By Bill Visnic
Front-wheel drive and 4-cylinder engines didn't form the American vision of what BMW is all about.
But increasingly, BMW - and its luxury-market rivals - figure U.S. buyers are going to have to live with some new rules about what defines those brands as automakers start to cater to different tastes, particularly those in China.
A front-drive BMW is heresy to U.S. aficionados. But thanks to the recession and a cranked-up effort from prime rival Audi AG to become the No. 1 global luxury brand, there happens to be fewer BMW aficionados to sell to; BMW brand sales in the U.S. plunged 21.1 percent last year (to 196,502 units) and so far in 2010 have recovered only 7.8 percent.
The company already crossed one bridge when it admitted that after a long hiatus, 4-cylinder engines will return to the U.S. market. And if anybody here is similarly troubled by the notion of what smaller, front-drive BMWs say about the brand, tough luck: the perceptions of U.S. buyers just aren't that important anymore.
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