[Opinion Piece] BMW: Horrible Design By Design

Author’s Preface

As someone who hosts many branding workshops, I’m always reminding clients that not everyone is a potential customer — and that it’s important to define your ideal customer profile for your brand so you know who to focus your time and attention on.

One day, while working on my new-to-me 2011 BMW, I found myself frustrated by the mechanical design choices and endless maintenance quirks. Then it hit me: I’m not BMW’s ideal customer, and they probably don’t care what I think.

The fact is, the car wasn’t built for me here in 2025 — it was built for the person who bought it new from a showroom eleven years ago, paying literally eight times more than what I paid for it in good condition.

So here’s my hot take:

BMW’s cars are built to self-destruct — to make them appear as a luxury item.

The Paradox of Precision

BMWs are admired, coveted, and envied — the embodiment of precision, power, and German engineering.

So why are they also some of the least reliable cars on the road and among the most expensive to maintain?

Because BMW isn’t just a car company; it’s a brand image built on beauty, innovation, and status. Every detail is crafted to psychologically communicate those values. The brand values aspirational prestige and cosmetic perfection more than reliability or longevity — so much so that I believe BMW’s cars may be engineered to self-destruct before that brand image can be tarnished by scratched, dented, outdated vehicles that have lost their luster.

The Data

BMW ranks 26th out of 32 car brands for long-term durability, showing that very few BMWs ever reach 250,000 miles — far below Toyota, Honda, or even Chevrolet (iSeeCars, 2025). Likewise, BMW ranks 32nd out of 35 brands in overall affordability, with an average ten-year ownership cost of $99,912 — nearly twice the cost of owning a Toyota or Honda (CarEdge, 2025).

These numbers confirm what owners already know: BMWs aren’t built to last. And their ideal client doesn’t care.

Gatekeeping with Obsolescence

BMW knows that its image depends on keeping its cars aspirational, not attainable.

The obvious weak points — brittle plastic components, proprietary electronics, and underbuilt systems that cost thousands to fix — might not be mistakes or corporate penny-pinching at all. Maybe they’re simply problems BMW has chosen not to fix — quirks that quietly serve a purpose. Whether by design or coincidence, these patterns create a kind of self-regulating exclusivity, keeping ownership costly and selective.

It almost seems as though BMW’s cars are built to self-prune the brand image — to mechanically fail and become financially unsustainable long after the original owner has paid full price, but well before they can begin to rust or lose their showroom appeal.

Perhaps BMW would simply rather see its cars burn bright and fade fast, rather than live long enough to become ordinary.

The Real Innovation

BMW’s real innovation isn’t mechanical — it’s psychological. The company has perfected the art of brand identity.

You see the shine, the motion, the beauty — never the decay.

The self-destruction is invisible, predictable, and by design.

Practical Use for Your Brand

So what does all this mean for business and brand owners?

The takeaway isn’t that BMW is doing something wrong. It’s that BMW knows exactly who it’s building for. The company has a clear ideal client profile and designs everything from its engineering to its image around that audience. A strong brand understands it can’t be everything to everyone.

It’s the same rule that applies in marketing: you can chase broad appeal, or you can connect deeply with the right people, but not both. When you define your ideal customer and commit to that direction, you will inevitably turn some people away. That isn’t a problem. It’s proof of focus.

So the marketing lesson is simple: choose your lane and stay in it. Choose your buyer. Choose your voice. Being selective is not synonymous with exclusionary; it is strategy. The clearer you are about who you are for, the easier it becomes for the right customers to find you - and the less you have to worry about.