BMW M Manager Bruhnke at Stockholm Open, Sweden and answer to your questions - Page 2 - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

beckhammania23 · 29th October 2004, 09:55

great write up Gustav

thanks for sharing

kees · 29th October 2004, 10:16

BMW Power · 29th October 2004, 11:45

Awesome write up! I love people who manage to make time for people with such patience and wisdom, im pretty sure M is being run by the right guy and I wish him all the best in everything he (and the Entire ///M Crew!) work on.

Gustav, Didnt you ask him if theres any vacancies for test drivers at ///M?

alsahher · 29th October 2004, 12:01

Very nice write up Gustav..

BG · 29th October 2004, 12:45

Nice interview. Great to see that such a boffin is open to questions from enthousiasts!

Wolverine · 29th October 2004, 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by vndkshn

Nice job Gustav!

What I found most interesting.... "In the beginning of the next year we will have a modification in the standard 5-sereis, which we also wanted to incorporate in the M5. ". Wonder what is this..... Also quite interesting on the manual trans. No real surprise that the same V10 would be used on an M6... doesn't make any sense to have a different engine. Perhaps different tuning, but overall, the same engine.

Great writeup Gustav! I'm curious about the 'modification' also.
"...In the beginning of the next year..."

Did he mean the next calendar year, or the next model year?

"The manual could be an option for the US market, only for USA then. It is never good to say no to a market. But I want to give the customers a chance to try it out first. The really have to try the new SMGIII first, we want to give them a possibility to try to it. We have started to think about it but not started any development on it."

I'm reading a few things into this. First he tells you he's not going to answer no, since that is never good. Then he's saying that there is no development program, one has not even been started. How long do we think it would take BMW to develop a totally new 7 speed manual transmission from scratch? If they made the decision today, it would be a minumum of 2-3 years before the system would be on the market. Think about development times - design, prototype, testing, redesign, tooling, production - they haven't even started a program yet. Then he's saying '...They really have to try the new SMGIII first...", so they won't be starting a manual transmission program for some time.

Unfortunately, he's telling us there is no way we will see a manual transmission in the M5. He's saying it in a nice way though.

MEnthusiast · 29th October 2004, 15:01

Great report Gustav! Thanks for all the info. Im glad to see there is a chance on a M6 cabrio!

bernhtp · 29th October 2004, 16:13

He seems to be saying that there will be no manual initially, and maybe never. He wants to gauge the acceptance of SMG III first, and see if there is still very significant demand for a manual. If there is very aggressive demand - both numerically and emotionally - he will consider it. But given that the SMG transmission is not meant for manual shift and BMW does not likely have the time and inclination to develop a new 7-speed manual, I would bet it would be some variation on the E39 6-speed.

My bet is it never happens.

Tom

SC'dKellenersM5 · 29th October 2004, 17:23

As im sure a few other members can see or read between the lines...

BMW individual is what they are soon going to be pushing..if you want things your way, your going to pay. hence the small number of colors and more cost options..

SMGIII-- they dont care about the driver any more. Sure i own a SMGII m3 and its fun but nothing is like a 6spd. That last line he made says it all..."The(y) really have to try the new SMGIII first, we want to give them a possibility to try to it"

My butt...that line just said, We dont really care if you people want a 6spd, this is what your going to have to live with. Although if you read into it farther, if we will loose enough sales to someone i guess we will get off of our butts and do something about it. As someone put it..it would take along time to get that tranny done, enough time for them to figure out if they are loosing sales.

Warranty of the gearbox: "Same warranty as the other BMW cars. Maybe if you need the third clutch we might have to teach you the system."

AND

15. LC in the USA?

"Yes, I think so."

Sure it will have LC...but they will void your warranty on the clutch past 10 uses of it. The ECU keeps track of the # of uses of LC. So i would love to see how that one is going to work out. BMW has already voided numbers of M3 SMG owners clutch warranty becasue they used LC more than 10times (although this so called warranty void claim is found NO WHERE! Its an arbitrary number that apparently BMW made up so that they would have to replace clutches all the time ala E39 M5.)

MZ4---dont count on it. The z4 has tanked in comparison to what BMW has anticipated. The female customers that they had anticipated from the z3 craze for the most part did not care for the z4. So why put more money into a line that isnt doing as well as you would like with your target market anyway? The only people that would want a zm4 are "us," the performance people not the general public.

Every day BMW, as a collective whole (the upper managment), open their mouth, im more inclined not to buy another BMW. If i wanted a MB i would buy one, and thats exactly what I feel. I think MB's new slogan should read: The ultimate BMW driving machine. As MB's trends seem to be driving BMW to do things that just a few years back they would not have.

Slowly going the way of the buffalo...

I do appreciate you taking the time though gustav to collect this info.

thebishman · 29th October 2004, 17:57

Gustav,
A great job. Good information

Rennsport,
About the M3 SMG LC warranty refusals. IF BMW deny that LC exists on US M3s, which they do, how can they legally deny warranty replacement claims for a new clutch caused by a feature that 'doesn't exist'? An attorney could easily thwart a refused warranty claim I'm thinking.