[15] Bmw Lineup On Daily Issue

Cars tend to exit production either with a bang, reinforced by "last-of-the-line" special editions billed as instant collectibles, or quietly and discreetly. The BMW 6-Series Coupe falls into the second category. It died so quietly no one noticed for months. And did it the 21st-century way: The model simply vanished from BMW's website.

To be clear, it is only the actual 6-Series two-door coupe that's gone (and has been since February, Road & Track reports); you can still order the 6-Series convertible and the four-door 6-Series Gran Coupe. There are still some new 6-Series Coupes available at dealerships (and probably will be for some time).

How did this happen? BMW tipped its hand last year with its plans for the 6-Series range, reported to be among the slowest sellers in the entire lineup. Initially brought back in 2003 with some extremely polarizing styling, the coupe and convertible were joined years later by a surprisingly striking four-door model serving as an alternative to the 5-Series and the 7-Series. The modern 6-Series Coupe, however, gradually lost ground to the excellent 3-Series Coupe, which had grown in size to the approximate footprint of the original E24 6-Series of the 1980s.

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While the 6-Series Convertible served the role of the biggest and most luxurious convertible in the range -- a logical model to offer even if the 3-Series cabrios once again provided strong competition -- the 6-Series Coupe seemed redundant given the fact that the 3-Series and 4-Series now offered all the luxury hardtop motoring that BMW could ask for. At the same time, the 6-Series Coupe was not viewed as a competitor to the new S-Class coupe, which channeled the decadence of the W140-generation S-Class coupe of the 1990s.

What will BMW do with the 6-Series cars? Believe it or not, the big coupe and convertible are going to get bigger. The new big coupe will be badged as an 8-Series, which was originally offered from 1989 to 1989, to go up against the large Mercedes yachts.

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A large two-door coupe is expected to land in 2018 and will be positioned between the current 7-Series and the Rolls-Royce Wraith in the greater BMW universe. An 8-Series convertible will follow later in 2018, suggesting that the 6-Series convertible is also living on borrowed time. M8 versions of both land yachts are expected, as are 12-cylinder versions.

This leaves the 6-Series Gran Coupe with nowhere to go, though the 6-Series range itself could live on if the next 5-Series GT is renamed the 6-Series GT. This will, at the very least, keep the range fairly well spaced out in terms of size, even if the 6-Series you remember from the 1980s will have nothing in common with the offerings in the 6-Series lineup. But we're used to abrupt changes in the BMW naming scheme by now.

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