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BMW NA improved certain parts of the BMW X3 Sports Activity Vehicle before it goes on sale January of 2011. One of the most notable improvements were the cup holders.
The previous BMW X3 did not have good cup holders, but in the new version, they made the cup holders Starbucks-friendly to better cater to the customer’s needs. Whether we notice it or not, good cup holders can really come in handy.
Because of the rise of the sales in China and the U.S., BMW is more open to making specific market needs. BMW’s designers and engineers in Munich work together to incorporate the preferences of the American market. But this doesn’t mean design takeover — these are just minimal changes that would help make the vehicle better suited to the market where it will be sold.
BMW NA has been pushing cup holder changes since the 90’s because of the 16 ounce coffee cups and big McDonalds soda cups that occur on a daily basis in the American society.
BMWX3 product manager Joe Wierda says that they finally got the cup holders right this time.
Old X3: Bad cupholders. New X3: Good, Starbucks-friendly, American-style cupholders right below the center instrument panel.
The rise in BMW’s U.S. sales over the past two years, even eclipsing BMW sales in the German home market, made designers and engineers back in Munich more open to incorporating quirky American preferences, said Joe Wierda, the X3 product manager at BMW.
“That didn’t mean we could take over the design,†Wierda said while meeting with a small group of journalists at a Traverse City golf house during a break in the CAR Management Briefing Seminars. “But it did mean we could get good cupholders and we won’t get dinged by J.D. Power for not having them.
“That was one thing I spent the past three years doing — trying to get the guys back in Munich to understand that we’ve got to get the cupholders right. We sent over Big Gulp cups and big McDonald’s cups and said, ‘This is really what we have to address.’ â€
It’s an old joke at BMW and among the European automakers in general. Sensible German and French drivers wouldn’t think of leaving for the office with a sloppy 16-ounce mug of hot coffee sitting in the console of their luxury vehicle — even if they drank coffee 16 ounces at a gulp.
BMW’s U.S. subsidiary has been pressing for better cupholders in its car interiors since at least the early 1990s, but with mixed results. When the first X3 appeared in 2003, engineers begrudgingly gave customers what were essentially water-bottle holders in the door panels. It was hardly adequate for American tastes and habits.
A generation later, the X3 faces a more competitive fight among a field of new small-crossover competitors, including the Acura RDX and Infiniti EX35.
BMW wants to reassert itself in the small-crossover segment, Wierda said.
“We’ve made improvements all over the vehicle, including an improved ride and a larger body,†he said. “But we also got the cupholders right.â€
Through July, X3 sales in the United States are up 17 percent compared with the same period a year ago, to 3,998 vehicles, while BMW division sales have risen 9 percent. The U.S. market as a whole is up 15 percent.
