As I mentioned earlier, wagons are only bought by people who buy wagons. People who buy wagons don't buy anything else, and people who do buy anything else will never buy wagons.
This is a sweeping generalization and not really accurate. You are forgetting that people's buying habits change as their lifestyles, financial situation, alternatives, tastes and whims do.
There is a group of hardcore wagon buyers out there, just like there are hardcore off-roaders who will always want a Wrangler or a Defender. But that core group only make up a portion of all wagon buyers. Many wagon owners are not as dedicated to the style as you might think.
My wife drives a wagon. But she used to drive a crossover SUV. Before that, a sedan. Her next vehicle is mostly likely a hardtop vert. Her coworker also has a wagon and used to have an SUV and will probably go back to SUVs.
Wagons have a very specific market. Either a car appeals to them (by being a wagon) or it simply doesn't. BMW thought they could still keep this wagon-buying demographic while attracting new buyers by compromising between wagons and SUVs.
In fact, what they have done is alienate their wagon buyers completely because the car is not a wagon specifically, and they have not attracted new buyers because the car is tremendously expensive, hideous, and doesn't make enough sense in between the sedan and X5.
This car is a failure on three levels. It completely killed off a very specific type of customer, it sabotaged sales of BMW's own car, the 7-series, and despite stealing numbers of it's brother, sales figures were still miserably underwhelming.
Doesn't matter how good of a car it may be - it appears to actually be pretty decent - but that fact is that it has created a net loss of sales.
If they still sold the 5 wagon they would still be selling 5 wagons, however few, and 7-series sales would be intact.
You are combining two separate decisions and confusing the results.
Choosing not to offer a 5er wagon in the US is a separate business decision than offering a 5GT. It was played as part of a strategy, but they are separate moves.
The 5GT is at fault for not attracting wagon buyers.
Losing wagon buyers to rivals is a result of not offering a wagon.
Cannibalization of 7er sales is partly the fault of the 7, for not offering a unique buying proposition to customers.
Product =/= Strategy. BMW took a risk with their strategy and it didn't play out as they'd hoped. In fact, they said it was a risk when they launched it. Doesn't make the 5GT a bad product; it was a result of bad positioning.
I bet the 5GT has the potential to do well in other markets, depending on how it's marketed. Like China, for instance.
Personally, anything that offers people an SUV alternative, I'm generally in favor of.
M
