BMW Performance Driving Experience Aid in Sales

Performance driving experience is probably the best kind of advertising that a car company can do. It is one of the few ways that people really get to know how the cars looks and feels. It is always a far cry from just seeing a commercial of the car being driven up canyon roads with supermodels. That is what BMW’s Performance Driving Center in Spartanburg, South Carolina, is all about.

The BMW Performance Driving Center is a facility that has a 1.7 mile race track, a dirt course for SUVs and professionally trained instructors to assist customers through either of the two. Nothing than actually being in a car that makes you comfortable with it. So the goal of the whole experience is for potential buyers to hopefully get a positive association with the brand.

“This is a huge part of our marketing plan,” said Daniel Gubitosa, Director of BMW’s Performance Driving Center. “Getting people into the cars and letting them drive is really important. Everybody walks away with a new skill. We want people to enjoy driving and experience the brand.” And he’s right, if customers actually get to drive the cars the way they’re designed to be driven and have fun doing so, it’s likely they will stick with BMW.

Other carmakers are also offering their own version of driving experience. Porsche has their Porsche Experience Center in Atlanta, Georgia. It gets around 10,000 visitors annually. Mercedes-AMG has their AMG Driving Academy in Germany and the US. Audi has their Audi Sportscar Experience at Sonoma Raceway in California.

“Maybe you’re on the fence and don’t know what BMW is all about,” says Gubitosa. “Once you get here, you may change your mind.” They don’t try to sell anything here. They just offer the facility for the experience. Sounds good. Really good.