[fecurtis]

Not sure why everyone is so up in arms about this. M has a long standing brand recognition and tradition which I doubt any CEO is likely to change since it's worked out well so far.

Reminds me of years ago when people were outraged that Alan Mulally took over for Ford and people thought he'd have no idea what he's doing since he came from Boeing...turns out they were wrong. Guess why he's a CEO (or was, he retired this summer) and all the naysayers weren't.

I mean the guy was in charge of cars like the Audi R8 and the entire RS line which no one would argue was dull or underpowered. Weird how short-sighted people are. Fun fact, M's former CEO who van Meel will be replacing was head of development for Mini (back in 2007) before taking over as the CEO of M GmbH in 2011. Weird, no one in 2007 were upset that M's CEO would create a bunch of high performance FWD hatchbacks.

But again, that's why these people are CEO's and none of us are.