BMW 8 Series Revival Could Mean Death of 6 Series As We Currently Know It

djsaad1 wrote  

goj wrote

You cannot simply scrap a car that quickly after all the money that goes into developing the car and tooling up a factory.
1. I'm sure they are making plenty of money off of the high price, low volume car
2. If they are really underwater on the 6er you basically telling them to just take a loss instead of continuing to sell the car so that overhead and other fixed costs get covered....or in simpler terms continuing to sell it so they break even.

C'mon now

Year over year sales have gone down for the last 4 years, including the lCI year. They should have seen this coming a while ago.

The 911 sells well so hopefully this might give BMW a clue

djsaad1 wrote  

goj wrote

You cannot simply scrap a car that quickly after all the money that goes into developing the car and tooling up a factory.
1. I'm sure they are making plenty of money off of the high price, low volume car
2. If they are really underwater on the 6er you basically telling them to just take a loss instead of continuing to sell the car so that overhead and other fixed costs get covered....or in simpler terms continuing to sell it so they break even.

C'mon now

Year over year sales have gone down for the last 4 years, including the lCI year. They should have seen this coming a while ago.

Welcome to the product lifecycle. Again it's foolish to think they would just make a new one sooner. That is financially irrational. Especially when you account for the fact that the company makes the more profit per vehicle when a model is closer to the end of its life when fixed costs have mostly been covered. Sometimes it's not about total sales and it's about the bottom line. Clearly you're not getting that

6 series Gran Coupe at least in Spain is already pricier that 7 series when you're talking about each baseline model.

So for people that just want a 6 or a 7, would make a lot more sense if the 6 is renamed as 8, and that's gives the sensation of a more luxurious version of a 7.

I don't believe they will axe the 6!
It's target is the S-class coupe, so it will be large, full of technology and have a higher roof.
Which means the next 6 will be lighter and more track focus?:

YungDro wrote  

deemo319 wrote

The 6 will remain but will be a smaller and lighter sporty GT. So it will get a new mission and give up it slightly confusing mission which was to big and heavy for a sports car and did GT work very well. Segment and mission definition is what it needs so clarity can only help, I hope.

The return of the 8 Series will easily carry the Grand Tourer mantle, and BMW has much unfinished business with the 8 Series: a cabriolet and the first-ever M8 (official).

1, 2,3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and the 9 Series which will be the bridge car between BMW and Rolls-Royce.

Bring on the damn 8 Series!!!!!

yep

6 series = light sporty GT car

8 series = Ultra luxury Coupe

You mean joint project with Toyota. Well get a z5 and a 6er out of that I bet with the 6 being the hardtop

Pentium wrote

you mean the same 5GT that we know right now it will become 6 Series?

I'm dizzy right now

You've got it exactly right. They are replacing a swan with a pig. Somebody figured out that the 6-series was the brand's sweet spot. They're fixing that.

goj wrote

Welcome to the product lifecycle. Again it's foolish to think they would just make a new one sooner. That is financially irrational. Especially when you account for the fact that the company makes the more profit per vehicle when a model is closer to the end of its life when fixed costs have mostly been covered. Sometimes it's not about total sales and it's about the bottom line. Clearly you're not getting that

I am not positive on this, but with the timeline presented here, it would be an 8 year life cycle which is more than usual.

The F15 is only going to have a 5 year life cycle, so it seems like they do cut them short if they don't think it is going to end well.

I understand what you are saying, but the writing was on the wall for this, I feel like they should have moved faster with the change.

tc328 wrote  

Cant wait for the 10, 11, & 12 series

BMW should go back to its roots with less bells and whistles and focus on building true driver's cars. Sorry but I'm lost on why even bother offering this car?

911 rival would be great. But lets be real. BMW can have the next Z5 be a 911 rival but the fact is BMW doesn't want to make sportscars. REAL sports cars. They focused on making SUVS and making M versions of trucks and station wagons. With that in mind I won't hold my breath for a BMW 911 rival. Actually now that the guy from Audi is in charge I think my next new car will be a Jag.

BMW is lost and they need help to focus, not more station wagons and trucks with an M logo.

spuntyb wrote

No, I'm not referring to this latest bit of news, but a prior article that stated as such. I can dig it up later when I'm not at work.

