QOTD: With the 6 Series Coupe Dead, What Model Will BMW Kill Next?

A little piece of resurrected BMW history has again faded to black, leaving the automotive landscape missing yet another traditional two-door coupe. BMW confirmed to Road & Track the 6 Series coupe ended production in February, apparently unbeknownst to everyone, ending a model that harkened back to the glorious 633CSi and 635CSi of the 1980s.

Fear not, 6 Series fans — the four-door Gran Coupe and Convertible live on, though likely not for long. The boys from Bavaria are readying a potential successor to the 6 Series in the form of a new 8 Series lineup, the first of which could appear in late 2018. A grand tourer-style coupe and convertible positioned above the 7 Series (but below Rolls-Royce) is BMW’s plan to counter an ultra-luxury offensive from rival Mercedes-Benz.

BMW doesn’t want to spread its models too thin. Understandable. BMW isn’t a charity — if it was, there’d be a 440i coupe in my driveway with a trunk full of 18-year-old Glenfiddich for which I paid not a cent. Unfortunately, as we’ve seen with the 6 Series Coupe, staying competitive and profitable sometimes means leading a doomed animal behind the barn. And these days the animal is never one with four doors or a voluminous cargo hold.

The tears fall like rain from motoring purists. Dread fills their hearts. More killing is on the way.

Sure, you can still buy from the remaining stock of 6 Series coupes, and BMW is only too happy to fling a 4 Series coupe your way. But for how long? BMW’s lineup has chartered a course towards contraction, not growth, and the automaker has stated as much.

As we all know, volume these days means vehicles your sister’s family might use for 90 percent of their driving needs — not coupes, and not convertibles. No, sedans (“four-door coupes”) and fastback SUVs (also “coupes”) might soon be the only vehicles with a coupe designation, fraudulent as it is.

Now’s the time to ask you, Best and Brightest, to look into your magic 8-ball.

Knowing the direction the industry is headed, what model will BMW cull next? On that note, what vehicle should BMW cull, if Munich answered to your beck and call?

[Image: BMW Group]