No CCOTY for 1962 can leave the BMW Neue Klasse out of consideration. I can’t do a lengthy speech for it right now, but does any of you need to hear one? (here’s my full-length story). A near-bankrupt small auto maker bets the farm on a modern sporty sedan with a lusty OHC four, all-independent suspension, German attention to details and workmanship, and ends up at or near the peak of the global premium car market. The Three Series has become the gold standard, like it or not. And as we speak, Cadillac has finally bet a big chunk of its farm on a genuine 3-Series competitor. A bit late; maybe it should have tried that before it went bankrupt, like BMW did.
The BMW’s influence on the global market is phenomenal and enduring, every bit as much as BMC’s pioneering FWD Mini and 1100. So let’s give it the accolades it deserves.
So many choices today! You make a strong case here. A BMW 3 series car has been a significant factor in the market ever since. In fact this BMW and your earlier BMC are perhaps the prototypes of almost car on the market today. At least in the US, the Buick-style V6 powers most of them (at least from the US and Asia) today.
My beloved Avanti is starting to fell a little left out. 🙁
What a success! Hard to imagine that BMW was nearly down the drain, with a portfolio consisting of a really baroque 501/502 limousine, a really elegant 507 roadster, and small cars like the Isetta (2 or 4 seater) and the BMW 700. Nothing sold adequately.
Then Hahnemann (“Nischen-Paule”) and the Quandt family’s money came to the rescue. Well, it worked.
If only Studebaker had made a car like this…
Oof! After seeing the nominations for the Buick and Avanti I didn’t bother scrolling down to catch this.
Sorry..
I could see this one hitting the right buttons easily.
This gets my very biased vote… owned three of the 2 door variety (2002).
Never made an impact out here very overpriced for what you actually got and in reality a Triumph 2000 was a better road car in every way.
A wonderful reminder of when BMW made desirable cars, ultimate driving machines. As opposed to today’s fat pig Lexus-with-(some)-handling driven-by-asshole-yuppies-who-lease-because-they-can’t-afford-to-buy-but-still-have-to-show-off.
The Ultimate Leasing Machine!
An F30 3 series drives pretty much like a Lexus these days. You want something that’s more raw and connected to the road? Get an Infiniti G37s.
at this point BMWs weren’t as sporty or influential…1962 saw the birth of the car that really set the new benchmark of what a sport sedan should have been, a real legend! My 1962 CCOTY goes to the…(rrumble!!)…Alfa Romeo Giulia !!! This car really deserves a piece of its own !
It does; and it will get one. A wonderful car, but ultimately not as influential as the BMW.
I was going to mention that the Alfa had a 5sp gearbox to the BMW’s semi-trailing arm IRS, but Lancia beat both of them to the punch by 12 years! They both popularized the features, then.
actually Alfa adopted 5-speeds back in 1950 with the 1900, I don’t remember if the Giulietta had ’em…uhm…btw I wasn’t trying to put the BMW down, it surely built its reputation refining over and over the basic concept that started with this one, but as road cars Alfas smoked contemporary BMWs in every aspect and the concept of an upscale but affordable sport sedan started back in the ’50s with the 1900 and the Giulietta, so I’m having quite an hard time to consider the Giulia a BMW’s also run…that’s my point of view, take it easy guys 🙂 !
Of course, both Alfa and Lancia were better at this time. Look at the portfolio both companies had at this time! But were are they now? They have simply botched it up. Great designs, lousy implementation. Same way as British Leyland did. (BMW never lost any money on the Mini, btw.)
It seems to me, that neither Alfa, nor Lancia, nor British Leyland (and their predecessors) took their job seriously. Compare that to the Audi approach. They started at ’69 with almost nil.
That’s why we now have a hard time to avoid German cars, especially in Europe, especially in the middle-class and higher-end sector.
I sort of feel for people that refuse to recognize the significance of this car, the same way I feel for the homeless people I stepped over today. Nobody knows how far BMW has slid in the past dozen years better than I do, but this car set the course for generations to come and redefined what would be demanded of the competition in order to be taken seriously for half of a life time. Proponents of alternative nominees spend too much of their time worrying about why they care about things that most do not.
Another highly biased vote for the Neue Klasse. Regardless of whether one likes it or not, there is no denying that it set the template for a huge segment of the worldwide car market until today. I would agree that the Alfa Giulia is right up there, too, but unfortunately, Alfa lost the plot much earlier than BMW. From the mid-70s onwards, nobody was copying Alfa anymore and the move to FWD together with atrocious build quality sealed its fate.
I have to agree that the BMW was nothing new. In the 60s, it was competing with not only Alfa as mentioned above, but also with the very brilliant Lancia for the market of ‘upper middle class’ driver’s saloons.
Indeed, although Lancia was an also ran sales wise, they were by far the better car in the ’60s. Excellent build quality in the pre-Fiat years, and with a proper sporting pedigree. It was only their Citroen-esque desire to make the strangest and yet most ingenious engines that drove them into penury and Fiat’s waiting embrace. Rust was a given for either a BMW or anything else back then, so it didn’t really matter. Indeed, BMW’s only stopped rusting in the mid-80s- long after everyone else had sorted it.
I think this could actually be a Greatest Sin- just think, had this car not came along, BMW would be only known as a top class motorbike manufacturer (their car business having faded away), and not the git-kidneys and flashing lights hovering way too close to the rear view mirror of every driver on the motorway who has the gall to be in front of said vehicle. What a wonderful world that would be!
Few other car brands (Audi?) have the same effect on their owners- namely upon sitting in the seat, the view that the public highway is their turf to bully and intimidate other drivers for sport.
Of course the Neue Klasse became the 5-Series, while the 2-door 1602/2002 evolved into the 3-Series. A pity they became so oversized along the way.
The only flaw I can remember in the original ’62 model was the 6-volt electrics.