![]() With BMW’s business teetering on the edge, and a possible takeover by Bavarian-based rival car maker Glas highly possible (with BMW ironically acquiring and killing off Glas just a decade later), astonishingly the tiny ISO was just the right car at the right time, the Isetta essentially saving the BMW company that so many motorists love and admire today ISO’s little Italian bubble-shaped microcar was more in tune with mid-1950s new car buyer demands than the baroque BMW 501 and handsome but irrelevant sporting BMWs, such as the 503 GT coupe and expensive 507 roadster. Its large, ungainly and thirsty 501 V8 saloon widely missed the mark and failed to attract buyers in a depressed post-war market, and much of BMW’s previous production facilities were now based in the newly Communist-run DDR (East Germany). The Isetta (almost) fulfilled a need in post-war mainland Europe for minimalist and affordable transportation, with Italian domestic white goods maker Renzo Rivolta’s ISO business creating the Isetta, and building it between 1953-58.Īs well as industrialist Rivolta cannily selling the production licence for his inexpensive Isetta bubble car around the world, including Velam in France, De Carlo in Argentina and Romi-Isetta in Brazil, ISO sold its largest manufacturing rights agreement for the model to the cash-starved and ailing BMW in Munich.īMW hadn’t come out of the Second World War in rude health. At one time, the BMW Isetta was the best-selling single-cylinder engined car in the world, with 161,728 examples sold overall, and the model being the first British-built BMW ever made (in Brighton), from 1957 onwards. The BMW I was unfortunate enough to drive last week was the Isetta, more commonly known as the tiny and rotund ‘bubble car’, as built between 19. Admittedly the BMW model in question had thankfully ceased production by the time the ‘Ultimate’ marketing message had kicked in, which is just as well as the company could have well been sued otherwise under the Trades Descriptions Act! This unappealing model was arguably one of the most important in BMW’s car making history though, as without it, the Bavarian motoring monolith we know today might not have survived its near-bankruptcy in the 1950s. The other day, however, I drove a BMW that was so far removed from being the Ultimate Driving Machine, it was laughable. My personal favourite modern-era BMW – the Z1 roadster, with its intriguing drop-down doors – was a tad disappointing to drive though, despite its stylish and original sporting good looks and pretentions. I dislike the big giant screens in a proper implementation, so considering this is a poor implementation, hard pass.Īlso you're right about missing ACC, it's one of those things you don't use 99% of the time but the 1% of time you do, it feels worth it.Over the intervening years since BMW began using the ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ message, a number of its models have proven to be exceptionally good to drive, especially the first-generation M3 (E30), various M5s, and the quirky Z3 M Coupe. they were all just sheepishly hunched over saying "Yea this is the direction the industry is going". It was also pretty slow, and funny how when i asked about why BMW is doing this, no one defended it. Which is fine for a car running on batteries but horrendous for something like an m240. ![]() I went to a dealer to try out iD8 in an iX on the lot, and it felt right for an EV, but completely sterile. Sprinted across the country to find a '22 when i found out iD8 was confirmed for '23. This was deleted on my build due to shortage.Īgreed on this. The only new feature I like is the return of adaptive cruise control. Honestly though, I have yet to interact with ID8, but the reviews I've seen of the iX makes the new interface look like a nightmare. I am not a fan of the giant iPad trend in cars and happy to have the older dash with physical buttons.
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