When I was 5 years old, my dad sold his old truck and bought a large goal of his from his long-time favorite auto company, a BMW X5. Growing up I helped him work on it, upgrade it, and watched him keep it clean weekly. When I got to high school, he had to sell the X5 because it became too expensive to maintain. One well-known flaw with the German brand is the way intricate way they are put together, and the high cost of parts. I saved up money to buy a very old, used 3-series. I emptied my bank account because of the tie I had to the brand after growing up in the X5, and wanted my own experience of "the ultimate driving machine."
The way that BMW has been seen by its large audience has been very consistent for a long time, highlighting their mixture of luxury and high-performance. The way that most of their sedans and coupes are marketed these days are as race cars with added comfort, for anyone and everyone to be able to have a memorable, unique driving experience in both comfort and community. As a car enthusiast, since I have owned this 3-series I have noticed that with owning the car, follows a community. In maintaining and working on my car I have entered online forums, social media pages, and other groups of other BMW and 3-series specific owners, being enthusiastic about owning one of their cars, and learning a lot about their history and future.
Not all owners take advantage of this, but as someone with an older model, I have definitely grown to appreciate the community that I have been able to use to help in my maintenance, information, and buying/selling of parts. This is something that other brands share, but not something you can find with a common Japanese or American auto company. One reason for these groups, however, is to help with maintaining the vehicles, which has proven to be a flaw to millions. German auto companies are famous for having elaborate internal designs, making it difficult to take things apart, and do things on your own. Because of this, many owners with less knowledge take their cars into German auto shops and BMW facilities and pay a lot of money for maintenance, helping the company profit greatly. While this is great for them, it limits those who enjoy working on their car themselves, hence the reason for blogs and forums to learn how to do things because they are much more complicated than, lets say, the engine of a Toyota Camry.
While this will likely not change drastically, BMW should recognize this large community of proud owners and highlight this in their brand marketing. These forums will never be advertised as part of the ownership experience and BMW will not shy away from the majority of owners who won't think twice before taking their car in to the dealership for maintenance, but their is something tied to the brand beyond being proud of having a car. People who like cars, buy BMWs. While I will try to continue to remain a BMW owner and learn about every part of whichever car I have at any time, I will always rather do things myself than take my car to them and pay more money, and that issue will always be a frustrating relationship with the company.
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