Projo Cars Blog

For much of the 1980s, enthusiasts cringed as BMW seemed to let slip its well-deserved image as creator of the Ultimate Driving Machine to assume a new role: marketer of the Ultimate Fashion Accessory, according to the New York Times.

Cars from the company credited with fathering the modern sport sedan were becoming known as much for the status they conferred as the performance they delivered — badges of self-indulgence for me-generation drivers. When the stock market swooned in 1987, sales plummeted — by 45 percent in the United States in 1986-91.

Many factors contributed to BMW’s subsequent revival. Among them were the company’s efforts to re-establish its performance reputation, in part through the release of special factory-tuned versions of its bread-and-butter models under the BMW M badge.

That reputation will get another upgrade next spring when a new-generation M3 arrives in the United States, two decades after the first M cars made their American debut. The fiercest M3 yet, the 2008 model will be powered by a 414-horsepower V-8, a vast leap from the original 4-cylinder M3 of the 1980s.

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