October 2: Revolutionary or evolutionary?

I'm going to get a new Bimmer and keep it for a million years. This will save me lots of coin and no one will ever know that it is not brand new. I'll wash it everyday, wax it regularly and maybe even drive it from time to time. So what brings this up? The iconic 3 Series, BMW's most important flag waver (doesn't everyone want a 3 series?), is due for a makeover and the totally new 2019 has just been revealed at this week's Paris Auto Show. Here is what this totally new Bimmer looks like.......

Glad you didn't buy that old 2018, now that you seen what those fun loving folks at BMW have conjured up? Almost makes me weep to think that you could have signed off on the current model, when this one is coming down the pipe. I mean just look at the old, soon to be out of date, '18.......

I know that you feel my pain for all of those folks who couldn't wait.

Back in the old days, when a car was redone, the new car's design changed completely and obsoleted the previous model. Great for the new buyer, lousy for the old buyer. These drastic changes stopped a while back and for good reason. By keeping a design "language", it strengthened the equity in the brand. Evolution, not revolution. One could always identify a brand, even years later. Cadillac was very good at going this, as was Mercedes. There were enough identifiers, so that a new design didn't make the old one look like the old one. People buying the new model could show off a bit. But come on you guys at BMW.....completely new and hardly changed?

And the generation before the current generation, how did it fare after its redo? Check it out........

I get confused, I mean the differences are miniscule. But take a look at a 1992 .........

Twenty seven years later and the good folks at BMW have made Porsche like changes, so that no one would mistake this car for anything but a 3 Series BMW. Actually good thinking on their part and Audi seems to be using the same playbook. Mercedes, not so much, as each new Benz looks like it's from the same family, but at the same time looks like a new model. This would be my kind of change.

Most importantly does anyone else but this writer really care? For the correct answer check out the 3 Series sales. Nothing there to indicate that BMW is making anything but the correct decision. Still, a guy can dream.......

Until next time.......