EDIT: this is what I was thinking of, where the rumor was that the 6 series would just be a lighter coupe or GT to take on the 911: http://jalopnik.com/bmw-may-be-reviving-the-8-series-report-1779731600

I could make the BMW 6 Series Grand Coupe as only 4-door. And 8 series in 2-door Coupe and Convertible.

thread closed....

YungDro wrote

8 series and 9 series will compete with maybach

That's what Rolls Royce is for. BMW doesn't have the brand cachet to compete with a name like Maybach.

An 8 series to compete with the S-coupe and convertible is what the brand needs right now to remain relevant in the high end luxury market. A 4-door 9 series would undermine the relevance of the 7 series as an S-class/A8 competitor.

djsaad1 wrote

I am not positive on this, but with the timeline presented here, it would be an 8 year life cycle which is more than usual.

It will be seven years. In recent history the Z4 is the only model that has gone over seven years (and only slightly at that), and this is only because its being discontinued in favor of the Z5/Z6 Toyota collaboration which is not fully baked yet.

The F15 is only going to have a 5 year life cycle, so it seems like they do cut them short if they don't think it is going to end well.

This was planned from the start. In order to simplify production in Spartanburg they want everything on CLAR once the X7 starts production.

I understand what you are saying, but the writing was on the wall for this, I feel like they should have moved faster with the change.

Automobiles are complex, and in an industry regulated so strictly, this is the speed of innovation. It's not specific to BMW, it's everyone.

Never mind that, as far as we know, the existing six series is profitable at current volume.

jts1981 wrote

911 rival would be great. But lets be real. BMW can have the next Z5 be a 911 rival but the fact is BMW doesn't want to make sportscars. REAL sports cars. They focused on making SUVS and making M versions of trucks and station wagons. With that in mind I won't hold my breath for a BMW 911 rival.

I'm similarly skeptical.

A BMW entry into the 911 space would have made sense in the form of a Z5/Z6 that would be a foil or match for the Mercedes-AMG GT.

With that opportunity lost, it's tough to put much hope behind a four seat sport coupe coming out of a BMW factory that can lay claim to being anything like a sports car. That is to say, when the actual sports car they have on the way is already raising questions with the direction they are taking for the engine lineup and so on, what hope is there for some theoretical quasi sports car to deliver?

Nothing is written in stone yet, but I'm not not getting warm fuzzy feelings.

That all being said, with this product realignment, if we can at least get the whole GC/GT mess cleaned up and pare things down to a single four or five door coupe/hatchback per size class like Audi and Mercedes have accomplished, that's a little progress.

I read recently that sales of the 6 series is slowing down. "If" BMW is replacing 6 series with 8 series model, it's probably to revive sales???
I personally love the 8 series; especially 850 CSI.

thread closed....

Looks like I will have to hold off on that 911 purchase

As someone else said, I JUST want a freaking halo car already. Not that I can ever afford it, but maybe I could, but at least it's a goal. When the M4 and M6 are the pinnacle of the sports coupe lineup, it's hard to get overly excited about more than what I already have when there's a 911, V8 Vantage, 570S, AMG GT, etc. out there. I have no clue why BMW doesn't compete in this segment.

I am excited about the 8 Series revival. I love those 90s models. I'm also excited they're doing a new V8 design already. The N63 platform was flawed, is flawed, and will be flawed with any variant. Hopefully they get it right this time, the first time... even if it's 'only' 4.0L

doccyber wrote  

tc328 wrote  

Cant wait for the 10, 11, & 12 series

BMW should go back to its roots with less bells and whistles and focus on building true driver's cars. Sorry but I'm lost on why even bother offering this car?

I agree they don't build them like they used to.

New 5 Series will not have CLAR or carbon architecture as in the current 7.

RSBro wrote

As someone else said, I JUST want a freaking halo car already. Not that I can ever afford it, but maybe I could, but at least it's a goal. When the M4 and M6 are the pinnacle of the sports coupe lineup, it's hard to get overly excited about more than what I already have when there's a 911, V8 Vantage, 570S, AMG GT, etc. out there. I have no clue why BMW doesn't compete in this segment.

I am excited about the 8 Series revival. I love those 90s models. I'm also excited they're doing a new V8 design already. The N63 platform was flawed, is flawed, and will be flawed with any variant. Hopefully they get it right this time, the first time... even if it's 'only' 4.0L

i8 isn't their current halo ? <cough>

I like the 650 GC, I drove one recently and the MSRP was higher than a base 740. It was $106,000