KoolEaze said:

I love those 1980s and 1990s cars ( well, up until 1995 or so).

It´s interesting that the bumpers of German cars in America used to be so much bigger in the 1980s than they were here. I noticed this in many TV series or when I saw old German cars in America. For some reason, they changed that after the 1980s and now they have the same bumpers.

That´s a nice car !

Thanks!

Yeah, back in the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. law had tougher bumper requirements than most other countries. They eased up later on, but for a while, we were getting German cars with those giant bumpers.

We actually had some Euro-market cars at our show. See that 1984 Baur cabriolet in the upper-right-hand corner? Those were never officially exported to the U.S. That particular Baur (which belongs to my BMW mechanic) was purchased by a member of the American military who was stationed in Germany and brought it home when he left the service.

A bunch of stuff had to be done to make the Baur legal for import to the U.S. They were able to keep the Euro bumpers by adding some reinforcements behind them, but they had to make some changes, like adding side marker lights and switching the gauges from metric to English units.

As I understand it, they changed the law in 1998, and now, if a car is over 25 years old, you can import it into the U.S. without having to "Americanize" it.

[Edited 9/9/12 11:31am]

[Edited 9/11/12 8:30am]

missfee said:Cool Bimmer Interesting fact about Indiana will let you keep the old plate. If you were in VA, they would pull you over in 2 seconds regarding an expired plate. Go figure.

[Edited 9/9/12 6:13am]

Most states now have "year of manufacture" license plate laws that allow it. But there are two problems you can run into:

1) How old does the car have to be? In Indiana, you can do it once the car is 25 years old. But many other states require the car to be older.

2) Many states put restrictions on how you can drive a car with a YOM plate. Often those states will say you can drive only in parades, to/from car club events and shows, etc. (Thankfully Indiana doesn't care -- as long as you pay the fee and get the paperwork from the state, you can drive it like any other car.)

So far I've gotten stopped only once because of the plate. Funny thing was, even though the cop didn't know my plate is legal, he didn't want to give me a ticket or anything like that. He just thought it looked cool and wanted to chat about it.

KoolEaze said:

It´s interesting that the bumpers of German cars in America used to be so much bigger in the 1980s than they were here.

Oh, speaking of bumpers....

Here in the U.S., some states make you put license plates on both the front and back bumpers. But other states -- including Indiana -- give you just one plate for the back.

So what do you do with the front? Around here, BMW owners will often put a German license plate on their front bumper. I don't know whether that's legal, but I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it.

matt said:

KoolEaze said:

It´s interesting that the bumpers of German cars in America used to be so much bigger in the 1980s than they were here.

Oh, speaking of bumpers....

Here in the U.S., some states make you put license plates on both the front and back bumpers. But other states -- including Indiana -- give you just one plate for the back.

So what do you do with the front? Around here, BMW owners will often put a German license plate on their front bumper. I don't know whether that's legal, but I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it.

VA is one. This is something I've never understood. Why we can't have just one in the back is beyond me. But like I said before, that's conservative VA for ya.

Love the 1 Series. If I were in the market, I'd really like the hatchback, but BMW has no plans to release it in North America, as I understand.

Lammastide said:

Love the 1 Series. If I were in the market, I'd really like the hatchback, but BMW has no plans to release it in North America, as I understand.

You mean this?

[Edited 9/10/12 4:40am]

missfee said:

Lammastide said:

Love the 1 Series. If I were in the market, I'd really like the hatchback, but BMW has no plans to release it in North America, as I understand.

You mean this?

[Edited 9/10/12 4:40am]

That's her. And I'm particularly keen on the 3-door model.

Lammastide said:

missfee said:

You mean this?

[Edited 9/10/12 4:40am]

That's her. And I'm particularly keen on the 3-door model.

I agree.

So the powers who be over in Germany feel that this model isn't marketable for the US right now. Wonder why is that so? This model could (and I say that loosely) compete with the Mazda 3 hatchback, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus hatchback, Honda Insight, etc. ....but of course those models would be no match for the Bimmer, so maybe there's no competition with the other luxury brands as far as the X1 series hatchback goes? IMO, that would make BMW even more favorable by introducing this model in the US. Why wouldn't it be successful?

[Edited 9/10/12 18:08pm]

[Edited 9/10/12 18:09pm]

missfee said:

Lammastide said:

That's her. And I'm particularly keen on the 3-door model.

I agree.

So the powers who be over in Germany feel that this model isn't marketable for the US right now. Wonder why is that so? This model could (and I say that loosely) compete with the Mazda 3 hatchback, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus hatchback, Honda Insight, etc. ....but of course those models would be no match for the Bimmer, so maybe there's no competition with the other luxury brands as far as the X1 series hatchback goes? IMO, that would make BMW even more favorable by introducing this model in the US. Why wouldn't it be successful?

[Edited 9/10/12 18:08pm]

[Edited 9/10/12 18:09pm]

So what does the US-version look like?

KoolEaze said:

missfee said:

I agree.

So the powers who be over in Germany feel that this model isn't marketable for the US right now. Wonder why is that so? This model could (and I say that loosely) compete with the Mazda 3 hatchback, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus hatchback, Honda Insight, etc. ....but of course those models would be no match for the Bimmer, so maybe there's no competition with the other luxury brands as far as the X1 series hatchback goes? IMO, that would make BMW even more favorable by introducing this model in the US. Why wouldn't it be successful?

[Edited 9/10/12 18:08pm]

[Edited 9/10/12 18:09pm]

So what does the US-version look like?

