May 26: BMW tries again

Beautiful silhouette. Must be a Jag or more likely an Aston, a little too swoopy for a Benz and definitely not an Audi. Who's left?

For years Mercedes has had a big two door hardtop in its S Class line. A real image maker and bank account breaker, but always a beauty. Just look at these last three designs and try to argue with that comment.......

I told my loving wife, that when we sold the house a couple of years back, instead of buying the apartment, we should invest a couple of hundred grand in a fine automobile. I still smart from where she whacked me upside the head. Hey, look, I'm a car guy, so it made perfect sense to me. I guess the difference is that our apartment has gone up by a $100K or so, while one of these beautiful Mercedes would still be depreciating.
Oh well, such is life.

Now back to that gorgeous silhouette. I've always wondered why that racy German luxury brand, BMW didn't have a big two door to go head to head with their arch rival Mercedes? These guys trade the sales race back and fore on a regular basis, so you would think each would match the other in every category. Not so, my friends. Sure, BMW has tried a high roller coupe from time to time, but these big guys have lacked staying power. Remember this one........

 The lonely 850. A very nice design, but obviously with sales that matched the desolate countryside where this one was photographed. Like the design and have always wanted one of these good looking coupes? A quick check on AutoTrader.ca found a half dozen around our great country, selling for $10-$20,000, with one very low kilometre example asking $39,000. So for cheap money, just about anyone can buy one of these beautiful money pits. Tell your kids the winter holiday has to be cancelled, because a light just came on the instrument panel.

Once again back to that gorgeous silhouette. BMW has had its share of bad designs, which for some unknown reason sell very well. X6, I'm looking at you. And they have had some great designs, which haven't sold worth a dam. The recently discontinued 6 series coupe comes to mind. But hand it to BMW, they keep trying and if there is any justice in this world that amazing silhouette, when transformed into metal as the 2018 8 Series, will sell like wildfire. Don't believe me? Check it out, baby.........

Of course, in our suv-centric world, adding all-wheel drive, fender flares and raising it a couple of inches would absolutely guarantee great sales. But, thankfully, that won't happen, so this new high end coupe will have to live (and hopefully not die) on its own merits.

So, BMW tries once again. And, just maybe this time, my loving wife will loosen up those purse strings for her car crazed other half. Happy Birthday?

Until next time........