Tuesday Cruiseday: Bring to a Mechanic Weekly

In following our standard rotation around the world I should go with another European brand of cars. BMW might make you think of a range of things from luxury and high quality German engineering to Jaleel White playing the character of Steven Urkel driving around his quirky and highly impractical Isetta.

In Germany BMW stands for something that involves a word that is debatably a curse word, but will change forever your vision of 2 Peter 2:17… for those who are less scripturally literate for whatever reason it says, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.” Bayerische [Bavarian] and Werke [Factory] remain unchanged; however, the middle word has the same first initial and normally stands for Motor in the original naming convention.

In America we still call it Bring to a Mechanic Weekly. These vehicles are built in South Carolina except the military personnel that bring one back to the United States after serving overseas. The obsession with BMW as a status symbol is a leftover from the 1950’s, which was the height of vehicle production for every manufacturer. Smooth lines and curves that were distinct between vehicle types, crome accents on a wide variety of colors, and a level of innovation that seemed limitless were points of that era. During that time BMW and Mercedes-Benz became labels of high quality and exotic vehicles.

Today the only thing that BMW, VW, or Mercedes stand for in the US is high part replacement cost. They remain a status symbol because of the sheer amount of money that it takes to pay for parts replacement. To be fair over the last few decades of cars everything like marketing symbols have become minimalist and so standardized that nothing feels unique anymore. That being the case not just planned obsolesence, but standard anticipation of replacement based upon it has changed the brands that were once iconic for quality. Some people blame the mentality changing on how stocks are calculated, some on generational changes, but I believe it’s the minimalist trend that helps reduce costs for that purpose. The minimalist reduction for vehicles has helped to streamline each brand, but also has greatly reduced innovation and unique developments in motor vehicles. BMW has been no different in that it has become as generic as Carls Jr. / Hardee’s is to burger places. They aren’t as internationally known yet, but they are on the higher end of fast food, low quality generic burgers.