General topics » What BMW thinks of their competitors

I picked up (by accident) an official BMW dealer brochure that details the advantages of the new F750GS/850GS models last weekend. (I am a motorcycle brochure junkie and have boxes of brochures dating from the 1960's.) While the brochure has no secret, propitiatory, or other information that you can't find on the internet or in official BMW press releases, it does have a section comparing these new BMW models with comparable models from other manufacturers. And even more interesting to me (as a brochure junkie), it offers several pages showing various competing motorcycles ranging form 650cc to 1000cc and lists their pros and cons - as BMW sees them. The analysis of these competing models seems pretty honest to me. In particular, I found it interesting that many of these bikes seem to have pretty good "pros" that might even be more "pro" than the new F750GS/F850GS models. One thing that wasn't discussed, mentioned, or compared, however, was the prices of the competing bikes, compared with the price of the BMW versions. That comparison is probably so secret that even BMW dealers are not supposed to know about it.

Attached are the brochure pages illustrating my comments.