Particularly Mercedes sat in this market, and although their 220 (contrary to what you might think)

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24 Comments After several days of rally and German hermes parcel and Swedish cars, I thought we needed something late-romantic automotive pleasure. So we tend to look to the south-Europe hermes parcel (excluding Simca 1100 ...), but such cars were built in Germany, this is one of the most beautiful hermes parcel Germans found - and it was a sales failure without equal.
Generally, the price is listed as a major reason for the large BMW sold so bad. In the early fifties cost Baroque hermes parcel angel between 15,000 and 17,500 Deutschmark, which was a three-four or five times more than a Volkswagen "bubble". Indeed, the BMW was much more expensive hermes parcel than the bubble, but a factor of four difference from bottom to top are not at all unknown today. So there must have been more to failure than the price - and it was there also: Competitors.
Particularly Mercedes sat in this market, and although their 220 (contrary to what you might think) was not quite the same quality class as the BMW, so it was both larger and faster. BMW'ens six-cylinder two-liter engine (dating back to 326'eren from the thirties - read more about its offshoots in the old article about BMW's most versatile hermes parcel series sixer) was indeed much praise for its turbine-like walk, but with about 65 horsepower was the significantly weaker than Mercedes' somewhat less refined engine. Could we ignore the prestige value, you could also get six cylinders in Opel Kapitän that in performance was more in line with BMW. Here was reached so some compromises in quality, hermes parcel but with less than 10,000 Mark was there too much money to spare. But even Mercedes 220 were a thousand Mark cheaper - contemporary German auto magazine thought that BMW was the price premium worth: There were fully synchronized gearbox, precise steering, telescopic shock absorbers, heater (!), Let alone a gorgeous interior that perfectly Mercedes sat in the shade. BMW had admittedly still frame, but it was welded to the body, so it tasted a bit of modern times. Overall, drove the BMW therefore just much better than the Mercedes.
May 1951 so have been a bad time to launch a German luxury car - at least in post-war reconstruction was completed? The explanation sounds just logical, but the export rate was not very high, so it does not hold in practice. Was it generally just impossible for luxury cars? Nor, for example, Mercedes sold three times more cars, and their 220 was completely while the BMW 501 and in the market of fine Germans had Rolls-Royce as otherwise success with their top models: Prestige market was woken up, but BMW did not really grasp it.
It may also be related to that BMW's appearance as a brand in the mid fifties hermes parcel was in two minds: Next to the expensive Baroque hermes parcel angel came in 1955, a new BMW - but cabin scooter hermes parcel Isetta was a "car" that made the aforementioned Volkswagen look like a veritable hermes parcel luxury limousine. Neither concept or price (2500 Deutschmark in 1955) was similar to the limo farthest. And the concept may well be partly explained by the Isettaen was license built: Certainly optimized by BMW, including engines from BMW motorcycles, but developed by ISO. And it was a success with 161,000 sold "cars" in the life 1955 to 1962. 1959 saw BMW as yet another supermini, namely the BMW 700, which sold even better. But the two minis did hardly anything good for the big luxury BMW 501 and its image.
The top model was of course also further developed, and especially looking BMW up on the weak engine, as they introduced a eight cylinder aluminum engine of 2.6 liter model 502 - the first European V8 after the war. With 100 horsepower did the BMW competitive on the go, but the price then increased further to over 17,000 DM, and the sale was still minima