Otherwise I agree that BMW & Mercedes are here to stay.

Someone asks BMW to get those from Mercs!!

Stereo?! my M-Roadster, a convertible with very stiff suspension that by default has lots of chassis shocks and jitters with a CD player that skips worse than Celine Dion in a live concert, didnt anyone tell them that sport cars with stiff suspension need an anti-skip CD player that you could find in a cheap KIA.
iDrive? …. I’ll leave this to the iDrive owners, non of my cars have iDrive, but I have to say that the E46 Nav is not my favourtie, I’d rather use Garmin,… but the new google based iDrive might solve the problem.

Anyway these cosmetics could be outsourced from Mercs, but keep the best of BMW in BMW, engine, chassis, suspension, and of course overall platfrom design.

Well they agreed on the cooperation, but I don’t think as of today BMW & Mercedes share any parts yet. As ADOOD84 wrote maybe the window motors on the 2012 new 3 series will be similar to the ones in a new Merc. But these cooperation agreements although signed in 2008 will take their time to implement. I mean they will not change all the parts in the middle of a model year suddenly. Next time maybe when a facelift is scheduled or when they start working on a new model like the next 1 series and the next A & B Class they will coordinate things and use similar parts.

I am sure both firms are aware that exchanging 6 Cylinder engines is an absolute no-go -> not just for BMW but for Merc as well.

On the top there will be Rolls Royce not Maybach ,which is almost dead right now and ,if it survive, it will be below , then BMW and Mercedes on the same level , and then Mini probably along with Project-i , and then Smart .

What I dont want to see is BMW being restricted in R&D … etc and Merc having the upper hand because the way I see it BMW has brought alot of innovation and that is one of the marks of BMW : fast, good handling , and innovative cars that’s why they call it the ultimate driving machine

And I don’t know that BMW going away from the I6 would be enough for me to consider a Prius. I don’t even thing a gun pointed at my head would get me to buy one of those things.

Also – to play Devil’s Advocate, I’m sure most Mercedes Enthusiasts would agree that they have issue with this move.

@Lee: They did start sharing a lot of the technologies, like the hybrid system and now they are sharing many other parts.

Although if they did start “sharing” technology, it would make my job a little easier in a few years as we work on both BMWs and Mercs.

Yeah – to me if you take away a BMW inline 6 engine and replace it with a V6 or Merc-sourced engine the the car has pretty much lost all appeal to me.

As for the production place. I do care about that as an enthusiast. I want a firm that’s focused on quality product that’s interesting to look at and even more enjoyable to drive. If I wanted to drive a car by a company hell-bent on the bottom line and total domination I’d own a Toyota or VW. As it is, I’m happy to pay a premium for a BMW – it feels justified, but I don’t want to see one on every street corner nor do I want to worry about the platform sharing dillution that plagued the Daimler Chrysler Merger. BMW need be very careful where and how they implement parts/ knowledge from soon-to-be-related sources.

But to completely blow off Merc’s contributions to the automotive industry simply because you prefer another company’s product is absolutely ridiculous. To say that BMW can financially “take on” VW/Audi/Porsche/SEAT/Skoda/Lambo/etc on it’s own is nothing short of idiotic. They’re not even in the same league, and I’m okay with that personally. I’m glad I don’t drive a VW. But you have to at least open your eyes and realize what BMW’s place in the automotive industry actually is, and it’s certainly not giving VW a run for its money any time soon (nor should they).

I hate that too, and this site as great it is, has some of that religious BMW fanaticism unfortunately.

However, to your comment, for us the enthusiasts, we dont really care if BMW is taking VW or Toyota production place, Actually we might hope that it doesn’t. Quality, Sporty, Fun,….etc is not the same as quantity of sells. BMW will benefit from Mercedes technology and viceversa, but the move for example of taking Mercedes V12 and use it in BMW 7 is not what I want to hear. For me the BMW 7 is written off since the E65, so I dont really care much, but if we keep seeing this trend we might end up with an AMG/M car being produced in both companies with different face features and different logos.

A LOT of automotive companies have benefited from Merc’s R&D. While I’m not a Merc fan myself, you can’t discount their influence on the automotive industry simply because you don’t like them.

I dislike their products too, but you have to give them credit where credit is due.

BMW can’t take out VW, Audi, nor the rest of the VAG (PAG now?) alone. VW is vying for dominance in the global market. BMW and Merc aren’t even in the picture.

VW’s worldwide production in 2007: 6,346,222
Mercedes: 2,096,977
BMW: 1,541,503

I hate blind fanaticism, even if it’s a brand I happen to like.

My bad, I hadn’t checked my research before I posted and it kicked me in the ass! I was confusing the companies Quandt owned before/during WW2 with BMW.

As for the analysis – yes, I’d say BMW is a much more profit-driven company than ever before. Or at least they appear to be.

AFAIK, The Quandts became major shareholders in BMW after 1959 when Herbert (the father) saved the company from falling into Daimler-Benz hands, they had 30% before that and he increased it to 50% after he put his faith in the company and its workforce. I don’t even think they had any stakes in it before WW2. So the Allies didn’t “handed it back to the Quandt’s” as you put it.

while I like to see BMW continues success, I also would like to see the essence of the Brand stays as it is. From our point of view as enthusiasts, what’s the point of a super successful BMW corporation if their success comes from expanding into businesses that have nothing to do with BMW brand as we know it. BMW is a company at the end and they will do everything they could to be successful in business, that’s understandable, but their reputation as a sport saloon brand and their wide range of enthusiasts is their biggest booster in selling their new cars although their cars are shifting gradually away from the definition and essence of the real BMWs of the 70s and 80s. The new moves might push it further away from that. BMW has an engineering heritage that goes from generation to another but the balance between the engineering and technology departments on one side and the financial and marketing departments on the other will be the thing to watch, so far I think the second is winning.