[daydaychu]

Originally Posted by Terpinator

The more I look at the pictures of the GT, the more I'm hoping that the driver is a very short man. If not, then this version will be a good bit taller (and less desirable) then the sedan. I can't really tell by looking at the comparisons. What do you guys think?

I think the 3GT needs to be taller than the sedan and lower than SUV, that's what made 5GT popular. (in China)

[wakedaze]

Why oh why is BMW insisting on becoming the German Toyota? The brand is becoming diluted and they are wasting valuable time, effort and financial resources on vehicles like this. Please BMW, return to your roots of building high QUALITY and high PERFORMANCE vehicles and let the others fight over the crumbs in the niche market.

[vladberca]

If there is a market for these GT cars, why not build them?
The dynamics is not on top, but they are very comfortable
M Sport versions look good

[a_k]

Originally Posted by MaestroAl

I think that's camera angle. They're not stupid, they'll be sharing the front end between the cars. Why create more cost?

They did it with 5GT. Headlights are anyway different.

[CoolDude196]

Looks promising!

[StevenY.]

Originally Posted by dibxna

BMW Prius lol

LOL. I died. :

[clbmw]

While I loved shapes of the saloons (sedans) over the years I personally think a lack of hatchback option was the sole complaint of all our BMW purchases (oh and having to add xenon lights as an option - they should be standard like the coupe).

I wonder if there will be an M performance version?

My vote would always be for more choice

[liborio]

I don't get the GT. The wagon is nicer looking and more useful. I guess it costs very little in R&D to put out a variant of the basic 3 series and give people more choice. Not for me.

[cs4444]

lol, just because a vehicle isn’t targeted toward them people label it an atrocity. Since when is having more options a bad thing? BMW still makes the 1,3,5, and 7 series coupes and sedans we love, and obviously the stunning M cars. Keep buying the ones you like…they all do not have to appeal to you. I have always kind of like the Gts, especially in dark colors it looks pretty sharp. The layout of the vehicle did not make too much sense to me until I went to visit my parents a few weeks ago. They are looking for a new car. My mother currently has a sedan, and she complains it’s too low and hard to get in and out of..same for SUVs but on the other end of the spectrum. The 5gt finally made sense to me, it strikes a balance between SUV, and Sedan, it has sedan like driving qualities, and styling, but with SUV like utility, and the benefit of a slightly elevated driving position. I know this vehicle will never appeal to the internet auto forum crowd, but it will be very popular in European, Asian, and a certain demographics in the US.

[ATX78703]

Originally Posted by Mark

[bpnews="BMW 3-Series GT (F34) sheds camo armour and dresses in flashy red for its latest outings"]
It is as the marketing folks remind us, a car designed for the person who wants a 3-series sized vehicle, needs the utility of wagon but doesn't actually want to own a wagon.

This person doesn't exist. If somebody wants the utility of a wagon, they usually buy (guess what?) a wagon.... If they don't like the way wagons look, they usually buy a crossover....

[Matski]

I truly cannot believe how narrow-minded some people are. Astonishing.

[kasimmmmm]

back end of the car is utter fail.

[MaestroAl]

Originally Posted by Matski

I truly cannot believe how narrow-minded some people are. Astonishing.

^^This^^ But don't forget that most Americans think that America = the world. And Texans think Texas = America.


Go figure.


Cue ranting and raving and chest beating from Texans ...

[twerle]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Just give me a wagon and be done.
The GT looks stupid.

+1

[tyler9595]

Originally Posted by justinnum1

It's not the wrong move. It will sell well. those who don;t like it wont buy it. I see a bunch of those 5gt's in my area.

Really? I don't see any in my market...and my office is next door to the dealership. Seriously, I think the Indy BMW dealership has sold just a few (or less).

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by MaestroAl

Cue ranting and raving and chest beating from Texans ...

Hehe. I'm a Texan, but I've worked in Germany, spent a lot of time in the UK and lived in the Republic of California for a while too. I love wagons, I love just about anything rwd with at least some amount of torque. I don't like SUV's at all. But I just don't see any value of this car that the F31, F30 and E84 don't already do better.

It's great that BMW offers a billion choices now, but it sure seems that their focus is spread equally amongst all of those products, which is different from the "old" days when the 3er, 5er and 7er got lots of attention and were world beaters and the X and Z cars were sort of mild afterthoughts. Now everything seems much closer to being mediocre in equal terms.

I am truly miffed that BMW USA furthers this apparent weakness by limiting what we can have over here. We get the F31 but not with three pedals. We're told we'll eventually get an oil burning 3er, but no real information. We will never, ever, ever get another 3 or 5 door hatch after we were lukewarm to the sorry little E36 318ti they shipped over in the 90's. Our F30 328i gets substandard brakes and our M Sport F3x cars can't have factory installed M brakes. We may be bitter and make fun of some cars, but we also get screwed on lots of small issues (except price, we're fine with that).

[MidwestGolfBum]

Originally Posted by tyler9595

Really? I don't see any in my market...and my office is next door to the dealership. Seriously, I think the Indy BMW dealership has sold just a few (or less).

Several of my local dealers couldn't sell them at all and started giving them out as loaners. They gave me one that had just converted that had 7 miles on it. I'm thinking the more southern markets seem to want these more as I see very little around the WI, MN, IA, and IL areas I frequent.

[MaestroAl]

There is a world outside America people.

