Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

BMW AG will test its self-proclaimed image as the maker of the “ultimate driving machine” with a wagon designed more for parents picking up kids at school than for zipping along the autobahn.

The van-like 2-Series Gran Tourer offers rear seats that fold down for more storage and space for as many as seven passengers. The 26,950-euro ($30,200) vehicle, debuting this week at the Geneva International Motor Show, challenges BMW’s fans by emphasizing family-oriented functionality over the flair of stablemates like the M5 performance sedan.

“It’s a fairly frumpy car,” said Tim Urquhart, an analyst at IHS Automotive. “The compact seven-seater is a pretty small market, and it’s already pretty well populated” by the likes of Ford Motor Co.’s Grand C-Max, Renault SA’s Grand Scenic and GM’s Opel Zafira Tourer in Europe.

With Audi and Mercedes-Benz closing the gap on BMW’s sales lead, the world’s biggest luxury-car brand is under pressure to woo customers aside from affluent executives. That means pushing into segments BMW once shunned and compromising its focus on acceleration and handling.

Rivals, meanwhile, are burnishing their performance appeal. Audi is unveiling a revamped $165,000 R8 sports car in Geneva, including a new electric version, while Daimler AG’s Mercedes is showing a racing version of the AMG GT, which targets Porsche 911 buyers.

Back-Seat Videos

What amounts to the first BMW van is aimed at easing demand declines of aging models such as the top-end 7-Series sedan. The brand’s deliveries are likely to rise by just 4 percent this year, about half the growth rate predicted for its two German competitors, according to Bankhaus Metzler.

The Gran Tourer boasts as much as 1.9 cubic meters (67 cubic feet) of storage and marks the debut of a BMW smartphone application called myKidio that allows the driver to control the videos that back-seat passengers can watch on linked-up tablet computers.

After favoring sportier rear-wheel drive, the brand has now introduced a second vehicle with the engine power directed to the front wheels. The first was the smaller 2-Series Active Tourer, which came out last year and is geared mainly toward older drivers.

While Mercedes already offers spacious models like the R- Class wagon and V-Class passenger van, it’s new territory for Munich-based BMW and raises concerns that the brand’s veering too far from its roots in performance-oriented vehicles.

‘Uncomfortable Customers’

“They’re not afraid to stretch the definition of the brand to the point of making their previous core customers uncomfortable,” said Dave Flogaus, co-vice president of the Philadelphia-area Delaware Valley chapter of the BMW Car Club of America. “One way or the other, it’s is a bold move.”

The standard version of the Gran Tourer, priced about 15 percent more than competing models, will reach European showrooms in June. The company has no current plans for a U.S. release date.

The new model is designed for “young families who need a lot of space and a large trunk,” said Mathias Schmidt, a BMW spokesman.

Sales prospects for the Gran Tourer are tentative. Demand for small minivans is shrinking in Europe -- the main market -- as buyers looking for space opt for sport-utility vehicles which project “a bit of roughness and toughness,” according to IHS’s Urquhart.

‘Soccer Moms’

The research company is forecasting that the European compact-minivan market will fall 15 percent from last year to about 766,000 vehicles in 2020. In contrast, compact-SUV sales are set to gain by almost one-third to 2.06 million autos.

As a result, Gran Tourer deliveries will probably peak at about 55,000 cars, according to IHS. That’s about 20,000 fewer than the Active Tourer -- a model that featured another BMW- brand first, a humble three-cylinder gasoline engine. Those figures compare with sales last year of 480,200 3-Series sedans, BMW’s most popular model, and 147,400 X5s, an SUV about the size of the Gran Tourer which also seats seven.

In the end, the push for new customers with the Gran Tourer could backfire by confusing the idea of what BMW stands for, said Jonah Berger, author of “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.”

“Brands can’t be everything to everyone,” said Berger, associate professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “It’s hard for the brand to stay aspirational when lots of soccer moms start driving it.”