How BMW Tried to Go Compact With the 318ti?

At some point of time, way back in the early 90s, BMW tried their hands in the compact hatchback series. Those were the golden days for the entire compact hatchback line, and it was crowded by some of the best collections like the Geo Metro and Ford Aspire. So it was indeed a bold decision for BMW to make a fresh start in the particular segment. But what was really impressive, was their approach of not competing with the highly loved Geo Metro or Ford Aspire right from the very first day.

Hence they came up with the 318ti, which was a smaller BMW aimed mainly for the younger crowd that formed the middle strata of the society. Much later, the BMW 318ti was compared with the Mercedes-Benz CLA of the modern era which kind of became the favorites of the middle-class people.

Experts have even claimed that there were certain factors why the 318ti of BMW service in Greensboro NC had been not as popular as the Mercedes-Benz CLA- the primary being styling. While the CLA looked a smaller version of the luxurious Mercedes-Benz CLS, a car that everyone aspires to have possession over, the BMW 318ti was just a regular hatchback, and there was no way one could hide this point. The front of the BMW was much of a regular 3 series and the rear end had the look of Honda Civic DX.

Apart from this, another major reason why the BMW Greensboro NC was facing some setback was the pricing. Even though the base price of 318ti was quite impressive to start with a BMW, it didn't give a huge return on investment that the rival models Infiniti G20 and Acura Integra gave quite comfortably. Moreover, the car gave hardly 138 horsepower with 1.8 liters 4 cylinder engine, which wasn't the BMW buyers looking up to.

Still, for the first half of the decade, 318ti accounted for almost ten percent of 3 Series sales. It was during the latter half when the model was replaced by the E36 3 Series. The figure might be respectable for a beginning but wasn't impressive enough keeping the brand value in mind. For a start in a completely new segment, the 318ti did fairly well for BMW, but it required much more improvements which were noticed in the latter versions.

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