Here's the top-selling cars in Europe so far in 2012:

1. VW Golf – Mid-sized Hatchback
2. Vauxhall Corsa – Small Hatchback
3. VW Polo – Small Hatchback
4. Ford Fiesta – Small Hatchback
5. Renault Megane – Mid-sized Hatchback
6. Vauxhall Astra – Mid-sized Hatchback
7. Renault Clio - Small Hatchback
8. Ford Focus – Mid-sized Hatchback
9. Nissan Quashqai – Mid-sized SUV
10. BMW 3 Series – Mid Sized Saloon

And BMW are making a Hatchback verison of the 3 series.

Geddit?

I would have bought a hatchback 3 without hesitation if one existed, just as I'd ahve bought an xDrive one if there was a diesel varient. BMW are heading in the right global direction right now and they're going to reap their rewards for doing so

[Faust]

I expected and hoped for this to look better but sadly it turns out exactly like the 5-Series GT. The glass house is too tall, the rear is weird, the overal stance is not very dynamic. I expected more in the line of A5 Sportback but this is nothing like it. It is too family-oriented and not sporty at all. However, even though I expected the front end to be identical to the sedan (in fact I expected all 3-Series variants, sedan, station wagon and GT to share the same front end) it looks somewhat different. The grill looks different and I suspect the way the headlights meet the grill might be different too. So we may get somewhat of a surprise there. But the rest of the car is sadly not as exciting as it could have been. Bring on the Coupe and Gran Coupe now pls!

[tyler9595]

Originally Posted by MaestroAl

There is a world outside America people.

Here's the top-selling cars in Europe so far in 2012:

1. VW Golf – Mid-sized Hatchback
2. Vauxhall Corsa – Small Hatchback
3. VW Polo – Small Hatchback
4. Ford Fiesta – Small Hatchback
5. Renault Megane – Mid-sized Hatchback
6. Vauxhall Astra – Mid-sized Hatchback
7. Renault Clio - Small Hatchback
8. Ford Focus – Mid-sized Hatchback
9. Nissan Quashqai – Mid-sized SUV
10. BMW 3 Series – Mid Sized Saloon

And BMW are making a Hatchback verison of the 3 series.

Geddit?

I would have bought a hatchback 3 without hesitation if one existed, just as I'd ahve bought an xDrive one if there was a diesel varient. BMW are heading in the right global direction right now and they're going to reap their rewards for doing so

I get that...it makes total sense because these are all very practical and economical vehicles. I am a big fan of the Golf and Focus...but the 3GT doesn't do it for me, especially low bang for the buck.

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by MaestroAl

There is a world outside America people.

Here's the top-selling cars in Europe so far in 2012:

1. VW Golf – Mid-sized Hatchback
2. Vauxhall Corsa – Small Hatchback
3. VW Polo – Small Hatchback
4. Ford Fiesta – Small Hatchback
5. Renault Megane – Mid-sized Hatchback
6. Vauxhall Astra – Mid-sized Hatchback
7. Renault Clio - Small Hatchback
8. Ford Focus – Mid-sized Hatchback
9. Nissan Quashqai – Mid-sized SUV
10. BMW 3 Series – Mid Sized Saloon

And BMW are making a Hatchback verison of the 3 series.

Geddit?

I would have bought a hatchback 3 without hesitation if one existed, just as I'd ahve bought an xDrive one if there was a diesel varient. BMW are heading in the right global direction right now and they're going to reap their rewards for doing so

You can be condescending all you want, but in that fancy top ten list of yours, how many of those top 10 are rwd, with a transmission tunnel for the rear drive shaft? The E81/E87 were universally panned for their lack of utility. Looking at the roof line of this new GT, it's not going to get any better.

In fact, just to explore, in the last thirty or forty years, how many rwd hatchbacks have sold in any quantity in the EU? While the Golf and A3 (and similar Skoda and SEAT) can be awd, they still have the packaging benefit of a transverse motor and transmission.

Further don't the 3er Tourings typically outsell the Saloons in the UK and EU? They come in diesels and with awd, so you're complaining about not choosing a car that was already available to you.

[MaestroAl]

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be condescending. It's just that whilst I recognise this is a very Amerocentric forum, there is a world beyond America and in that world, the Hatchback is king. The drive and engine configuration is completely irrelevant. Most people don't care about that or even know what it means. What most people in the world want is a practical car and that has to be a hatchback for most people. That's why nearly everyone owns one. The fact that the 3 series makes it into the top ten Euro cars in 2012 shows what an epic job BMW have done with the platform, despite the American haters calling ASS a "tree-hugger feature with no place in a sports sedan".

And now if BMW are going to extend this amazing platform to include a hatchback ... well it's pretty bloody obvious why they're doing it and it winds me up when you get stupid comments from blind, and probably stupid Americans (and I don't include yourself here) saying the same tripe about the GT version as they did about the ASS feature. It has no place on a BMW. There's no market for it. It ruins what a BMW is supposed to be. That's just bollocks and totally contrary to fact.

Now nobody can argue about the looks, however, it's not a pretty car from what we've seen so far. But that's aesthetics. If people dont' like it, they won't buy it. Having said that, the Porsche Cayenne is probably the ugliest car ever made and people still bought plenty of them. If the shoe fits, people will wear it.

Anyh00 - I'm not trying to start an argument or owt, just trying to quosh these stupid comments that it'll never sell because it's not a BMW and BMW are somehow getting in bed with the devil because it's not "sporty" enough