gavriil

From Autoweek:

By JIM HENRY | Automotive News


BMW will drop the Z8 at the end of the 2003 model year after only about three years.
The short life of the BMW Z8 will end in 2003 when BMW sells the last few hundred units of a special-edition Z8 - the BMW Alpina Roadster V8.

The Alpina Roadster, which has an automatic transmission, makes its auto show debut in Los Angeles in January and goes on sale in the United States in April.

As a farewell to the slow-selling Z8, BMW of North America LLC will offer 450 units of the Alpina here and another 100 elsewhere. While they last, the company also will offer the regular Z8 with a manual transmission. Parent BMW AG will stop making the manual Z8 around the end of this month.

"The Z8 was never intended to be a high-volume car," said BMW of North America spokesman Dave Buchko. "We're not disappointed with the sales. On the contrary, we were really pleased with the reaction to the car and the demand it experienced. It was never intended to run for the typical life cycle of our other cars."

He said the Z8 also taught BMW engineers how to make a largely hand-built, small-volume car with an aluminum spaceframe. Those lessons helped BMW develop its own Rolls-Royce, which will be unveiled at the Detroit auto show next month, Buchko said.

The Z8 began with promise as the Z07 concept car at the 1997 Tokyo Motor Show. Its retro styling recalled the rare and sought-after BMW 507 roadster. Only 253 of the 507s were built from 1956 to 1959.

The Z8 had a splashy movie debut when it was sawed in half in the James Bond film The World is Not Enough in November 1999. U.S. sales began the following August.

But sales have been slow, even for a purposely exclusive halo car. For the first 11 months of 2002, BMW of North America sold 495 Z8s, down 43 percent from the year-ago period. It sold 970 Z8s for all of 2001 and 317 in 2000 during five months of sales.

BMW will drop the Z8 at the end of the 2003 model year after only about three years. That is half the normal life for BMW's volume models. In all, BMW of North America will sell a three-year total of about 2,500 Z8s, accounting for nearly all Z8 sales worldwide.

The next big BMW coupe will be the 2004 redesign of the 6 series coupe, followed by a 6 series convertible, probably in 2005. BMW has lacked a strong presence in the high-end coupe niche since the 6 series was retired in 1990.

For now, BMW AG isn't saying whether it will replace the Z8 with another limited-run vehicle. The Z9 concept car is a logical place to seek a successor, but BMW officials insist that the Z9 is strictly a design study.

The Z8's predecessor was the 8 series, on sale in the United States from 1990 to 1996. Critics panned it for being overweight and overpriced. In contrast to the 8 series, the Z8 took a back-to-basics approach. The Z8 remained the most expensive BMW at $132,195, including delivery, but its looks and performance got higher grades than those of the 8 series.

The Alpina Roadster is the first Alpina-equipped model for the U.S. market, said BMW spokesman Gordon Keil, even though Alpina Burkard Bovensiepen GmbH + Co. in Buchloe, Germany, has a 40-year relationship with BMW in Europe.

The Alpina is equipped with a five-speed, Alpina "switch-tronic" automatic transmission, with controls mounted on the steering wheel.

The Alpina gets a 4.8-liter version of the 5-liter V-8 in the Z8, tuned to produce more low-end power and torque despite the slightly smaller displacement.

Maximum power is 375 hp, vs. 394 hp for the regular Z8. Torque is increased to 383 pounds-feet at 3,800 rpm vs. 368 at 3,800 rpm.

The suggested retail price is $137,595, including a $695 destination charge and driving school at the BMW Performance Center in South Carolina.

SicK TypeS

good shit, that thing was ugly as fawk....even though i never saw on in person...maybe bmw will come out with a nicer lookin replacement...

Johnny Rad

It is a smooth looking car with an exceptionally straightforward and clean dash that was likely the impetus for the 7-series and Z4 dash. It's a mistake on BMW's part not to match (or at least come a lot damn closer) to AMG's new power levels ... unless, of course, BMW just wants to move the last few units and really doesn't care about the Z8 any longer. Farewell, Z8, we barely knew you.

mattg

did you get some acid in your eyes

SiGGy

Ummm, anyone have a clue what car they're talking about?!?!

Gavriil, your on fire with your automovie news in the past couple of weeks

Beltfed

Cool......but its been on BMW USA for weeks, you can see it there.

You can't get Alpina blue, you can only get black and silver in the states.

phil2

they could have at least made it smg instead of that boring ass auto!! what a dissappointment

bkknight369

naw, i never really liked the z8...too much money for what you actually get. But that blue one is real cool

SiGGy

Only problem I've ever had with the Z8 is the positioning of the guages. I can't believe there is a market for an auto version of it though... But whateva

JZ

I saw one in person at an auto show and it truly was a BEAUTIFUL car!

I agree, though, that in pictures it doesn't look all that special.

gavriil

Yes I know what they are talking about. I will have some info about it in an upcoming post. I am sure we will see it at the Detroit Auto Show though.

gavriil

I did not like that either.

gavriil

I cant believe the car in the photo is an automatic. Makes the whole thing not worth while.

Zoot

I would like to say I am extremly disappointed w/ BMW. I appreciated the Z8 when it first arrived, but when my friend got one and I witnessed it first hand, it became my absolute favorite car. I love everything about it. But my love for the Z8 is not up for discussion. First i want to say that the Autoweek article is bs. They imply that the Z8 failed and therefore BMW is killing it. Since the day the Z8 landed, owners have been told that this car will end production at the close of 2002. They wanted to make the Z8 a classic. BMW personally communicated w/ their customers to make sure this car was being taken care of and so were the owners. Owners were told this car won't become another "series" and will be a one time shot, no changes, no refreshes, no replacements, yada yada. The sales (if they really were poor) did not result in the Z8's death; infact the z8 was merely "retired." Now I believe that the Z8's sales were not amazing, but they were not that slow. After all my friend spent 35k over msrp to get the car and was on 2 waiting lists at 2 dealers.
Now for the reason why i am dissapointed....well first off "Aplina Roadster V8." What a fucking horrible name. The name, style and everything else "alpina" is TACKY. And an auto? Ugh, Alpina ruined my favorite car.

gavriil

This might be the first time that you hear/read the word Alpina but in Europe the company is par with USA names like Dinan. Very respectful and very senior company.

Zoot

haha gav, I am not a car noob. I am well aware of Alpina. I just feel that the concept of a Alpina Z8 would be tacky, and it the wheels, name, etc actually do look tacky on the car.

Johnny Rad

Thanks for the pics. First impressions of the Alpina version (1) ugly wheels (2) auto? no smg (3) blue background on gauges might be the "next big thing" [versus silver], if it affords good vision in daylight (3) ugly wheels (4) thankfully no bolt on wing(s)

tuRb0mikEy

If BMW is gonna do that with the Z8, then they should slap on a few of those auto trannys to the M5 and sell a few to some hopeless loser posers. why not make more money?

Johnny Rad

Image, IMHO. Besides, that's what MB is for ... OK, OK I really don't completely mean that because there's a few AMG exceptions I'd still die for!

NOVAwhiteTypeS

the car looks 1000X better in person. although I think the tail lights are a little too thin