I remember seeing was at my old college in the parking lot.  I remember being intrigued by its larger than usual air intakes and upon closer examination I spotted the M badge on the bootlid.  The M versions of the X5 and X6 come equipped with twin turbocharged 4.4 liter V-8s making 555 horsepower.  Despite their 2.5 ton weight, both SUVs can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in 4 seconds. 


Purists decried this as sacrilege.  Four wheel drive, turbocharged engines, SUVs; M is never supposed to make cars like this.  Giving up these principles for the pursuit of profit seems to be a given nowadays.  Reviews of the X5 M concluded that it was a compromise of the worst kind.  It’s too tall and heavy to be a good sports car, so it doesn’t handle well when you drive it aggressively.  But at the same time it is too focused on being a sports car to be a good SUV.  The suspension is hard and the tires are fat to handle the its huge power, but it has lost its ability to travel off road.  BMW is not the first to build an oxymoronic performance SUV, nor is it going to be the last.  What were once pure sports car makers now offer diverse portfolios.  Porsche began the supercar slayer SUV trend with its Cayenne in 2002.  The model has become a staple to their lineup and accounts for more than half of Porsche’s annual sales.  A smaller SUV, the Macan, goes on sale later this year and together these two models are expected to allow the company to continue to produce cutting edge sports cars.  I have read reviews of both cars and everyone is impressed with how well they drive.  One could say that these cars actually make owning an SUV fun. 


Within the past two years, Lamborghini, Bentley, Maserati, and Jaguar have all displayed concepts that express their desire to enter the SUV market.  Statistics show that this is a sound marketing strategy, but the whole thing seems a bit dishonest to me.  Yes, this is where all the money is, but is it worth it?  Car makers have taken it upon themselves to compete in every conceivable niche.  If a niche does not exist, they will create one.  Look at the BMW X6.  With a coupe like profile it is less practical than the X5 and it costs more.  You would have to be crazy to buy one over an X5.  This has not stopped other manufacturers from copying them.  Audi and Mercedes-Benz have each displayed concepts at this year’s Beijing hinting at production versions of coupe SUVs.  Even Honda with its Crosstour is counting on people who value style over practicality when purchasing cars.  Perhaps the most extreme model proliferation to date is Nissan’s Murano CrossCabriolet.  No one can recall anyone asking for a convertible SUV, but that hasn’t stopped Nissan from building one.  As a matter of fact, I saw one in the same parking lot as the two BMWs.  Granted Nissan does not expect this thing to be a big seller, but I have seen about a dozen on the road in the past year.  Maybe Nissan is just too far ahead of the curve for others to build their own yet.  I’ll get back to this in about 20 years and see what happens.  Regardless of execution, model proliferation is real.  BMW has doubled its lineup in the last ten years and that is not including variations of the same model.


What confuses me the most is why BMW and other car makers are building high performance SUVs when at the same time they are under constant pressure by governments to raise their CAFE numbers in an effort to save petrol?  Several car companies have proven that performance and fuel economy do not have to be mutually exclusive.  However, there is no way to cover the fact that mega horsepower V-8 SUVs make about as much sense as Al Gore eating smoked polar bear steak for dinner.  Does this mean that oil is not in as short supply as some would lead us to believe?  If nothing else it is a conflicting message.  How are consumers supposed to take car maker’s green initiatives seriously when they continue to manufacture stuff like this?


These are the thoughts that go through my head as I walk around this BMW X5 M.  This is not a car that is purchased by common sense.  At 90,000 dollars it is not cheap.  Nor is it fuel efficient.  Nor is it useful.  Nor can its full potential ever be used in the state of New Hampshire.  What we have here is a status symbol, pure and simple.  The white color further hints that the owner has no intention of using this car anywhere other than tarmac.  White cars are not meant to be dirty.  At my old college all the rich kids drove white sports cars.  It is for this reason that I will never own a white car.  I want a car because I want to drive it, not to show off.


On the other hand I can’t help but approve of this car.  It shows that the owner does not want to conform to the dreary fare that is usually found on roads.  I commend him or her for willing to be different and stand out from the crowd.  I enjoy seeing cars like these when I am outside.  They never fail to bring a smile to my face.  So do I write this story to bury the X5 M or to praise it?  I am glad that cars like these exist, but I also feel that car makers should be using more of their resources on building cars that are as sensible as they are over the top.