There isn't a US version of the X1 series hatchback.

missfee said:

So the powers who be over in Germany feel that this model isn't marketable for the US right now. Wonder why is that so? This model could (and I say that loosely) compete with the Mazda 3 hatchback, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus hatchback, Honda Insight, etc. ....but of course those models would be no match for the Bimmer, so maybe there's no competition with the other luxury brands as far as the X1 series hatchback goes? IMO, that would make BMW even more favorable by introducing this model in the US. Why wouldn't it be successful?

Probably because of BMW's bad experience with importing the 318ti hatchback into the U.S. back in the 1990s. From Wikipedia:

The E36 Compact was very popular in its home market in Europe, which prompted BMW to market the car to North America for the 1995 model year. The E36 Compact's front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout was unique for the segment, giving it no direct competitors in North America.

When introduced in the United States and Canada, despite being reasonably priced, starting at $19,900 (USD), the 318ti never enjoyed popularity in North America. While consumers desired a less expensive BMW, North American consumers, America in particular, dislike the hatchback bodystyle. Also the popularity of sport utility vehicles at the time overshadowed the compact BMW.

BMW ceased importation of the BMW Compact to North America after the 1999 model year after a very short 4 year run due to a combination of poor sales, and BMW's desire to reposition themselves more upmarket by phasing out all 4-cylinder vehicles with the introduction of the new BMW E46 3-series. The failure of the E36 Compact precluded the E46 Compact's entry into the North American market.

The failure of the E36 BMW Compact in North America also prompted BMW to reconfigure the BMW Compact's ultimate successor, the BMW 1 Series, from a hatchback to a coupe before attempting to market the car in North America again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Compact

matt said:

missfee said:

So the powers who be over in Germany feel that this model isn't marketable for the US right now. Wonder why is that so? This model could (and I say that loosely) compete with the Mazda 3 hatchback, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus hatchback, Honda Insight, etc. ....but of course those models would be no match for the Bimmer, so maybe there's no competition with the other luxury brands as far as the X1 series hatchback goes? IMO, that would make BMW even more favorable by introducing this model in the US. Why wouldn't it be successful?

Probably because of BMW's bad experience with importing the 318ti hatchback into the U.S. back in the 1990s. From Wikipedia:

The E36 Compact was very popular in its home market in Europe, which prompted BMW to market the car to North America for the 1995 model year. The E36 Compact's front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout was unique for the segment, giving it no direct competitors in North America.

When introduced in the United States and Canada, despite being reasonably priced, starting at $19,900 (USD), the 318ti never enjoyed popularity in North America. While consumers desired a less expensive BMW, North American consumers, America in particular, dislike the hatchback bodystyle. Also the popularity of sport utility vehicles at the time overshadowed the compact BMW.

BMW ceased importation of the BMW Compact to North America after the 1999 model year after a very short 4 year run due to a combination of poor sales, and BMW's desire to reposition themselves more upmarket by phasing out all 4-cylinder vehicles with the introduction of the new BMW E46 3-series. The failure of the E36 Compact precluded the E46 Compact's entry into the North American market.

The failure of the E36 BMW Compact in North America also prompted BMW to reconfigure the BMW Compact's ultimate successor, the BMW 1 Series, from a hatchback to a coupe before attempting to market the car in North America again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Compact

Hmm, interesting.

matt said:

missfee said:

So the powers who be over in Germany feel that this model isn't marketable for the US right now. Wonder why is that so? This model could (and I say that loosely) compete with the Mazda 3 hatchback, Ford Fiesta or Ford Focus hatchback, Honda Insight, etc. ....but of course those models would be no match for the Bimmer, so maybe there's no competition with the other luxury brands as far as the X1 series hatchback goes? IMO, that would make BMW even more favorable by introducing this model in the US. Why wouldn't it be successful?

Probably because of BMW's bad experience with importing the 318ti hatchback into the U.S. back in the 1990s. From Wikipedia:

The E36 Compact was very popular in its home market in Europe, which prompted BMW to market the car to North America for the 1995 model year. The E36 Compact's front-engine, rear-wheel drive layout was unique for the segment, giving it no direct competitors in North America.

When introduced in the United States and Canada, despite being reasonably priced, starting at $19,900 (USD), the 318ti never enjoyed popularity in North America. While consumers desired a less expensive BMW, North American consumers, America in particular, dislike the hatchback bodystyle. Also the popularity of sport utility vehicles at the time overshadowed the compact BMW.

BMW ceased importation of the BMW Compact to North America after the 1999 model year after a very short 4 year run due to a combination of poor sales, and BMW's desire to reposition themselves more upmarket by phasing out all 4-cylinder vehicles with the introduction of the new BMW E46 3-series. The failure of the E36 Compact precluded the E46 Compact's entry into the North American market.

The failure of the E36 BMW Compact in North America also prompted BMW to reconfigure the BMW Compact's ultimate successor, the BMW 1 Series, from a hatchback to a coupe before attempting to market the car in North America again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Compact

This makes some sense.

Seems BMW would be slightly less squeamish, though, given a decline in North American market share of larger SUVs over the past 10 years. We've opted for slightly smaller vehicles than through the '90s.

I wonder if a stonger r eason for BMW staying away from a North American 1 Series hatch release is that its introduction would almost certainly provide a more attractive alternative to the higher priced X1 crossover.

[Edited 9/11/12 19:12pm]

I keep reading this as BBW fans and it bugs me that each time I see it, I think it's a new thread.