BMW Blogger contest? Not for me

I got an email last week letting me know that a BMW dealer in Toronto is running a contest. The winner gets to be their official in house blogger and new media person. On the upside you get a place to live, a new BMW to drive every six months and $65 000 a year. If you are interested you can read up on it at this link:


http://endrasbmw.com/ultimateblogger/about


There are a couple of downsides:

You have to live in Toronto. For my readers who are not in Canada, Toronto is Canada’s largest city, Canada’s largest armpit and a frustrating place to have a car. Toronto city council has been waging a war against the car for years. The weirdest example of this is to save the environment they intentionally desynchronized the traffic lights. How does this help the environment? The closest I can figure is that it may piss people off to the point where they will stop driving. When the lights are synchronized the traffic spends more time moving, people get to where they are going faster and burn less gas. There are a lot of great cars in this city but there aren’t really any great roads to drive them on. Other cities, like Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa have great driving roads very close by. It is such a tease to have a fantastic car without some twists and turns. If all you are going to do is 10 km/hr while sitting 4 feet off of somebody’s bumper, you may as well be driving a Camry.

Driving in Toronto, what a wonderful driving experience!

Picture borrowed from: http://jackandcokewithalime.blogspot.com/2010/05/toronto-traffic-gridlock-makes-idling.html

This is where you can appreciate a quality car, the Sea to Sky Highway near Vancouver.

Picture borrowed from: http://www.sweetspot.ca/SweetLife/gifts_and_occasions/8665/2_hour_drive_sea_to_sky_highway/


I imagine that they want you to be very positive about BMW. Now I get that they are paying the tab but I like the idea of saying whatever comes to mind. BMW has made some incredible vehicles. I drove a 5 series down the autobahn and it was amazing. At 200 km/h it just planted itself on the road and responded like it was an extension of my body. Many of the controls are just in the right place with the right amount of resistance. They feel substantial but are still easy to use.

For more of me gushing about Germany:

http://here-in-my-car.blogspot.com/2010/07/bahn-storming.html

http://here-in-my-car.blogspot.com/2010/08/nurburgring.html

http://here-in-my-car.blogspot.com/2010/10/nurburgring-ii-electric-boogalloo.html


They did not invent the executive sedan market. You see that coming from both sides of the ocean. In England, Jaguar was producing quality vehicles that a bank manager or an executive could afford. They were powerful and luxurious. They made the statement “I have arrived”. In North America, this role was being filled by upper end GM products; Cadillac had the Eldorado and Oldsmobile had the 442. Both of these had power and style but lacked sophistication. This says a lot about North America.

1966 Jag S Type, you can just hear the class and the snobbery

Pic borrowed from: http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=255564

1972 Olds 442, the executive muscle car

Pic borrowed from: http://autoshow.autotrader.ca/2009/07/27/the-cars-of-the-imperial-palace-las-vegas/1972-oldsmobile-442-2/

1967 Caddy Eldorado, Insert giant land yacht joke here

Pic borrowed from: http://cars.88000.org/24__Cadillac_Eldorado_Fleetwood_Black_1967.htm

BMW spent the 60’s and 70’s quietly building a reputation among enthusiasts. It was like a secret club. They started showing up at race tracks and in the driveways of people in the know.

A 1970’s vintage BMW ready to go racing

Pic borrowed from: http://auto.niot.net/tag/bmw-m1/

Then the 80’s happened. Suddenly greed was good and it was important to show people how much you had spent. Anything from North America was seen as tasteless and horribly tacky. A BMW, anything from a 3 series on up, was a way to show that you were sophisticated, modern and successful. While a lot of the things associated with the yuppie culture are still considered toxic (Brute 33, wine coolers and that poster with the chick with the sunglasses), BMW managed to come out of the 80’s with its reputation intact. This success gave them enough money to plough in to R & D to keep them relevant for the next 20 years.

This poster was issued to every bachelor pad in the 80’s

Pic borrowed from: http://artisticthings.com/patrick-nagel/

But BMW has also produced some clinkers.

The BMW Isetta: It had the door from a fridge, no reverse gear and between 13 and 64 hp depending on the version. You were the crumple zone and your seat was the single cylinder engine. The three wheeled versions were prone to rolling over. It was this car and the Messerschmitt KR200 that inspired the British to create the Mini. They demanded that the Mini have seating for four and real doors. It went on to become one of the most iconic and influential cars of all time.

BMW Isetta with Cary Grant?

Pic borrowed from: http://www.theblogofrecord.com/tag/bmw-isetta/

The BMW 318i: It was a poor man’s BMW. You got a badge, a poorly equipped car and an engine that was almost powerful enough to drag the car around. For the same money you could get yourself a top of the line VW GTI. The 318i was even looked down upon by other BMW owners. At least with the GTI the servicing costs would be reasonable. This is because most of the parts on the GTI were shared with the Golf. There are millions of Golfs around the world, so the parts would be plentiful and relatively cheap. There were also more people trained to work on Golfs than BMWs.

The bargain basement BMW (1997 BMW 318i)

Pic borrowed from: http://vlane.com/review/8840/1997-bmw-3-series-green-1997-bmw-318i

The current BMW 6 series: From the front and the side, this is a beautiful car. The back side looks like it has made a few too many trips to the buffet. The inside looks like it was designed by somebody who just doesn’t like cars. This is so surprising because so many BMW interiors are slick, efficient and cool. This car is more frustrating than most because it is soooooo close to being a perfect car. Oh well, we will just have to worship the Audi S5 instead.

Ok, you don’t have to get it with all the wood trim but the second dashboard hump for the nav. system is hideous.
Pic borrowed from: http://the-grayline.com/2008/08/13/bmw-6-series-sport/bmw-6-series-sport-8/


So, this contest is not for me. I wish all the contestants luck. It sounds like a wonderful opportunity. If you do win, use it as a springboard. Social media is cool, for now. I don’t even do this blog for anybody else but me. I hope others enjoy my random ramblings but it is not part of my master career plan. I don’t think that many dealerships will be able to afford to keep a social media person around for very long. Most dealership owners that I have met are looking for a way to make their money make more money and I don’t think this will. That being said, if they want to toss me the keys to a new BMW every six months ........I may be open to writing a few flattering lines ;) .