[r3dbimmer89]

Originally Posted by Zayken

The answer is hiding somewhere here.

From him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Panke

They moved to him:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Reithofer

The first one was a nuclear scientist, open minded and with experience from the world largets organisations and huge companies. He refused to see BMW entering low price market.

His succesor
" reach full production of the new generation E90 3 Series, from six months to three.[4] On 1 September 2006 he succeeded Helmut Panke "

is just a BMWs child (works at BMW from 21yo) that cares only for profitability and doenst have any experience outside the brand. He probably believes that whatever BMW says and do is law of god.

It looks like the new CEO sees BMW nearer to Toyota than to Porsche ! But it was the opposite that made BMW brand so strong ....

Very interesting.. I can see that being the cause of change in BMW's corporate culture. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing that Toyota and BMW are collaborating. Toyota needs BMW's performance know-how and BMW need's Toyota's best in class hybrid technology. It's a win-win in my book. I just wouldn't expect this BMW to be more reliable since a lot of the parts are going to be sourced from the current supplier network with current BMW standards.